Lesson 4: Class Culture

The Culturally Responsive Classroom

A lack of multicultural competence can exacerbate the difficulties that novice teachers (and even more experienced teachers) have with classroom management. Definitions and expectations of appropriate behavior are culturally influenced, and conflicts are likely to occur when teachers and students come from different cultural backgrounds.

-Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, and Curran (2004)

In their paper "Toward a Conception of Culturally Responsive Classroom Management" (2004), Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke and Curran note that the literature on classroom management has paid scant attention to issues of cultural diversity, and the literature on multiculturalism is rarely interested in management issues. They suggest that the goal of classroom management is to create an environment in which students behave appropriately, not out of fear of punishment or desire for reward, but out of a sense of personal responsibility. Toward that goal they outline the following five expectations from teachers:

  1. A teacher should recognize his own ethnocentrism and biases.
  2. He should know his students' cultural backgrounds.
  3. He should understand the broader social, economic, and political context in which the class is situated.
  4. He should be able and willing to use culturally appropriate management strategies.
  5. He should commit to building a caring classroom.

Concepts such as culturally responsive pedagogy or culturally responsive literacy have been explored in academic literature since the 1990s, primarily in the context of primary and secondary education, and the need for teacher training in cultural awareness is now broadly recognized.

Let us listen to an anecdote told by Yoonhee, a language teacher.

Play

On the need for training in cultural awareness.

Duration: 01:46


Yoonhee's experience is not unique to Korea, nor to a high school setting. At the core of the story is what Yoonhee sees as lack of sensitivity on her part, which led to a possible behavioral problem. ("I could feel that she was not nice to me.") This led to parent involvement, which, in turn, exacerbated the difficulty. Surely such a chain of events can take place in the college setting!

Cultural Issues in the Language Classroom

We bring into the classroom our personal cultures, institutional cultures, and even cultures from specific fields of academia, all of which must be somehow integrated into a "class culture" and produce an environment that is conducive to learning. While the literature on multiculturalism in the classroom often focuses on ethnicities and national cultures, I would like to use a narrower angle in looking at the language classroom. Some cultural issues that we may encounter in our specific environment are:

  • learners' attitudes toward the target language or toward a teacher who may be a non-native speaker.
  • parents' expectations from their children and readiness to involve themselves in the educational process, especially when it involves a heritage culture.
  • a variety of learning and social interaction styles that by now are ingrained in our adult students.
  • different degrees of willingness to accept and support students with language learning disabilities.