Transcript Slide 1

That’s the word……
CULTURE
Culture is “in us and all around us,
just as the air we breathe.”
DOMINANT CULTURAL VIEW

The dominant worldview is a major source
of meanings and values.
How does an ordinary cow
become a sacred cow?


Prevailing world view has enabled a group
of people to successfully solve problems

Reality and how it works

How much cultural uniformity is needed to be
successful in mainstream culture?

How much respect is given to cultural difference
today?

In Schools: Can students learn in an environment
where they have to reject their home culture? Or if
their culture is disrespected?
See Tozer, Chapter 13 418-425
What do these terms mean?

Cultural Deficit (See Tuesday’s Handout)

Cultural Difference

Cultural Mismatch


Tozer, 421 with respect to subject matter, learning styles, ways of
knowing and demonstrating knowledge, attitudes towards
authority, modes of behavior, socializing patterns, ways of
communicating
Cultural Subordination Theory
FIRST QUESTION
What is culture?


Generally viewed as the whole of humanity’s
intellectual, social, technological, political,
economic, moral, religious, aesthetic
accomplishments
But sociologists define culture as what??…
Culture as a System of Norms and Control
Be sure that you have a clear understanding of
Lecture Write Question #1

**An integrated set of norms by which human
behaviors, beliefs, and thinking are organized


Not just seen as concrete behavior patterns,
but for governing behavior-
**Standards and control mechanisms with which
members assign meanings, values and
significance to things, events and behaviors.
CULTURE determines the meaning of: rituals,
success, manners, behaviors, language, social
status, ethnicity, gender --all meaning…

Definition: You are part of mainstream
American culture if you:





Act [and PERCIEVED AS] like a
member and have income for the
lifestyle
Internalize core values
Have ready access to participate in
institutions
Speak English
Accept a mainstream identity
Mainstreamers can
ask: What is needed
to dismantle/disrupt
inequalities?
We are learning
machines--sponge
CULTURAL IDENTITY***
Ladson Billings page 31-33 people are..
Not just historical beings
Historical, Social, & Individual
Not absent their ethnicity, gender…
If you are mainstream, your cultural
filter is mainstream—and your
learning filter is mainstream.
Children begin to enforce gender roles at about what age?
If parents try to be neutral about the gender roles, what
forces will influence their children’s views?
Jane Elliot worked for the rest of
her career against prevailing
patterns of inequality.
Jane Elliot’s students had negative views about African American and
Native Americans, they regarded them as inferior, even though they
had little or no personal contact with these groups. Her 4th grade
students regarded African Americans as less smart, prone to riot, not
as moral… Tozer, page 414
They formed views from media, family, and community. SOCIALLY
CONSTRUCTED PREJUDICES
CULTURAL SUBORDINATION THEORY helps us to examine the
social processes that lead to the lower status of certain groups.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCE THEORY You have cultural differences,
but differences do not cause some to be subordinate.
We have a strong commitment to the
classical liberal view of FREEDOM (free from
interference for the rugged individual, Tozer, 33-34,
147-148) YOUR PERSONAL IDENTITY
GROWS OUT OF A UNIQUE STANDPOINT
But how are you perceived? Partly by your membership in
groups….for me--American, New Englander, Irish-American,
women, working class, athlete, teacher…
GROUPS SHARE SOME CHARACTERISTICS Generalizations
BUT SOCIAL STEREOTYPES OF GROUPS ARE LIMITING
When stereotyped, a person takes on all attributes of a group,
there is no individualism, and no personal knowledge is
considered.
GROUPS were viewed as deficient.
Cultural Deficit Theory
Took over as main theory in the 1960s to explain school
failure. Blames individual. Tuesday’s Handout

Most cultural deficit studies blamed the child's social, cultural
or economic environment as being "depraved and deprived"
of the elements necessary to "achieve the behavior rules (role
requirements)" needed to academically succeed (Hess &
Shipman, 1965). Engelmann and Bereiter, further
emphasized how "cultural deprivation" theories supported
the idea that social and emotional deficiencies affected student
performance within the academic system. Until dealt with,
these differences, would make it "impossible for" culturally
deprived students "to progress in academic areas" (1966).
Although these same studies did testify that they could modify
the behavior of disadvantaged children, they made little
progress towards student knowledge acquisition. As the study
states, there were "virtually no inroads against the children's
lacks in verbal learning" (1966:41).
Cultural Deficit Theory

Ultimately, the Cultural Deficit Theorists viewed cultures
and environments outside of the mainstream EuroAmerican, as inferior. These views catered to highly
ethnocentric perspectives. In one article Martin Deutsch
clearly outlined the middle class expectations and values
existing in the educational system, while pointing out the
deficiencies inherent in other groups such as "American
Indian children, mountain children and children from other
non-industrial groups" (1961). The fact that teachers and
schools were also failing to teach, was rarely broached and
the blame remained conveniently elsewhere.
Who do schools serve the best?
Middle class students have benefits
based on the fact that there is a
cultural match between school culture
and their own cultural experiences.

San Francisco’s Brown Twins

The curriculum tends not to portray middle class culture in a
negative way.

In schools, mainstream values and knowledge affirms a higher
status (a failure to value and to know about dominant
mainstream knowledge affirms legitimacy of lower status of
non-dominant groups).
American culture and culturally relevant teaching
Ladson-Billings in Dreamkeepers: Successful
Teachers of African American Children (1994)

What is the problem?

Racial subordination in society
Low achievement
Re-segregation (isolation)
Traditional curriculum
Majority of teachers are non-minority





Only 8 % of teachers are minority
No simple recipe
Culturally Relevant Teachers
According to Ladson-Billings
Lecture Write: Assess CRT Approach
Believe in the intellectual capacity of all students.
Hold beliefs about minority students that all can learn (and hold them to high
expectations).
See themselves as part of the community in which the students live.
Assist students in making connections between their local, national, racial, global
identities.
Establish relationships with students that are fluid, equitable, and extend beyond
the classroom.
Demonstrate connectedness with all of their students.
Encourage students to learn collaboratively.
Believe that knowledge is re-created, recycled, and shared by students and
teachers alike. Recreate knowledge through inquiry-based learning that
addresses students’ reality, that is culturally-based (meaningful to their lives
[school knowledge is currently linked to norms and values of mainstream
culture]
View the curriculum critically.
Committed to providing readiness and support necessary for learning
For example, generalizations based on research
about learning styles can be helpful to teachers:



Native Hawaiian children have a “talk story”
style of expressing themselves at home.
Traditional reading approaches are not as
effective when teaching young Native
Hawaiian students to read.
Teachers who incorporate the “talk story” in
reading lessons are more successful.
Professor Kathy Au (UIUC grad) teaches at the
University of Hawaii
Ladson-Billings conducted a one year study of 8
of the most successful teachers in minority
schools. What was the cultural reference of the
8 teachers in her study? 5 Black 3 White
8 teachers
 All 5 African American teachers demonstrated close cultural
reference with the African American community
 1 white teacher had a bicultural orientation
 1 white teacher had a African American orientation
 1 white teacher had a white cultural reference BUT in school
sought out African American teachers and encouraged
students to share their cultural background in the classroom.
Cultural reference means==the cultural group that the teacher
most closely identified with, who were her friends inside and
outside of school, what kinds of social activities did she
participate in, which neighborhood and communities did she
frequent (LB, p. 28)
Other research affirms that culture matters in
learning….
One quick example, Washington State
If you were a teacher at a school that served
students from 31 different Native American
tribes and had low reading scores, what
approaches and modifications of curriculum
might you recommend?
E-Reserve article by Mapes
“Indian Elders Help
Write Lessons That
Reflect Culture”
THIS SCHOOL HAD LOW READING SCORES
THE SCHOOL CHANGED THE CURRICULUM AND
WORKED WITH THE COMMUNITY
What does the school believe accounts for higher reading scores
at Chinook Elementary School?
 Created a reading program that reflects the identity and
cultural heritage of American Indian students (with low
income school, from 31 tribes)

What about the students who are white?
“Indian Elders Help Write Lessons That Reflect
Culture, Spur Reading”
Many changes………..





Use of culturally related reading material
Voluntary after school reading program
More library books about their cultural heritage
Reading nights for parents and students at school
Address mistrust between Native
Indian community and schools


Involved tribal leaders
Involved the community in the school
Researchers conclude that
students are less likely to fail in
school if they feel positive about
their culture and majority
culture. (Ladson-Billings, 11)
RECOGNIZING CULTURE AS PART OF THE PROCESS OF LEARNING
Ladson-Billings suggests that all of us learn and
understand through cultural filters.
Recognize the role that culture
plays in how we see the
world.
“The way we read the world is
culturally mediated.”
Know thyself, and understand
others.
Would Ladson-Billings agree or
disagree with these statements?
The existing order of things should be taken as a given.
Based on her views, what kind of theorist?
Teachers need to be “color blind.”
DuBois is correct that racial subordination is a key
factor in poor school performance of minority
students. (Ladson-Billings, 9)
Ladson-Billings
Do not treat equality as sameness.
Ladson-Billings believes that culturally relevant
teaching does not represent a kind of separatism,
reverse racism, or special privileges to the African
American community, but rather compares
culturally relevant teaching to middle-class
demands on schools to serve their communities.
Pluralist Approach to Curriculum
Example of recent changes in how English,
history, and science are taught.
More inclusive of diverse experiences.
A culturally relevant teacher---
Seeks ways to change school policies and practices that
promote fairness and quality education
For example:
to reduce stratification that limits assess to
high status knowledge (rich academic curriculum for all
students)
to limit points of competition for scarce
resources (allow students to take high level courses)
to limit negative messages about the students’
capacity to learn.