July 18, 20061From Vision to Practice From Vision to Practice Second Annual Academy Narrowing the Achievement Gap High Achievement for All Students Culturally

July 18, 20061 From Vision to Practice

From Vision to PracticeSecond Annual Academy

Narrowing the Achievement GapHigh Achievement for All Students

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Jorge P. Osterling, Ph.D.


Today’s Goals

1. Explore together a conceptual framework for


2. Identify culturally responsive pedagogical

strategies that will help you address your

identified needs and concerns.


Despite their ability,

too many low-income children and children of color are failing

academically….


Statement of Purpose

• To improve the educational outcomes for all

1.2 million PK-12 students in the

Commonwealth of Virginia (2005-2006 Fall Membership)

• To make narrowing the achievement gap a

priority in every local school (1,862) and

center (97) throughout the Commonwealth of

Virginia.

How Many Students Make it Through

Of Every 100 Kindergartners

Graduate from High School Complete at least

some college

Obtain at least a Bachelor's

Degree

White 91 62 30

African American 87 54 16

Latino/ Hispanic 62 29 6

Asian 94 80 49

Native American 58 7

Source: US Bureau of Census, Current Population Reports, Educational Attainment in the United

States; March 2000, Detailed Tables No. 2

Achievement Gap

Building on Vygotsky’s Legacy(1896-1934)


Achievement Gap?A Vygotskian Approach

The difference between:

• Where a student is • Where she can and

must be

based on grade level standards.

Source: Charlottesville Forum


A Multifaceted Problem(Requires examination from Multiple Perspectives)

Need to look beyond

differences in

standardized test

scores to fully

understand problems

and gaps


Defining the Gap

By type of group

• Race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background,

gender, ability level

By type of outcome

• Test scores (e.g., SOLs, Iowa tests, SAT)

• Other measures (e.g., grades, graduation/

dropout rates)


Gap has existed for years on many tests (e.g., SAT, ACT)

Demographics:• Students and families• Teachers and administrators

Greater expectations and higher standardsfor all students (e.g., No Child Left Behind).

Context


`



Is a pedagogical framework that:• Respects the backgrounds and contemporary

circumstances of all learners regardless of individual status and power

• Employs learning processes that embrace the range of needs, interests, and orientations to be found among them.

• --Wlodkowski & Ginsberg


In a Culturally Responsive classroom . . .

• Everyone feels • safe and respected

• comfortable in expressing their views

• No one feels marginalized due to physical abilities, race, class, or sexual orientation.

• Assignments, learning materials, textbooks, and visual representations reflect the experiences of all students


Educators who develop culturally responsive classes . .

•Explore their own “inner

landscapes”

•Model positive attitudes

•Demonstrate ingenuity,

flexibility, and patience


EducatorsCulturally Responsive Classrooms

• Are critical thinkers

• Accept their own limitations

• Endowed with a solid knowledge base

• Has a lust for learning and a passion for the discipline

• Has an interest in the individual student

• Interested in growth of their students

• Questions the status quo


Successful ProgramsCommon Threads

Demanding Curriculum

Give students the chance to study a mainstream, undiluted curriculum with outstanding teachers.

Performance improves when all students learn the same challenging curriculum marked by high standards and expectations.

Creating an Environment that Provides Necessary

Social Supports

Effective programs surround students with evidence that the people they most care about (peers and family members) think academic successes and effort are important.

Committed to parental involvement, peer groups, mentors.



Research has shown that no one teaching strategy will consistently engage all learners.

The key is to engage all students by relating course content to students’ backgrounds/ funds on knowledge.

Theories and Assumptions


• Knowledge is socially-constructed and therefore all knowledge is a reflection of the culture in which is was developed

• Knowledge is not neutral; it is value-laden and reflects specific beliefs and worldviews

• Education/learning is enculturation; it is the appropriation of the knowledge of a culture group

• Motivation is inseparable from culture• Language is a primary conduit of culture


Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

Cognitive development is inherently both a social and cultural process• Social, because children learn through

interactions with others and require assistance from others in order to learn what they need to know

• Cultural, because what children need to know is determined by the culture they live in


Vygotsky’s Most Influential Ideas

Scaffolding• Refers to the degree of assistance provided to a learner in the zone of

proximal development

• Scaffolding should gradually decrease as children become more competent at a task

Zone of Proximal Development• Is the gap between what learners can accomplish alone and what they

are capable of doing if guided/ mentored by an adult or a more competent peer

Social Process of Learning

INTRA-INDIVIDUAL DOMAIN

INTERPERSONAL DOMAIN

SOCIOCULTURAL DOMAIN

The child experiences concepts in practice & through negotiation of meaning

The child learns, through media, parents, teachers & peers, the frameworks for making sense

Co-ordinated interaction with peers and teachers filters the cultural framework. This interaction is itself defined by culture.

The Individual, Social & Cultural

Smith, Cowie & Blades (2003), p. 494

Narrowing the Gap

Strategies


1. My own beliefs and attitudes

2. Engaging all students: cultural

responsiveness

3. Meaningful, powerful, and rich opportunities

to learn

4. Effective Instruction

5. Effective home-school-community relations


My Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes

• Caring• Critical reflection• Develops a mentoring attitude• Efficacy• Expectations• Persistence• Sensitive to the needs of every individual


Engaging all Students

• Acknowledge legitimacy of cultural heritages• Build bridges of meaningfulness• Use wide variety of instructional strategies• Teach students to know and praise their own and each other’s cultural heritages• Incorporate multicultural information across school subjects


Rich Opportunities to Learn

• Building on strengths • Challenges students to think• Extended Learning Time• Meaningful and Rigorous Curriculum• Enriched and Varied Programs• Offers practical applications


Effective Instruction"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." ~ Chinese Proverb

Effective instruction begins with a classroom environment that fosters academic success and is supported by high-quality instructional strategies

Models and approaches that have been demonstrated to be effective for CLD learners are:

• Funds of knowledge.

• Meaningful uses of language.

• Curricular design that builds on a learner’s prior knowledge, language and cultural background enhances learning and promotes self esteem.


Effective Home-School-Community Relationships

• Creative engagement of families Emphasis on parental involvement and choices.

• Home and Neighborhood visits

• Bailey’s Elementary successful community programs

• Patricia Gandara’s Over the Ivy Walls: The Educational Mobility of Low-Income Chicanos


Closing Thoughts

“How a child is taught affects his image of

himself, which in turn, influences what he will

dare and care to learn. The interdependence of

the two is inescapable.”

Barbara Biber“Learning and Personality Development: A Point of View,” introduction, Bank Street College of Education

Publication (March 1961).

The Achievement Gap Can and Must be Reduced

Let’s do it!


References

Gandara, P. (1995). Over the ivy walls : the educational mobility of low-income Chicanos. Albany : State University of New York Press

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. NY: Teachers College

Hollins, E. R. (1996). Culture in school learning: Revealing the deep meaning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that's just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 34(3), 159-165.

Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132-141.

Nieto, S. (1996). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.

Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University (LAB). (2002). The diversity kit: An introductory resource for social change in education. Providence, RI: Brown University. Available: http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/diversity_kit/index.shtml

Padron, Y. N., Waxman, H. C., and Rivera, H. H. (2002). Educating Hispanic students: Effective instructional practices (Practitioner Brief #5). Available: http://www.cal.org/crede/Pubs/PracBrief5.htm

Sheets, R. (1999). Relating competence in an urban classroom to ethnic identity development. In R. Sheets (Ed.), Racial and ethnic identity in school practices: Aspects of human development. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Smith, P.K., Cowie, H., & Blades, M. (1998).Understanding children's development (3rd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998.

Villegas, A. M. (1991). Culturally responsive pedagogy for the 1990's and beyond. Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Teacher Education.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds. and Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

Wlodkowski, R. & Ginsberg, M. (1995). A Framework for Culturally responsive pedagogy. Educational Leadership, September, 17-21

Documents

July 18, 20061From Vision to Practice From Vision to Practice Second Annual Academy Narrowing the Achievement Gap High Achievement for All Students Culturally