Culturally responsive teaching in British Business Schools
Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) refers to the use of cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more suitable for them. According with Gay (2001), CRT is characterised by five essential elements: 1-Develop a knowledge base about cultural diversity, 2-Ability to design culturally relevant curricula, 3-Demonstrate caring and build learning communities, 4-Having the confidence to communicate with ethnically diverse students across cultures, 5-Ability to respond to ethnic diversity in the delivery of instruction. Villegas and Lucas (2002) proposed a framework composed by six characteristics which a culturally responsive teacher should have. First of all, a culturally responsive teacher should be socio-culturally conscious, that is, recognising there are multiple ways of perceiving reality. Secondly, the teacher should have a positive attitude towards students from diverse backgrounds that means, the teacher should see differences in the students as resources for learning rather than viewing them as an obstacle to be overcome. Thirdly, teachers should bring changes themselves within the educational system in order to make universities more responsive to every student. The fourth characteristic regards the idea that teachers should understand the way learners build knowledge and be capable of promoting learners’ knowledge construction. The fifth characteristic advocates that teachers should be interested and make an effort in order to know more about their students’ lives and background. Finally within the sixth characteristic, teachers should use their knowledge about students ’ lives in order to extend what they already know and build a more suitable curriculum. Recently, Jabbar and Hardaker (2013) proposed an adapted theoretical framework for culturally responsive teaching for British University Business Schools, in order to help academics in understanding aspects of developing pedagogical approaches promoting ethnic and culturally diverse students. This framework in based on five pillars such as: Cultural consciousness, Resources, Moral responsibility, Cultural bridging, HE curriculum.
Cultural consciousness: This pillar promote the importance of understanding the background and the cultural characteristics of the students. Within this pillar it is important to develop empathy. This can be difficult for academics whose background can be very different from the students they teach. Teachers have to support these differences with empathy in order to create an appropriate experience for ethnically diverse students.
Resources: This pillar argues about how textbooks and resources used in HE, support academics in developing a CRT. In fact, students may have difficulty finding themselves and their communities in the curriculum.
Moral responsibility: This pillar deals with the role of the teachers in developing pedagogy and learning that is most appropriate for the student even though it may conflict with the interests of the Business School. In fact, teacher-student relationships that does not take into account the ethnic minorities’ cultural backgrounds often lead to a disconnection between the student and the academic.
Cultural bridging: This pillar argues that academics need to bridge students’ prior knowledge with the new material they are expected to learn. For instance, teachers may use the backgrounds of the students as a resource and embedding it within the curriculum. As a starting point, ethnic minority students should have the opportunity to discuss their previous experiences and cultural values in the classroom.
HE curriculum: This pillar argues about the need to understand how schools shape the cultural environment in which the teachers develop their activities and students learn. This may lead to the development of a more critically conscious and involved student in the construction of knowledge, and having empathy with the curriculum from multiple perspectives, using varied assessment practices that promote learning.
They interviewed academics working in British University Business Schools, asking questions related with their adapted framework. The research has shown that there is a need for Business Schools to adopt an approach that is based on culturally responsive teaching and allows academics to engage their students through their cultural values and heritage. It has been shown how many academics does not have clear vision on what is important when it comes to teaching to diverse groups. However the student and academic interaction needs to be supported by universities. Interesting is that all the academics interviewed, involved in Business School teaching, highlighted the wide pressures being placed upon them coming from having more students, more administrative work and more teaching. As a consequence, these divergent pressures has an impact on the time left for student engagement. Overall, nowadays the focus of teaching has moved from simply delivering knowledge to being socially connected with students through culturally responsive teaching, which can help students in learning and developing critical thinking.
References
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION-WASHINGTON DC-, 53(2), 106-116.
Jabbar, A., & Hardaker, G. (2013). The role of culturally responsive teaching for supporting ethnic diversity in British University Business Schools. Teaching in Higher Education, 18(3), 272-284.
Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers rethinking the curriculum. Journal of teacher education, 53(1), 20-32.
Talking about sensitive subject matters in the classroom
Many debates and issues arise in seminar discussions based on ethics and race that students maybe uncomfortable discussing. As postgraduate teachers we do not always have control of what materials are used in class. Some of these materials may be outdated portraying views which would be considered offensive in society today. Nonetheless, it is important that students engage with different materials and different points of view. This is particularly applicable when it comes to discussions based on race.
Chick, Karis, and Kernahan (2009) examine how students think and feel about their learning in courser related to race-relations and diversity, based on the students meta-cognitive and meta- affective reflections. Their findings show that there are benefits exposing students to multiple perspectives and skills in regulating emotions. There has also been a call for diversity to be included in course to include materials from, and on black and ethnic minorities (Gay, 1971), coinciding with the long term goal of increasing diversity, in both the student body and faculty, and the curriculum representing and raising awareness of multiculturalism.
Chick, Karis, and Kernahan (2009) argue that it is important for students to realise that race, diversity, and ethics are a part of everyday experiences. Students should be encouraged to participate in such discussions, rather than being given an option not to. This can be done seminar setting through the use of group discussion where dialogue allow students to learn from each other and listen to others points of view.
I was a teaching assistant on Geographies of consumption class (not at Royal Holloway) where students watched the documentary Food, Inc.(2008) during the lecture and had a seminar discussion based a reading related to the fast food industry. Again, the documentary contained sensitive subject matter, but was appropriate for a third year class. The feedback received during seminars indicated that although there were some distressing scenes, overall the documentary gave them better insight into the food industry. During the class discussion some overseas students would talk about foods consumed back home, such as shark fin soup, causing one student to react with anger. At this point I let him finish expressing his views, and explained that the point of the documentary seen in class and the seminar discussion was to raise debates on the ethics surrounding the food we eat. As part of the class students were required to write a reaction paper. This is where students are expected to engage critically with the readings and offer their own responses. Thus allowing students to be reflective, creating a process of self awareness.
Though there is an encouragement of cultural diversity to be included in the curriculum, there is perhaps a lack of appropriate pedagogic training to address ethnic diversity and the discussion on race and ethics (Burtonwood, 2006). It would be useful for teachers to receive such training.
References: Burtonwood, N. (2002). Anthropology, sociology and the preparation of teachers for a culturally plural society. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 10(3), 367-386.
Chick, N. L., Karis, T., & Kernahan, C. (2009). Learning from their own learning: How metacognitive and meta-affective reflections enhance learning in race-related courses. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3(1), 16.
Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) refers to the use of cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more suitable for them. According with Gay (2001), CRT is characterised by five essential elements: 1-Develop a knowledge base about cultural diversity, 2-Ability to design culturally relevant curricula, 3-Demonstrate caring and build learning communities, 4-Having the confidence to communicate with ethnically diverse students across cultures, 5-Ability to respond to ethnic diversity in the delivery of instruction.
Villegas and Lucas (2002) proposed a framework composed by six characteristics which a culturally responsive teacher should have. First of all, a culturally responsive teacher should be socio-culturally conscious, that is, recognising there are multiple ways of perceiving reality. Secondly, the teacher should have a positive attitude towards students from diverse backgrounds that means, the teacher should see differences in the students as resources for learning rather than viewing them as an obstacle to be overcome. Thirdly, teachers should bring changes themselves within the educational system in order to make universities more responsive to every student. The fourth characteristic regards the idea that teachers should understand the way learners build knowledge and be capable of promoting learners’ knowledge construction. The fifth characteristic advocates that teachers should be interested and make an effort in order to know more about their students’ lives and background. Finally within the sixth characteristic, teachers should use their knowledge about students ’ lives in order to extend what they already know and build a more suitable curriculum.
Recently, Jabbar and Hardaker (2013) proposed an adapted theoretical framework for culturally responsive teaching for British University Business Schools, in order to help academics in understanding aspects of developing pedagogical approaches promoting ethnic and culturally diverse students. This framework in based on five pillars such as: Cultural consciousness, Resources, Moral responsibility, Cultural bridging, HE curriculum.
- Cultural consciousness: This pillar promote the importance of understanding the background and the cultural characteristics of the students. Within this pillar it is important to develop empathy. This can be difficult for academics whose background can be very different from the students they teach. Teachers have to support these differences with empathy in order to create an appropriate experience for ethnically diverse students.
- Resources: This pillar argues about how textbooks and resources used in HE, support academics in developing a CRT. In fact, students may have difficulty finding themselves and their communities in the curriculum.
- Moral responsibility: This pillar deals with the role of the teachers in developing pedagogy and learning that is most appropriate for the student even though it may conflict with the interests of the Business School. In fact, teacher-student relationships that does not take into account the ethnic minorities’ cultural backgrounds often lead to a disconnection between the student and the academic.
- Cultural bridging: This pillar argues that academics need to bridge students’ prior knowledge with the new material they are expected to learn. For instance, teachers may use the backgrounds of the students as a resource and embedding it within the curriculum. As a starting point, ethnic minority students should have the opportunity to discuss their previous experiences and cultural values in the classroom.
- HE curriculum: This pillar argues about the need to understand how schools shape the cultural environment in which the teachers develop their activities and students learn. This may lead to the development of a more critically conscious and involved student in the construction of knowledge, and having empathy with the curriculum from multiple perspectives, using varied assessment practices that promote learning.
They interviewed academics working in British University Business Schools, asking questions related with their adapted framework. The research has shown that there is a need for Business Schools to adopt an approach that is based on culturally responsive teaching and allows academics to engage their students through their cultural values and heritage. It has been shown how many academics does not have clear vision on what is important when it comes to teaching to diverse groups. However the student and academic interaction needs to be supported by universities. Interesting is that all the academics interviewed, involved in Business School teaching, highlighted the wide pressures being placed upon them coming from having more students, more administrative work and more teaching. As a consequence, these divergent pressures has an impact on the time left for student engagement. Overall, nowadays the focus of teaching has moved from simply delivering knowledge to being socially connected with students through culturally responsive teaching, which can help students in learning and developing critical thinking.References
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION-WASHINGTON DC-, 53(2), 106-116.
Jabbar, A., & Hardaker, G. (2013). The role of culturally responsive teaching for supporting ethnic diversity in British University Business Schools. Teaching in Higher Education, 18(3), 272-284.
Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers rethinking the curriculum. Journal of teacher education, 53(1), 20-32.
Talking about sensitive subject matters in the classroom
Many debates and issues arise in seminar discussions based on ethics and race that students maybe uncomfortable discussing. As postgraduate teachers we do not always have control of what materials are used in class. Some of these materials may be outdated portraying views which would be considered offensive in society today. Nonetheless, it is important that students engage with different materials and different points of view. This is particularly applicable when it comes to discussions based on race.
Chick, Karis, and Kernahan (2009) examine how students think and feel about their learning in courser related to race-relations and diversity, based on the students meta-cognitive and meta- affective reflections. Their findings show that there are benefits exposing students to multiple perspectives and skills in regulating emotions. There has also been a call for diversity to be included in course to include materials from, and on black and ethnic minorities (Gay, 1971), coinciding with the long term goal of increasing diversity, in both the student body and faculty, and the curriculum representing and raising awareness of multiculturalism.
Chick, Karis, and Kernahan (2009) argue that it is important for students to realise that race, diversity, and ethics are a part of everyday experiences. Students should be encouraged to participate in such discussions, rather than being given an option not to. This can be done seminar setting through the use of group discussion where dialogue allow students to learn from each other and listen to others points of view.
I was a teaching assistant on Geographies of consumption class (not at Royal Holloway) where students watched the documentary Food, Inc. (2008) during the lecture and had a seminar discussion based a reading related to the fast food industry. Again, the documentary contained sensitive subject matter, but was appropriate for a third year class. The feedback received during seminars indicated that although there were some distressing scenes, overall the documentary gave them better insight into the food industry. During the class discussion some overseas students would talk about foods consumed back home, such as shark fin soup, causing one student to react with anger. At this point I let him finish expressing his views, and explained that the point of the documentary seen in class and the seminar discussion was to raise debates on the ethics surrounding the food we eat. As part of the class students were required to write a reaction paper. This is where students are expected to engage critically with the readings and offer their own responses. Thus allowing students to be reflective, creating a process of self awareness.
Though there is an encouragement of cultural diversity to be included in the curriculum, there is perhaps a lack of appropriate pedagogic training to address ethnic diversity and the discussion on race and ethics (Burtonwood, 2006). It would be useful for teachers to receive such training.
References:
Burtonwood, N. (2002). Anthropology, sociology and the preparation of teachers for a culturally plural society. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 10(3), 367-386.
Chick, N. L., Karis, T., & Kernahan, C. (2009). Learning from their own learning: How metacognitive and meta-affective reflections enhance learning in race-related courses. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3(1), 16.