After many years studying to be a teacher, I'm still not one just yet but I know one key thing I have to achieve in my future: culturally relevant pedagogy.
I'm sure those seem like big words that may not make sense quite yet but allow me to explain. Culturally relevant pedagogy is just a fancy way of saying that we have to study the culture of our students and integrate their culture into our lessons. For anyone who has kids, I'm sure your life got turned upside down (in a good way) when they came into the world. My love for children is the main reason I want to teach. The pure honesty and integrity they have cannot be matched. But what does being culturally relevant have to do with anything or why does it matter to you? The well-being of our future generations should definitely matter to you, but encouraging them to embrace their culture is so much more important.
I came from a considerably wealthy school district and I am a white female who hasn't faced much adversity when it comes to being oppressed. (My strange love for male dominant sports was weird to some but that didn't matter; ex. wrestling, football). As a future teacher, I know that school districts like mine are few and far between but I wouldn't even want to teach there. Why would I want to teach in a place with no diversity? It is apparent from research and multiple classes that the students who need the best instruction aren't getting it- so why run away from the problem?
Some may think that being culturally relevant involves too much time or is too hard to include, but if you care about your students wouldn't you make the time? This is their life. You are their role model and they need to be supported by every adult possible.
Lets think about a hypothetical situation for a second: You're teaching in a district where fights happen every day, gangs are after-school programs, and parents do what they can to scrape by. Imagine what these students have, or rather what they don't. It's likely they may not have health-care, food to eat, or a place to sleep.
The fact that this is happening breaks my heart, but think of how these kids feel when they come into your classroom each day. For me, I probably don't understand what it's like because I've never been in their situation but that doesn't mean I sweep their troubles under the rug. When a student starts drawing gang symbols in their art class you do not discredit their future- you try to understand what is happening now. You get to know their culture. Odd's are you know what's going on in your community, so don't ignore it.
These kids are living a life I would never wish on my worst enemy and deserve to be treated with care. Race, gender, ethnicity and social class should not eliminate one student from receiving care. That being said, their culture shouldn't be avoided in your classroom. Get to know your kids. Ask what they do for holidays or what holidays they celebrate. Ask what they do for birthdays, have them draw a family tree, ask them about their favorite things, but most importantly, observe them. Watch how they interact with their classmates and with people of authority. These interactions will open your eyes to their world. After you find these things out, integrate them into your curriculum. Bring Batman into math and make him the hero that saves the day by long division or allow your students to open up to one another and share their culture.
Every child deserves the best possible care and education they can get and in America, we have it pretty easy. We cannot discredit the future of generations by disregarding their culture. Embrace who you are and encourage your children to do the same.
