Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Teaching through culture

Teaching through culture Oftentimes, attempts at culturally relevant early childhood practices are limited to diverse materials in the physical environment. The purpose of this study is to document the culturally relevant teaching practices, specifically for African American children, within a culturally diverse preschool classroom with a Black teacher.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers used qualitative methodology to answer the following question: How does a Black preschool teacher enact culturally relevant practices for her African American students in a culturally diverse classroom? Data sources included field notes from classroom observations, transcripts from both formal and informal semi-structured interviews with a Master Teacher and photographs.FindingsThe authors found that the participant fostered an inclusive classroom community and a classroom environment that reflected the range of human diversity. She was intentional in her integration of culturally representative read alouds and lessons designed to incorporate students’ interests. Finally, she engaged families by facilitating their involvement in her curriculum. However, social justice aspects were absent during the time of the study.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature in that it documents a high-quality early childhood classroom with a teacher, that is, actively trying to incorporate the cultures of her African American students. Many extant studies provide examples of superficial culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) being enacting in early childhood classrooms or the focus is not specifically on African American children. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal for Multicultural Education Emerald Publishing

Teaching through culture

Download PDF
12 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/teaching-through-culture-GQOoAsFwx6
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
2053-535X
DOI
10.1108/jme-03-2019-0019
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Oftentimes, attempts at culturally relevant early childhood practices are limited to diverse materials in the physical environment. The purpose of this study is to document the culturally relevant teaching practices, specifically for African American children, within a culturally diverse preschool classroom with a Black teacher.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers used qualitative methodology to answer the following question: How does a Black preschool teacher enact culturally relevant practices for her African American students in a culturally diverse classroom? Data sources included field notes from classroom observations, transcripts from both formal and informal semi-structured interviews with a Master Teacher and photographs.FindingsThe authors found that the participant fostered an inclusive classroom community and a classroom environment that reflected the range of human diversity. She was intentional in her integration of culturally representative read alouds and lessons designed to incorporate students’ interests. Finally, she engaged families by facilitating their involvement in her curriculum. However, social justice aspects were absent during the time of the study.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature in that it documents a high-quality early childhood classroom with a teacher, that is, actively trying to incorporate the cultures of her African American students. Many extant studies provide examples of superficial culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) being enacting in early childhood classrooms or the focus is not specifically on African American children.

Journal

Journal for Multicultural Education – Emerald Publishing

Published: Aug 20, 2019

Keywords: Preschool; Race; Pedagogy

References

  • Translingual play that promotes cultural connections
    Arreguín-Anderson, M.G.; Salinas-Gonzalez, I.; Alanis, I.
  • Equity issues in parental and community involvement in schools: what teacher educators need to know
    Baquedano-López, P.; Alexander, R.; Hernandez, S.
  • Culturally responsive literacy practices in an early childhood community
    Bennett, S.V.; Gunn, A.A.; Gayle-Evans, G.; Barrera, E.S.; Leung, C.B.
  • Moving beyond colorblindness in early childhood classrooms
    Boutte, G.S.; Lopez-Robertson, J.; Powers-Costello, E.
  • Addressing the African American achievement gap: three leading educators issue a call to action
    Bowman, B.; Comer, J.; Johns, D.
  • I wanted to know how they perceived jail”: studying how one early educator brought her students’ worlds into her standardized teaching context
    Brown, C.P.; Mowry, B.
  • Using testimonio to bring children’s worlds into a standardized teaching context: an example of culturally relevant teaching in early childhood education
    Brown, C.P.; Mowry, B.
  • Struggling to overcome the state’s prescription for practice: a study of a sample of early educators’ professional development and action research projects in a high-stakes teaching context
    Brown, C.P.; Weber, N.B.
  • Becoming upended: Teaching and learning about race and racism with young children and their families
    Cole, K.; Verwayne, D.
  • An examination of the association between observed and self-reported culturally proficient teaching practices
    Debnam, K.J.; Pas, E.T.; Bottiani, J.; Cash, A.H.; Bradshaw, C.P.
  • Start with us! culturally relevant pedagogy in the preschool classroom
    Durden, T.R.; Escalante, E.; Blitch, K.
  • The power of play and language on early childhood racial identity in three US schools
    Earick, M.E.
  • Preparing for culturally responsive teaching
    Gay, G.
  • Capitalizing on culture: engaging young learners in diverse classrooms
    Howard, T.C.
  • Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy
    Ladson-Billings, G.
  • Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: a.k.a: the remix
    Ladson-Billings, G.
  • The black baby doll doesn’t fit the disconnect between early childhood diversity policy, early childhood educator practice, and children’s play
    MacNevin, M.; Berman, R.
  • Eclipsing voice in research with young children
    MacNaughton, G.
  • Supporting African American preschool teachers’ use of developmentally and culturally appropriate practices
    Nelson, R.F.; Rogers, P.
  • Culturally sustaining pedagogy: a needed change in stance, terminology, and practice
    Paris, D.
  • Young children making sense of racial and ethnic differences: a sociocultural approach
    Park, C.C.
  • We look more, listen more, notice more: impact of sustained professional development on head start teachers’ inquiry-based and culturally-relevant science teaching practices
    Roehrig, G.H.; Dubosarsky, M.; Mason, A.; Carlson, S.; Murphy, B.
  • Researching pedagogy in English pre-schools
    Siraj-Blatchford, I.; Sylva, K.
  • Teachers crossing borders: a review of the research into cultural immersion field experience for teachers
    Smolcic, E.; Katunich, J.
  • Negotiating culturally responsive pedagogy through multicultural children’s literature: towards critical democratic literacy practices in a first grade classroom
    Souto-Manning, M.
  • Texas public prekindergarten programs and enrollments ages 3 and 4
  • The state of racial diversity in the educator workforce
  • Reading your way to a culturally responsive classroom
    Wanless, S.B.; Crawford, P.A.
  • Enhancing cultural competence among teachers of african american children using mediated lesson study
    West-Olatunji, C.; Behar-Horenstein, L.; Rant, J.; Cohen-Phillips, L.
  • Toward a critical race curriculum
    Yosso, T.J.