That’s the word…… C U L T U R E. Culture is “in us and all around us, just as the air we breathe.” DOMINANT CULTURAL VIEW The dominant worldview is a.

That’s the word……

C U L T U R E

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 13 418-425What 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 ControlBe 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 canask: What is needed to dismantle/disruptinequalities?

CULTURAL IDENTITY***Ladson Billings page 31-33 people are.. Not just historical beings Historical, Social, & Individual Not absent their ethnicity, gender…

We are learningmachines--sponge

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’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.

Jane Elliot worked for the rest ofher career against prevailing patterns of inequality.

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 TheoryTook 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 Euro-American, 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.

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).

San Francisco’s Brown Twins

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 HelpWrite 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)

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.

RECOGNIZING CULTURE AS PART OF THE PROCESS OF LEARNING

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 CurriculumExample 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.