The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching.
My visit this past week fell on the Tuesday immediately following Easter. It was a very hectic day all around, the children were anxious to discuss their weekend, the recent flood, and we had a fire drill almost immediately upon my arrival. Once the students were finally back inside, seated, and back under control following the drill they resumed writing the sentences they were working on. Upon sitting down with my usual group of students to help them with their writing, one little girl quickly began discussing her Easter weekend. She discussed food, family, and of course, candy. Then after I questioned her, she explained to me the pictures of eggs they had colored the previous Friday in light of the holiday. I had no idea the door I was opening simply by asking “So you had a nice visit from the Easter Bunny?”
Within seconds one of the students in my group got very defensive and yelled quite loudly, “There is no such thing as the Easter Bunny”. I instantly realized the trouble I had gotten myself into as the other students in my group began to argue with him and got rather upset. I realized I made that statement based on my history of believing strongly in the Easter Bunny at their ages. However, I was forgetting to recognize the diverse cultures the class is made up of, and I had not realized that many of the students did not share such beliefs. After clarifying with the teacher, her egg coloring was in no way associated with the Easter Bunny, she just explained to the students it was a coloring activity associated with the Holiday of Easter.
This lesson is one I can relate do Dennis Carlson’s article, “Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community”. Although this situation does not deal with gayness, it very directly relates to his discussion of the “normalizing community”. For the classroom I am volunteering in, the normalizing community includes the celebration of Easter. Although in all cases it does not include the Easter Bunny, it is assumed and practiced in the class to celebrate Easter, and those who choose not to are separated from the normalized community of the classroom. The same little boy who did not believe in the Easter Bunny also explained his family did not do anything to celebrate the previous Sunday, this made the other students very frustrated with him and they alienated him from the conversation.
All in all, this week provided me with a number of revelations. First and foremost, it is important for a teacher to know the sociocultural makeup of a classroom before they create a lesson plan. In general the normalizing community of America includes the celebration of Easter. Very similar to the situation of gays, this practice creates a gap between students who do and do not celebrate. Obviously, just by making assumptions based on my own personal history got me into a very uncomfortable situation in the classroom this week. My misconception about the students various cultures beliefs have allowed me to recognize I need to be much more careful and considerate before discussing anything with the students. Hopefully in the future I will be able to set aside my own history and biases, and do my best to integrate based on my student’s backgrounds, rather than my own.
Check back Soon :-)
Courtney, as I was reading this I could picture this happening to me. Growing up, I believed in the Easter bunny as a young child as well. Meeting with a group of young Elementary School children a few days after Easter, I could see myself asking them the same question. It is unfortunate that such an innocent question turned into a very uncomfortable situation. But at the same time you now know to think before saying something like that. And everyone else who reads this blog will keep it in mind as well. Religion is a tough topic, especially with such a diverse group of children.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you connected your experience to Carlson and how you interchangeably gave examples between his experience and yours. This helped to paint a picture of the coloration between the two. When you used the word "bias", this made me think of Lisa Delpit. No one enters a classroom without a bias, and sometimes these biases take over without you even knowing it. In this case, you innocently assumed that the group of children you were working with believed in the Easter bunny.
In conclusion, aside from Carlson, you could have also applied this uncomfortable exerpience with Lisa Delpit.
Hi Courtney,
ReplyDeleteYou had a teachable moment, and you seized it. That is what reflective practitioners do. Your connection to Carlson was accurate and relevant.
Remember the metaphor of mirrors and windows: Students need to see themselves in the curriculum; they also need to see beyond themselves.
Keep me posted,
Dr. August