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Intercultural Education
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Effective Schooling is Being Culturally Responsive

Johann Le Roux Available online: 01 Jul 2010

To cite this article: Johann Le Roux (2001): Effective Schooling is Being Culturally Responsive, Intercultural Education, 12:1, 41-50 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14675980120033957

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Intercultural Education, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2001

Effective Schooling is Being Culturally Responsive

JOHANN LE ROUX
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ABSTRACT Instead of providing some quick x prescriptive recipes to education for culturally diverse school populations, this paper would argue instead in favour of the necessity to embrace a philosophy and practice of culturally responsive education in all schools. Effective education for cultural diversity is thus viewed in terms of successful classroom practices where all students are sensitively accommodated and thus learn successfully. Effective education is particularly directed and relevant to the speci c and unique learning needs of all students. Theoretical consideration of culturally responsive schooling is relatively simple, but the practical implementation thereof often gives rise to fundamental challenges and problems. With the required empathetic understanding, knowledge and skills, which should be addressed in teacher training, teachers can make an exceptional contribution towards creating equal education opportunities for all children within a culturally diverse society. To ensure this, an accommodative, appreciative and a responsive approach to the reality of cultural diversity is of utmost importance. Introduction Instead of providing some quick x prescriptive recipes to education for culturally diverse school populations, this paper would argue instead in favour of the necessity and urgency to embrace a philosophy and practice of culturally responsive education in all schools, irrespective of being mono- or multicultural. Instead of being trapped in so-called paradigm wars about educational issues and concepts, most exponents of culturally responsive schooling today view effective teaching as a complex process of re ective practice, whereby professional teachers plan, prepare and orchestrate in a sensible, sensitive way a variety of methods, strategies, materials and motivating experiences that successfully meet all students learning needs (Ralph et al., 1998, p. 47). Effective education for cultural diversity is thus viewed in terms of successful classroom practices where all students are sensitively accommodated and thus learn successfully. In order to manage cultural diversity in school classrooms effectively, such educational situations need to be inclusive in the true sense of the word. An underlying philosophy has to be that diversity is valued and that it strengthens classroom dynamics and offers greater learning opportunities for all. It needs to be accepted that all students can learn successfully and indeed belong in the schools
ISSN 1467-5986 print; ISSN 1469-8489 online/01/010041-10 2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/14675980120033957

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mainstream and community life. Inclusion refers to the accommodation of differences in social class, gender, age, ability, race and interest as useful learning resources (Stainback & Stainback, 1996, p. xi). Within inclusive schools, all students are educated in the mainstream and are provided with appropriate educational opportunities that are challenging yet geared to their capabilities and particular unique needs. In an inclusive school, everybody is accepted, supported, valued and given equal opportunities and access to learning sources. While inclusion refers to the accommodation of diversity in its entirety within common mainstream school structures, the focus of this paper is limited to race and culture as identi able facets of diversity in schools.

W hat Is Effective E ducation? Today at the dawn of the 21st century countries throughout the world are reorganising their education systems. Everywhere, education is regarded as the main way of enabling individuals and nations alike to meet the rapid economic and social changes in which they are engulfed. Schools are expected to prepare the youth for a world of work and for economic independence; to enable them to live constructively in responsible communities; and to empower them to live in a tolerant, culturally diverse and rapidly changing society (Department For Education And Employment, 1999). Effective education is a vital source of personal opportunity as well as a means of supporting economic development. In the future, access to work will depend predominantly on the individuals interpersonal skills, skills at networking and digital literacy, ability to engage in critical decision making and problem solving and the ability to organise and sustain exible life and career contexts. We are entering an era where knowledge supersedes information and technology transforms longstanding relationships of time and space. In a post-industrial knowledge-based world the 3Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) should be expanded and not replaced. Equally important are critical and creative thinking, problem solving, and the capacity for life-long learning and civic literacy. More than ever before, teachers responsibilities in contemporary society are extended to the social development of students in an environment where traditional values and cultures are challenged on a daily basis. Effective education will ensure a socially just and egalitarian society, based on economic prosperity, equality of opportunity and access to available resources for all its citizens (Beattie, 1999). Effective education, speci cally within the context of this paper, is particularly directed and relevant to the speci c and unique learning needs of all students. Because of diverse school populations with diverse backgrounds and unique learning styles and needs in schools today, effective teaching has to address such diversity of learning needs through diverse teaching approaches and strategies. The effective teacher is at the same time an effective manager of diversity in multicultural schools. Effective education guides students to knowledge about diverse information systems, events and peoples. The importance of schools in addressing the realities of diversity

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is highlighted in the International Commissions Report on Education for the Twenty- rst Century (see Delors, 1996, p. 56) presented below: To show regard for diversity and individualit y is a fundamental principle that should rule out any kind of standardised teaching. Formal education systems are often rightly accused of stunting personal ful lment by forcing all children into the same cultural and intellectual mould, without taking suf cient account of the variety of individual talents. They tend to emphasise, for example, the development of abstract knowledge to the detriment of other qualities such as imagination, the ability to communicate, leadership, a sense of beauty or the spiritual dimension of existence, or manual skills. Depending on their aptitudes and natural inclinations, which are different from the moment they are born, children do not therefore bene t in exactly the same way from the educational resources of the community. They may even be left stranded if the school is not suited to their talents and ambitions. W hy Culturally Responsive and not Multicultural Education? Multicultural education is neither a well-delineated eld, nor a conceptually clear area, as re ected in numerous, often-confusing de nitions. Because of the confusion and the need for clarity, some researchers have even proposed that the term multicultural education be replaced by terms such as education for multiculturalism, intercultural education, etc. Given the controversies surrounding multicultural education as a concept, many academic scholars have even argued that the term is outdated, offensive and politically incorrect (Squelch, 1996). It seems that the implementation of multicultural education, as a concept, depends predominantly upon the viewpoints of individual scholars, whether they take an assimilationist, cultural pluralist or anti-racist approach. Multicultural education, therefore, has no clear-cut meaning. The term has dubious and so-called blind-alley implications (compare Modgil et al., 1986), which not only takes us away from moral and social realities, but directs us towards conceptual confusion (Verma & Bagley, 1984). Often, to the uninitiated, multicultural education simply means teaching children from different cultural backgrounds in one school or classroom. To others, it means teaching about people in other countries, which people presume is culturally diverse (Sleeter, 1992, p. 14). After studying approximately 200 articles in academic journals and 68 books on multicultural education, Sleeter and Grant (1987) came to the conclusion that there are almost as many researchers as de nitions in the eld of multicultural education! Furthermore, the terminology on multicultural education and related concepts are not uniform or consistent. In the literature on this topic, the following terms, related to multicultural education, can be found (Ekstrand, 1997) and often have largely the same meaning as multicultural education: multiethnic education, multilingual education, intercultural education, cross-cultural education, immigrant education bilingual education, community education, minority edu-

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cation, etc. Some of the criticism (compare critics cited in Le Roux, 1998) levied against multicultural education is a result of a lack of an acceptable and unambiguous de nition of this approach to education. Because this concept lends itself to diverse interpretation possibilities, many misconceptions and misinterpretations can be found in existing literature. Numerous people and schools of thought are of the opinion that multicultural education could merely be equated to mixed education. Multicultural is therefore often viewed as the mere approach pertaining to the education offered to various ethnic groups. Consequently, it is regarded as synonymous with mixed education, intercultural education or multiethnic education. This gives rise to much confusion and many misconceptions, while fostering a spirit of scepticism about it. It is wrong to assume that multicultural education will inevitably be practised in a situation where learners of different cultural backgrounds are present in a common school or classroom setting. This at best constitutes a mixed class, while multicultural education is a unique approach to formal education with its own aims, theoretical basis and practical approach. Advocates argue that this is not the case and emphasise that the retention of an own cultural identity, as well as the recognition of cultural diversity, in fact forms the cornerstone of this approach. Some other critics are of the opinion that multicultural education is limited to multicultural schools. In fact, multicultural education can be strongly recommended for all schools (including monocultural school settings). All children should be educated about the cultural diversity outside the school in a world that has become increasingly pluralistic in character. True multicultural education, or to qualify it more precisely, culturally responsive education, should prevail in the entire spirit or ethos present in a particular educational dispensation, whether mono- or multicultural in representation. Numerous sceptical critics regard multicultural education as constituting an idealistic theory, which cannot be attained in practice. It is regarded as only lip service and tokenism that does not address the actual problems of a heterogeneous society. It is argued that multicultural education fails dismally to address basic humanistic aspects such as racism and cultural prejudice. However, it needs to be stated that racism and stereotyping are deeply rooted social problems that cannot be resolved by education alone. Reference is often made to practices from the 1960s through to the end of the 1990s that have failed and have led to no more than cosmetic add-ons to traditional curriculum content which re ects the dominant groups values as they existed before. Some people opposed to multicultural education argue that learners are born into a particular cultural environment. It is argued that children have to be exposed and acquire their own cultural identity before being introduced to other cultures. This is in direct contrast to the view that multicultural education affords learners the opportunity to understand and master their own cultural identity better while engaging in culturally diverse activities. Some schools of thought opposing multicultural education believe that it will inevitably give rise to the lowering of standards in this all accommodative approach. The mere presence of students from various ethnic or cultural backgrounds in a common school setting have to be regarded as a realistic source of friction, stress and

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con ict which places tremendous responsibility and unjust demands on the teacher. It is therefore argued that a system of cultural pluralism or separatism might be the most logical way of ensuring peaceful intercultural coexistence in a multicultural environment. However, history presents numerous examples where cultural separation has led to unequal distribution of resources, discriminatory practices and inequality. According to Ladson-Billings (1994, p. 17) effective teachers in culturally diverse classrooms are those able to provide culturally relevant instruction. In the literature, such teaching relevant to the needs and backgrounds of all students in culturally diverse classrooms is also described as: culturally culturally culturally culturally culturally culturally responsive teaching (Wlodkowski & Wlodkowski, 1996), responsive instruction (Erikson, 1987), appropriate teaching (Cazden & Legget, 1981), congruent teaching (Mohatt & Erickson, 1981), compatible instruction (Jordan, 1985), or appropriate teaching (Au & Jordan, 1981), to name but a few.

Teachers need to acquire the skill of deeply understanding the cultural norms other than their own. This sensitivity needs to be instilled during teacher training. One of the most important problems experienced by beginning teachers is the cultural mismatch in background between teachers and students (Boyer, 1996). Difference between home and school culture often negatively interferes with effective teaching and learning in classrooms (Hollins, 1995). It could result in students being confronted with opposing and con icting views and values, where home and school are experienced as opposing or contrasting societal institutions. Teacher education programmes should thus attempt to in uence pre-service teachers perspective and understanding of cultural diversity in classrooms (Marshall, 1996) and beyond. Only then will schools succeed in effectively preparing students for the realities of a diverse society through culturally responsive teaching. P reparing Teachers for Culturally Responsive Teaching Teachers are largely responsible for what and how students learn. Therefore, the degree to which education for cultural diversity is realised in schools depends largely upon the attitudes, knowledge and behaviour of classroom teachers (Rodriquez, 1983). Many identi able factors account for the progress, prospects and perils of culturally responsive education in primary as well as secondary schools all over the world today. Essential among these factors are the preconceptions, attitudes, values, skills and commitments of classroom teachers (Rivlin, 1977; Banks and Lynch, 1986). Teachers effectiveness or the lack thereof, with a culturally diverse group of students and with multicultural curriculum content, is a direct re ection of the quality of their professional preparation. Today, many teachers realise the mismatch between their own life experiences and professional training and the cultural backgrounds of most of their students. Almost everywhere in the world, an increasingly diverse school population encoun-

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ters a predominantly white middle-class teaching force that is inadequately prepared to manage the reality of diversity in schools. Internationally, the general tendency (with few exceptions) is for teacher training programmes to neglect or ignore diversity issues in formal education. Effective teacher training provides students with more exposure to real life issues that exist in schools for diverse student populations. Furthermore, student teachers have to be introduced to complex theoretical ideas related to education for diversity (Beynon, 1997). The problem often results in teachers regarding themselves and their own socio-cultural experiences as primary sources of relevant practitioner expertise. Besides being knowledgeable in various subject content areas, future teachers also have to be trained to become competent in a variety of methodological techniques in order to adapt to the different learning styles that students will have. In a multicultural classroom, cultural background diversity ensures diversity in learning preferences, perspectives and experiential levels. Although traditional approaches to teaching could still be useful to beginning teachers, exibility in the approaches that are used is required from the beginning teacher (as from all teachers). The reality of classroom diversity needs to be taken into account with respect to (Garibaldi, 1992): lesson preparation; organising effective instructional situations; motivating students and managing classrooms; assessing the strengths and weaknesses of all students; and encouraging cooperation between students in class, but also between their respective families and the school at large. However, McDiarmid (1990) warns that student teachers generalisations about particular ethnic and cultural groups, as a result of being exposed during training to multicultural information, can be a potential danger in itself. It may even strengthen rather than diminish stereotypical beliefs about certain groups of people and thus affect classroom interaction and the communication of expectations regarding achievement and social behaviour in a negative way. Student teachers need to realise the importance of treating students as unique individuals rather than attributing a set of general characteristics of the group to each individual. A balanced approach in the presentation of information on multicultural issues is of critical and utmost importance in all training (pre-service and in-service) courses and seminars designed for teacher education. Banks and Lynch (1986) make the important point that teachers cant teach what they dont know. All over the world, the history of cultural diversity management in schools has proven that the true impediment to cultural pluralism is that we have a reality of culturally de cient educators attempting to teach culturally different children (Aragon, 1973). The failure to include multicultural education in teacher training programmes has been largely responsible for these inadequacies. The limited multicultural experiences and resources available for pre-service and in-service teacher training tend to be sporadic, fragmentary and super cially add-on optional extras to an already overloaded school curriculum (Craft, 1981).

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Research all over the world indicates that initial teacher training, as far as multicultural education is concerned, is grossly inadequate, or in many instances, non-existent. In many cases, it is today still regarded as a luxury which cannot be afforded in a time of scarcity of resources, or as a contentious politically sensitive area best avoided. In both initial and in-service training, where multicultural issues are addressed, the training focus tends to be on multiculturalism, rather than on race and educational issues. Instead of creating identi able separate slots in the curriculum timetable, pre-service training rather has to take account of all multicultural education facets throughout the students curriculum. Sociology of education for instance could include themes of race relations, psychology of education could include a perspective on the development of prejudice and how it affects emotions and self-concept formation, while philosophy of education could raise the critical question of whether cross-cultural questions of rationality are identi able. Similarly, professional studies and teaching practices could explore the implications of learning theories for the multicultural classroom, and the multicultural dimension of each subject could be developed. Both pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes should include aspects of individual and institutional racism in a racism awareness initiative. Student teachers have to be sensitised to their prevailing low expectations of students from cultures other than their own (Handbook for Teachers in the Multicultural Society AFFOR, 1983). Often they are not aware of these lower expectations and of how it affects teaching and learning. Stereotyping and existing pre-suppositions are things we all tend to do and have. During teacher training, students need to be equipped to manage such stereotyping in ways conducive to effective teaching and learning. Prospective teachers need to learn that multiculturalism is more than a question of adding speci c aspects to various school subjects. It indeed incorporates an approach, attitudes, learning material, and the reality of various learning and teaching styles and implicit assumptions. It provides a wider, more realistic and all-inclusive syllabus that has a sensitising effect on students development of positive attitudes to cultural diversity. Students at school need to be introduced to and learn from the cultural richness represented in a diverse society. In this process, the classroom teacher plays a pivotal role. But for this role, student teachers have to be trained and adequately equipped during pre-service and ongoing in-service training programmes. Conclusion Theoretical consideration of culturally responsive schooling is relatively simple, but the practical implementation thereof often gives rise to fundamental challenges and problems. With the required empathetic understanding, knowledge and skills which should be addressed in teacher training, the teaching corps can make an exceptional contribution towards creating equal education opportunities for all children within a culturally diverse society. In preparation for this world of complexity and continuously rapid change, students need to develop the ability to respond exibly, foster the capability to shape the process of change, to assist in building a better future,

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instead of being launched helplessly or passively into a future they do not want. To ensure this, an accommodative, appreciative and responsive approach to the reality of cultural diversity is of utmost importance: If you only understand one culture it is like seeing with one eye only, but if you add the dimension of other cultures, you become binocular and things can be seen in perspective. It allows you to appreciate much more. (Dame Tamsyn Imison in DEE, 1999, p. 50) Philosophies underlying the following well-known sayings should thus be integrated into an effective culturally responsive education system for the 21st century:
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A journey of a thousand miles begins with the rst step (Chinese saying). Talk does not cook the cabbage (German saying). It is one thing to cackle and another to lay an egg (Ecuador saying). The hardest person to awaken is the one who is already awake (Filipino saying). Birds have nests. People have roots (Vietnamese saying). Know where you came from and you will always know where you are going (African saying). Culturally responsive teaching entails much more than simply teaching a culturally/ ethnically diverse class. It is an active process of thinking, a state of mind, a way of seeing and learning that is shaped and in uenced by the beliefs about the value of cultural relationships and cultural competency (Davidman & Davidman, 1997, pp. 2425). Such teachers understand that: culture, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, socio-economic position and exceptionality are potentially powerful variables in the communication and learning process of individuals and groups; to optimally empower all learners, teachers need to lead students to understand that the construction of knowledge is a social and evolutionary process which is often distorted by negative aspects such as racism and sexism; it is important to become more culturally competent: a process of becoming more successful in communicating with and helping students who are guided by different cultural habitual modes and norms; useful ideas about teaching and peaceful coexistence can result from cross-cultural studies and experiences in the multicultural classroom. The type of students present in the classroom does not determine the multicultural character of a classroom setting; be it a cosmos of ethnic and/or cultural diversity. Speci cally, the perspective, approach and knowledge base the teacher works with, which guides his thoughts and actions, create it. Monocultural school settings are rare and far between. In fact, about 96% of the global society consists of multicultural settings. It therefore seems quite logical to prepare students in schools to one day enter this diverse society. The normal public or private school setting is far from being purely monocultural: girls and boys have their separate cultures, various socio-economic sub-cultural groups are represented in one single classroom, while different religions, family types and ethnic and/or cultures may be present in a

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classroom. On top of all this, a teacher as a representative of the professional education culture is present. It therefore stands to reason that culturally responsive or culturally re ective education would be the most effective educational strategy or approach to address the educational needs of a culturally diverse classroom population successfully.

Address for correspondence: Johann Le Roux, Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; e-mail: lerouxjo@hakuna.up.ac.za
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