Culture Matters

Diverse Perspectives

Just as urban educators must consider such factors as personal disposition and family background on student learning, teachers must consider and plan for the impact of culture. There is no question about it. James Banks, one of the pioneers of multicultural education, concluded that it is necessary for teachers to "understand the complex characteristics of ethnic groups within U.S. society and the ways in which race, ethnicity, language, and social class interact to influence student behavior" (Banks, 2001). The phrase, culturally relevant teaching, was created by Gloria Ladson-Billings to describe "a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes" (Ladson-Billings, 1994). Decades of research by hundreds of scholars has firmly established that a culturally responsive classroom will improve students' educational experiences and increase achievement.



Two Sides to Every Story

As it concerns the classroom, culture is understood to be the ever-changing, interconnected set of artifacts, symbols and conceptual representations made manifest by the ideation and experiences of people and groups. Multiculturalism then, is an explicit recognition of the underlying reality that each individual finds identity through a dynamic weaving of multiple cultural influences. Each one of us is multicultural. That is to say, a student might identify as a female, and a Protestant, and an African American and so forth - maintaining varying levels of identification with dozens of other communities and social groups.

Common Sense

The multicultural perspective is anchored in the concept that the cultivating and communicating of diverse cultural knowledges - different ways of abstracting the world - will be beneficial for all, as we all may learn from each other's experience and wisdom. Focused on examining and exploring arbitrary social classifications and stereotyping, we are empowered to respond. We are strengthened through the continued re-cognition of our diversity as multicultural communities and multicultural individuals.

In the cooperative learning environment of the multicultural model, we find verification of our truths in others' truths. We arrive at cross-cultural commonalities and common sense, and through that process, falsehoods naturally become apparent. So it stands to reason that any instructional tactic found to be an effective teaching strategy for one particular group of learners - will be effective for all learners. If it proves only to have some effect on students of a certain religion or a select economic status, then the tactic is suspect, since quality instruction has no church or bank affiliation. Good Instruction gets good results.