Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Place-based Education
Knowing that I will have a diverse group of students within my future classrooms, it is my responsibility to provide positive learning experiences that include every one of my students. As Lopez (2011) states: "diverse student populations are now one of the distinct features of schools in North America"(p. 90). Meaning, as educators we have to be aware of the diversity within our classrooms and integrate multiple forms of knowledge and perspectives into our lessons to ensure learning is relevant to students' lives and experiences. The importance of culturally relevant pedagogy is that it is an effective way to focus on the cultures, languages, and experiences that diverse students bring to classrooms to increase their engagement and academic achievement. In doing this, "students will learn to be critical, understand each other, and appreciate other forms of knowledge"(Lopez, 2011, p.75). I hope culturally relevant pedagogy for me will be researching different cultures and backgrounds and how this can be integrated into my lessons to include diverse students. In my future classrooms, I will plan to use diverse texts and materials to provide students with numerous perspectives. It will be accepting each other for who we are and exploring the differences among us to greater understand and appreciate the diversity. It will be inclusive in providing every student the opportunity to speak and share their knowledge and experiences in a safe place. In exploring the diversity in people, we will also be able to explore the places that surround them. Brook (2013) argues: "our educational system should facilitate the development of positive relationships with the land as well as with others" (p. 293). In doing this, teachers will be able to emphasize that our actions not only affect others but the places just as these places impact us. Place-based education acknowledges the importance of diversity as "our society consists primarily of relationships between and among people and places"(Brook, 2013, p.293). Working with culturally relevant pedagogy, I plan to emerge students in the rich diversity that surrounds them by introducing them to places outside of the school to have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the local community. Not only will we focus on the local community, but we will also explore the places the students are from as this helps form their identities. Introducing these places will support culturally relevant pedagogy as it can help form a greater understanding of the perspectives of different cultures found within the classroom.
Hi Alex,
ReplyDeleteFrom this blog post, it is clear that you have a good understanding of the work required for a culturally relevant classroom. You recognize that not only must there be diverse resources and lessons to provide exposure to the diversity of your classroom, but there must also be a climate of acceptance and respect for this diversity. Moreover, it is good that you recognize the importance of acknowledge and exposing your students to not only the diversity within your classroom, but the society surrounding your classroom. In doing this you will be preparing your students to interact with the world the live in outside the classroom.
In your writing, you wrote that you "plan to use diverse texts and materials to provide students with numerous perspectives", do you have any particular authors or book series that you hope to include in your classroom? Perhaps in the future you could include a few more examples of ways you plan on implementing your ideas. Are there any activities or parts of history that you want to include? Or, are there any holidays or special days of minority groups that you would like to celebrate in your classroom?
Bethany Slessor