Critical Evaluation of Culturally Responsive Approaches in School Context

This essay critically evaluates the importance of culturally responsive approaches for working with children, families, and communities in school context. It discusses the benefits of culturally responsive teaching, strategies for creating a culturally responsive classroom environment, and the need for teacher education programs to prepare students for working with diverse groups.

INDIVIDUAL
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Critical evaluation of culturally responsive approaches for working with children,
families and communities in school context.......................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
References:.......................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The term culture encompasses social behaviour, institutions, & norms which are founded
in human societies along with knowledge, beliefs, customs, habits of the individuals in these
groups. The school culture defines as guiding beliefs and values which is evident in way the
school operates. This can be used for encompassing all attitudes, expected behaviours which
impacts on the way of school operations. The school culture also focusses on physical and
emotional safety of students, orderliness of classrooms etc. The aim of critical evaluation is to
know about the culturally responsive approaches for working with students, families and
communities in school context (Acquah, and et.al., 2020). The culturally responsive is an
approach to view children as asset their culture and identity involving race, ethnicity,
multilingualism & other characteristics. It also helps in creating learning experiences and
environments which empower and values them. The students are empowered to share thought,
integration diverse work and study practices, understanding of student learning needs & styles
can be taken as example of culturally responsiveness. The essay is based on the topic of critical
evaluation of culturally responsive approaches for working with children, families and
communities in school context.
MAIN BODY
Critical evaluation of culturally responsive approaches for working with children, families
and communities in school context
The culture defines the characteristics and knowledge of specific group of people which
encompasses language, religion, social habits & arts etc. In context to school the culture is very
important as it helps in encouraging greater efforts and productivity, improve collegial
collaboration, supporting successful changes and commitment is developed. The prime motive in
school being leader is to improve student learning and to refine school standards by creating of
positive cultures which can put am remarkable impact on school success. The positive culture
motivates staff members and students (Almaguer, I., 2019). The increase of Australia population
is becoming more multicultural with growing diversity of languages races, culture & values.
How people think, perceive, act, and communicate is influenced by their culture. Culture is a
medium for learning. This means that even though the teaching, resources, curriculum, and
relationships in a classroom are the same, students' experiences may differ because how people
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learn and what they experience is filtered via cultural viewpoints as well as prior knowledge and
experiences. Teachers who are unaware of the various pieces of information and experiences that
diverse pupils can draw upon in their learning can cause problems. Even if a teacher comes from
the same cultural or racial background as his or her students, he or she will not automatically
comprehend their origins because cultural understandings and behaviours are complicated and
tend to differ within a cultural group (Ballenger and Jiang, 2021).
The culturally responsive in schooling is been exponent which is a feature of initiative to
close the gap between achievements of indigenous and non-indigenous Australian children &
young people. For supporting the cultural responsiveness, the need for school and education
system is become more essential with result of increasing multiculturalism as result of migration
and increase of families entering Australia (Bishop, and Vass, 2021). In the diverse world, the
culturally responsive is critical and important feature for quality education. In accordance to
“National Centre for culturally responsive educational system” cultural responsiveness defines
ability of learning from and relate respectfully with people of own cultures as well as those from
others cultures. To bring this in school environment the most effective way is to train teachers in
order to prepare them for diverse classrooms and families. In several ways, the teachers are
facilitators & mediators among the overall school culture & families, children who attend the
school. To make classroom learning relevant and beneficial for students, culturally responsive
teaching requires tapping into their cultural knowledge, life experiences, frames of reference,
languages, and performance and communication styles (Cadenas et al., 2021). This requires
laying the groundwork for learning and teaching interactions, as well as the curriculum, by
determining what pupils know and how they know it. This is advantageous to all students, but it
is especially beneficial when there are significant differences between the teacher's and students'
backgrounds. Every student possesses cultural "funds of knowledge," or bodies of knowledge
and skills for personal functioning and well-being, which they might use in formal classroom
learning. Culturally responsive teaching recognises and honours the range of cultural knowledge
and talents brought to class by students.
The culturally responsive approach benefits teachers in realizing that one's culture is
central to learning as the way in which information is received and processed is based on
culturally. The experience of classroom is enriched when teachers recognize and incorporates
into their work with the same time, helping in development of student’s cultural references in all
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learning aspects (Daniel, and et.al., 2020). Teachers helps students in learning to collaborate and
communicated with different cultures and backgrounds by creation and sustainability of
culturally responsive classroom environment. There are several approaches used for making
learning environment more culturally responsive through educator. The first is by knowing
students as learning about our individual students is critical in what way curriculum is design &
deliver (Fuhr, and et.al., 2020). The teacher duty is to learn behaviours, backgrounds and
challenges which are faced by students so that it can be better equipped for addressing them. It
can be accomplished by brief survey questions, student interviews involving information about
the students likes& dislikes, personal interests, responsibilities and their opinions regarding
courses. The teacher is required to be aware of the biases as it exist in several forms that is
included in us during childhood (Garg, and et.al., 2020). The beliefs and biases are shaped in
several forms inculcated in us during childhood which is shaped by education, family, friends
along with taken in several forms like cultural, academic etc. This is an common issue seen in
classrooms where students perceives teacher being unfair or grading practices are not consistent
from one student to another. The cultural course content reflects the diversity of students in class
and contributions in field of study or discipline when it comes to content, materials & readings
used in classroom. The teachers are required to review curriculum in order to ensure that there
are no hidden forms of oppression & activities which is used in class needs to create a mindful
impact on students.
Gloria Ladson-billings and Geneva Gay, education scholars, created the notion of
culturally responsive teaching, which blends qualities and information from each student's
cultural background into instructional practises. This involves several elements which are crucial
such as belief in ability of all students to learn, wide range of curricular content etc. There are
several approaches in classroom such as activate students’ prior knowledge in which students
comes with diverse experiences in classroom and encouraged by teachers to draw on their prior
knowledge so that their can be contribution in group discussion that offers a presenter to learning
(Parker, and Hanson, 2021). The learning can be more contextual and meaningful, by bringing
teachings from the curriculum and social communities together. Culturally responsive teaching
strategies are a small step toward enacting meaningful educational change.
The culturally responsive approaches to schooling aim in addressing pervasive inequities
which exits in education. This kind of practices helps in improving experience and academic
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achievements of marginalised and minoritized learners. To make the learning more engaged and
effective there is need to make school and classrooms culturally responsive where they use
cultural knowledge, prior experiences & learning styles of diverse students. These practices
engage educators, students, parents and whole community in search for inclusive practice and
systems for supporting diverse group of people who assemble in several places (Slapac, and
et.al., 2021). The involvement of families and formation of school are beneficial for the children
development and learning. By knowing and understanding their own and other cultures, teachers
can create an inclusive environment that welcomes everyone and provides the groundwork for
effective collaborations between families and schools. Teacher education programmes must
prepare students to work with all types of children and their families. This preparation covers
both factual knowledge and strategies for integrating cultural competences into culturally
appropriate and responsive teaching. The culturally relevant teaching is based on pedagogy that
emphasises the development of linkages between home and school cultures, social interactions,
and learning expectations, as well as the concept that knowledge is socially constructed and
constantly changing (Steele, and Newton, 2022).
Family interviews are described as a tool for getting to know families in order to develop
community at school. Teachers can conduct interviews with students and their families to learn
about their interests, skills, and roles in their homes and communities, as well as the languages
and literacy skills they employ at school and at home. The first interview is with a family who
represents a broad cultural group. Students explore a specific cultural or family scenario for this
assignment, interview the parents or adult kid from that family, and then discuss their findings
with other preservice teachers. The home visit is another opportunity for students to have
interaction with parents and families (Wamwayi, and et.al., 2019). The diverse culture is
represented by family but required to have at least of one child between the ages of 1 to 8 years
old. Teachers can learn about the impacts in students' life by visiting their homes, churches,
sports, dancing, or other extracurricular activities. Observing how families learn and care for one
another at home can provide insight into the academic conditions required for real and effective
school involvement. The telling stories involves oral foundations and traditions in the learning
process and seeking materials that represent participants in the community of learners.
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CONCLUSION
According to the findings of the above study, culture is a complicated phenomenon that
incorporates a group of people's dynamic worldviews, knowledge, values, traditions, beliefs,
capacities, and social and political interactions, all of which give meaning to and affect their
lives and actions. This indicates that culture involves social roles, behaviours, communication,
and beliefs in addition to obvious and tangible aspects like cuisine and clothes. Culturally
appropriate practises aid in getting to know children and their families. Furthermore, it seeks out
culturally relevant materials, and teacher educators prepare preservice teachers to provide a
meaningful context for learning for children and their families. Preservice teachers learn about
family variety as well as ways for working with the families of the children in their future
classes. Preservice teachers benefit from interactions with children and their families because it
allows them to develop skills and appreciate variety.
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References:
Acquah, and et.al., 2020. Using modelling to make culturally responsive pedagogy explicit in
preservice teacher education in Finland. British Educational Research Journal, 46(1),
pp.122-139.
Almaguer, I., 2019. Magnifying English Language Learners' Success Through Culturally
Relevant Teaching and Learning Frameworks: Acknowledging the Multidimensional
Implications on Language, Literacy, and Learning. In Handbook of Research on
Engaging Immigrant Families and Promoting Academic Success for English Language
Learners (pp. 316-332). IGI Global.
Ballenger, and Jiang, 2021. Culturally responsive teaching knowledge and practices of online
faculty in educational administration: a pilot study. Multicultural Learning and Teaching.
Bishop, and Vass, 2021. Talking about culturally responsive approaches to education: teacher
professional learning, Indigenous learners and the politics of schooling. The Australian
Journal of Indigenous Education, 50(2), pp.340-347.
Cadenas, and et.al., 2021. Detrimental effects of color-blind racial attitudes in preparing a
culturally responsive teaching workforce for immigrants. Journal of Career
Development, 48(6), pp.926-941.
Daniel, and et.al., 2020. Cultivating teacher responsiveness with emergent bilingual students
through videotaped lesson analysis. TESOL Journal, 11(2), p.e475.
Fuhr, and et.al., 2020. Health system responsiveness to the mental health needs of forcibly
displaced persons. In Health Policy and Systems Responses to Forced Migration (pp.
213-234). Springer, Cham.
Garg, and et.al., 2020. Reliability and validity of a cross-culturally adapted Hindi version of the
SRS-22r questionnaire in Indian patients. Spine Deformity, 8(5), pp.885-891.
Parker, and Hanson, 2021. School stakeholders do not “just leave their religious beliefs at
home”: An exploratory study of school psychologists’ professional
experiences. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), pp.88-100.
Slapac, and et.al., 2021. Preparing and enriching linguistically and culturally responsive
educators through professional development. In Research Anthology on Culturally
Responsive Teaching and Learning (pp. 961-978). IGI Global.
Steele, and Newton, 2022. Culturally Adapted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a Model to
Address Internalized Racism Among African American Clients. Journal of Mental
Health Counseling, 44(2), pp.98-116.
Wamwayi, and et.al., 2019. Service gaps related to culturally appropriate mental health care for
African immigrants. International journal of mental health nursing, 28(5), pp.1113-1121.
Books and Journals
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