What is not culturally relevant teaching

Introduction

I recently went on an interview for a middle school teaching position. The school is diverse, so it was understandable that a question was on Culturally Relevant Teaching. I was asked, “How would you make a specific math lesson culturally relevant?”

My Response

I will admit, I am no expert on CRT (Culturally Relevant Teaching). However, I read more about it after the intervew. My response to the question was, “To make a lesson culturally relevant, it depends on the relationship you have with the students. I will see and hear all of my students. I will be aware of their differing experiences with society up to this point and beyond this point of their lives. My students will know that I care about their well-being.” I know that this is not exactly CRT, but it is a large part of it.

Interviewer

I was cut off by the admin interviewing me, “Yes, we know all teachers care about their students. How are you going to change this lesson to be culturally relevant though?” I was taken back by the admin’s response; I wish I had addressed my concerns in the moment. It felt as though they wanted me to say, “I would talk about basketball.” My hope is that is not the case. As a side note; no, not all teachers care about students.

My New Response

My new response was, “No matter the lesson, I will do my best to capture all their attention. For example, in the quadratics unit, I  discuss rocket launches with videos/demos and have a 3-person water-balloon launcher for review. Vocabulary is reviewed and data is collected to determine how high the balloon went. Topics like these are picked, because no matter the student, everyone is excited about space and likes water balloons.” They nodded and said thank you, we moved onto the next question. I know that what I said is not CRT, I have no idea what they thought, and I wish I had asked. My response was on how to engage students in learning. I made no notion of the differences in my students’ life-experiences and what school means to them or how they see school. I treated them all the same.

What is CRT?

Previously, I mention I did some reading after the interview. Below is the most helpful article that was found.

“Yes, But How Do We Do it?” By Gloria Ladson-Billings. She is seen as the person who coined the term “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.”

Quotes I Enjoyed

“The first problem teachers confront is believing that successful teaching for poor students of color is primarily about “What to do”. Instead, the problem is rooted in how we think about the social contexts about the students, about the curriculum, and about the instruction.”

“Eventually, the preservice teachers began to see multicultural education and teaching for social justice as less a thing and more an ethical position they need to take in order to ensure that students are getting the education to which they are entitled.”

“Practice culturally relevant pedagogy is one of the ways of being that will inform ways of doing.”

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Submitted June 24, 2020 at 08:37AM by mattsnotes https://ift.tt/2Z97yF8