Miriam Pazos

Kathleen Ferrando

LS 2001

23 Abril 2019

Culturally Responsive Schools

In a school, students need to feel that they are in a safe environment where they don’t feel

like they are being left out. Some teachers make an effort to culturally responsive in the

classroom in order for all their students to feel included and have personal connection with

whatever they are learning. Other teachers don’t seem to include any of that. Schools should all

be in the same page to create an environment where every single student to feel welcome and

safe. In many school, students don’t feel safe because teachers don’t provide a personalized

education for them. If teachers and faculty are able to collaborate with one another then schools

can create a communities where everyone feels welcome no matter how different they are.

It first has to start in the classroom where teachers must be culturally responsive in their

teaching. All teachers should be putting an effort to be aware of the students different

backgrounds and keep them in mind when teaching them. Currently many teachers are are trying

to be more culturally responsive as the population start to get more diverse. However not all

teachers and schools are trying to make that difference in the students lives. At my fieldwork, the

teacher made an effort to learn a little bit of spanish, starting with numbers. When she has the

students read on their own she allows them to use her pillows to be comfortable when reading.

Since she has limited amount she hands them out randomly through number sticks. When ever

she use the number sticks, she would say the numbers in spanish and when she isn’t sure she ask

her students to help her out. This makes the students feel like they are the teachers and they can
teach something to the teacher that she doesn't know. Many times teachers can make students

feel that students are unable to learn because they don’t know the material but when the roles are

reversed students feel that they are smarter than they originally thought.

In order for a school to be culturally responsive, the schools must hire teachers with those

values in mind. It is the school's responsibility to make sure that teachers at the school are well

fit and are able to teach a culturally responsive classroom. It's not enough that a one teacher is

culturally responsive, all the teachers have to be so that as the students can have an easier

transition from one grade to the next without feeling like the teachers might not understand them.

With a culturally responsive school and teachers, students can feel like no matter what grade they

go they have the support the need to be successful. Students would feel they have to change who

they are at school or act one way with one teacher and act another way with another. The student

would be able to be their true self and learn to accept and the teacher would learn their students

true self. That what most students need a teacher to learn who they are and where they come

from in order to understand them. Once teachers understand their students backgrounds they can

provide the best education possible to their students but, it takes the school, to hire the best

teachers that represents those values and help create that kind welcoming community to the

students.

Schools can teach diversity to the students by host cultural events throughout the year.

These event can teach students and families about different cultures they may not be familiar

with or they themselves identify. This can help create an inclusive community at school for

students and families. Sometimes schools don’t provide an environment where families feel

welcome so when it come to school events, they are least likely to come in participate at them.

Some schools have tried to implement events that help create communities in the schools and a
mutual understanding of diversity at the school. At my little sister school, they host two of these

kinds of events. One is international potluck night, which they usually host it during when the

scholastic book fair is at the school. During the school day, the students would create flags of

different countries in order to decorate the multipurpose room with for that night. At the even

families would bring food from around the world to share with everyone. Families are able to try

foods that they have not tried from different countries. The other event the school host is

international storybook night. This is one of the events that not only students learn about cultures

with in the school but also other cultures around the world. In this event, students and families

get to choose which story from which country they want to listen to. They get to listen to two

stories read in different languages by either a parent volunteer or a special guest the school

invited. After the story is read, students and families are able to try snacks from the country of

the story that was read to them. At the very end, everyone regroups inside the library and the

principal would read a story from his country and sometimes the school brings a special guest

read them a story. Through these events the students are able to learn about different cultures and

sometimes learn words from a different language. It helps to create a community where every

child can feel welcome at the school and feel acknowledge.

An important thing to teach students and apply school wide is the idea of anti-bias. It

doesn’t matter how small the students are its important to teach them about it. At the childcare, I

work the started an initiative to teach the students about anti-bias in a way they can understand.

The students learns that it isn’t ok to hurt one another and the importance of saying stop when

some is doing something that they don’t like. Every morning the students would get into the

circle and do their daily morning routine. Before the go to the park they do a reminder, of all the

anti-bias things the children must know and they repeat it multiple times with the teacher and
even do practice demonstrations. This has reduced the number of incidence of children getting

hurt because another child couldn’t control their behavior. If all schools were able to introduce

anti-bias ideas, then it would reduce the number of incidence of disrespectful behavior in the

classroom.

There are four goals that the childcare I work at uses to teaches the students about anti

bias. At the childcare center they use terms that are simple for the children to understand what

each goal means. They learn by referring to the goals in terms of themselves and what it means

for them. These goals are to teach students about acceptance of oneself and others and teaching

tolerances and taking action when something isn’t right.The first goal is to love oneself and their

differences. The children learn it as “I love me”. The children have accept that they are different

but the are special and unique they need recognize that as long they love themselves nothing else

matters. The second goal is accepting others and their differences. The children learn it as “I love

you”. They recognized that people are different that oneself and they need to accept and love one

another despite these differences. The third goal is all about recognizing there is injustice and the

school refer to this as awareness. The children learn it as “That's not right, I am going to tell”.

The children learn to recognize that something is not right. That can be someone bully or hurting

another child for being different. The children learn to recognize that is not ok and they know

that they need to do something when they are aware something isn’t right. The four and final

goal is taking action for an injustice that is occuring. The children learn it as “I am going to do

something about it”. The children learn to take some action when others are committing some

kind of injustice. They learn that can just sit there let it happen they must take action and come to

an a teacher or and adult to help stop the injustice. At the childcare, many times the children just

sit there and when another child is hurting them. Through these anti-bias education the children
started to take action and coming to the teacher when another child is doing something that isn’t

ok. They even help defend their peers when they themselves don’t speak up. The children learn

right from wrong and recognize that we have to respect one another no matter our differences.

Schools are a big community where teachers and students build relationships and learn

about many different things. Teachers are responsible of providing students education and

students are responsible of receiving it. The how is the thing that can really be the challenging

part of the relationship. Teachers need to get to know their students, so that they can provide the

correct support for them. It takes the initiative of the schools and teachers to make notice of the

importance of incorporating the students culture into the lessons and school environment.

Schools and teachers are responsible to creating an environment where the student feel welcome

and they don’t have to hide who they are. It's difficult for a whole school to make these changes,

but it isn’t entirely impossible. As a future teacher, I hope to teach a culturally responsive

classroom and implement awareness of other cultures and teach Anti-Bias to my students.

Through this I hope to make a difference in the students lives so that they can be able to live their

lives with less fear of not being their true selves but also to respect others who are different.