Culturally Inclusive Pedagogies:
Reflecting on Pedagogy
Jim Cummins talks about culturally inclusive pedagogies and the power relations displayed in society and school institutions. He discusses the difference between coercive power relations and collaborative power relations and how these affect the students in our education system and their literacy development.
Some of the main points Cummins makes about power relations in the broader society and more specifically in schools are the differences between the treatment of subordinated groups. This disempowerment in the community can be reflected in the classroom resulting in a devaluation of languages, culture, and religion of students. Groups who experience long-term underachievement are usually resulting from power relations. This can be viewed as punishment, ignoring, neglecting, or removing language, culture, or religion. These societal influences can come into the classroom and negatively affect students’ academic achievement, empowerment, and engagement.
This information challenged my thinking as it got me to reflect on my current practices and think about how I am interested in my students and what power relations are currently happening in my classrooms. One of the most important things to do is be aware. Be aware of the students in your environment and what challenges they each face. Beware of the power relations that are currently in place and make sure that there is no coercive power relation and rather a collaborative power relation is in a place where students are gaining power in things they could not do before, and as a teacher, you feel success in their learning and language development. Through my reflection, am I ensuring I am providing a classroom environment where my students are represented, heard and feel they can freely express themselves. If this is not something I am currently portraying for my students, I need to start doing this now. This information challenged my thinking as it got me to reflect on my current teaching practices and to work towards fostering more inclusive and empowering practices to further support my ELL students.
I will empower ELL students through the collaborative creation of power by ensuring the student feels capable and confident. Its important the learner feels empowered and gains this through learning something they could not do before. The relationships we create with our students will help us empower them, show that we care genuinely about their successes, and provide them with the supports they need to succeed. It's important we work with our students to achieve success and feel empowered through seeing the student's progress.
Specific activities/strategies:
Providing connections between students lives/relevance and the curriculum/classroom activities
Including signs portrayed in many languages, as this shows our classroom values the languages in our community
- Provide resources such as books in the library and classroom in student's first language, along with after hours time for parents to read with students (in their first language)
Incorporate bilingual projects in the classroom and post them throughout school/class
Provide problems that consist of finding solutions to social issues and higher-order thinking
Provide choices in the work we do
Create dual language books in class using both languages - welcoming home languages into the classroom
When reflecting on the video provided above, Cummins' argument deepens my understanding of an educator's responsibility as it is up to the educator to provide the proper and supportive learning environment to succeed. It is more than just curriculum, it is all the stuff in between. All the supports, the relationship with the students, and the ways we challenge our students to keep striving through all barriers. It's important we do the best we can to limit these barriers that students face and ensure we provide opportunities for the student to express themselves genuinely in the classroom. This includes first language, culture, religion, and their overall personal identity. A student is their best when they feel like themself, and as educators, it's our job to let the student be their true selves in the classroom in order to get to their full potential academically.
