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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
When the first edition of Diversity and Motivation waspublished in 1995, it became a premier resource for faculty andadministrators seeking effective and practical strategies thatfoster motivation among culturally diverse student groups. This revised and updated second edition of Diversity andMotivation offers a comprehensive understanding of teachingmethods that promote respect, relevance, engagement, and academicsuccess. Margery B. Ginsberg and Raymond J. Wlodkowski base theirinsights and concrete suggestions on their experiences and researchas college faculty. The book defines norms, illustrates practices, and providestools to develop four foundational conditions for intrinsicallymotivated learning: establishing inclusion, developing a positiveattitude, enhancing meaning, and engendering competence. Theauthors provide perspectives on the social justice implications ofeach condition. Diversity and Motivation includes resources to helpeducators create a supportive community of learners, facilitateequitable discussions in linguistically diverse classrooms, designengaging lessons, and assess students fairly. The ideas in thisbook apply across disciplines and include teaching practices thatcan be easily adapted to a range of postsecondary settings. In addition, the authors include a cohesive approach to syllabusconstruction, lesson design, and faculty development. This newedition also contains a framework for motivating students outsidetraditional classroom settings.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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Diversity and Motivation
Culturally Responsive Teaching in College
Second Edition
Margery B. Ginsberg
Raymond J. Wlodkowski
The Jossey-BassHigher and Adult Education Series
Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by Jossey-BassA Wiley Imprint989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ginsberg, Margery B., 1954-Diversity and motivation : culturally responsive teaching in college / Margery B. Ginsberg, Raymond J. Wlodkowski. – 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7879-9611-6 (cloth)
1. College teaching—United States. 2. Motivation in education—United States. 3. Minority students—Education (Higher)—United States. 4. Multiculturalism— United States. I. Wlodkowski, Raymond J. II. Title.
LB2331.G57 2009
378.1’25—dc22
2009001137
Contents
Cover
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgments
The Authors
1 Understanding Relationships Between Culture and Motivation to Learn
The Influence of Culture
Personal Appreciation of the Concept of Culture
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Challenges of Cultural Pluralism
Understanding a Motivational Perspective That Supports Culturally Responsive Teaching
The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
Applying the Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
Criteria, Norms, and Practices for Using the Motivational Framework
Fear, Conflict, and Resistance
2 Establishing Inclusion
Respect, Connectedness, and Intrinsic Motivation
Norms for Establishing Inclusion
Practices for Establishing Inclusion
Conclusion
3 Developing Attitude
Relevance, Volition, and Intrinsic Motivation
Language and Attitude
Norms for Developing a Positive Attitude
Practices for Developing a Positive Attitude
4 Enhancing Meaning
Meaning–to What End?
Engagement, Challenge, and Intrinsic Motivation
Norms for Enhancing Meaning
Practices for Enhancing Meaning
5 Engendering Competence
Authenticity, Effectiveness, and Intrinsic Motivation
Norms for Engendering Competence
Practices for Engendering Competence
Effective Grading
6 Implementing a Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
The Example of a Single Course
Content Considerations
Authentic Roles and Practices
There Is More to Higher Education Than We Have Yet Imagined
Resources
Resource A: Charting Insights from Lesson Study
Resource B: Working with a Faculty Team to Introduce the Motivational Framework
Resource C: The Motivational Framework
Resource D: Motivational Framework Lesson Plan
Resource E: Facilitating Equitable Discussions Within a Multicultural Classroom
Resource F: Effective Lecturing Within a Multicultural Classroom
Resource G: Providing Written Feedback to Students in a Multicultural Classroom
Resource H: Cooperative Lesson Worksheet
Resource I: Inclusion, Attitude, Meaning, and Competence Rubrics
Resource J: Peer Coaching Rubrics
Resource K: Evaluating the Motivational Conditions of a Class
References
Name Index
Subject Index
Guide
Cover
Contents
List of Illustrations
Chapter 01
Figure 1.1 The Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching
Chapter 02
Figure 2.1 The Blame Cycle
Figure 2.2 Venn Diagram
Chapter 03
Figure 3.1 Range of Contextual Support and Degree of Cognitive Involvement in Communicative Activities
Figure 3.2 The Experiential Learning Model
Figure 3.3 Sample Learning Activities for Dimensions of the Kolb Model
Figure 3.4 Learning Sequence According to the Kolb Model for a Political Science Course
Figure 3.5 Degree of Direct Student Involvement in Various Teaching Methods
Chapter 04
Figure 4.1 A Set of Five Hanging Pendula
List of Tables
Chapter 03
Table 3.1 Comparison of Conventional Teaching and Culturally Responsive Teaching
Table 3.2 Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
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Preface
Motivation is a concept that is intended to explain one of life’s most elusive questions: Why do we do what we do? Implicit in seeking to answer this question is the intention that educators might better understand motivation in order to support student learning. Conventional wisdom as well as research indicates that “motivated students” will surpass “unmotivated students” in learning and performance. Knowledge about motivation can improve classroom pedagogy to support student learning.
This book responds to the question: How can postsecondary instructors more consistently support student motivation across diverse student groups? When we define motivation as the natural human capacity to direct energy in the pursuit of a goal, an undergirding assumption is that human beings are purposeful. We constantly learn, and when we do, we are usually motivated to learn. We are directing our energy through attention, concentration, and imagination to make sense of our world. With learning defined as an active and volitional process of constructing meaning from experience and text, there is substantial evidence that motivation is consistently and positively related to educational achievement.
At the same time, the task of supporting student motivation in diverse classrooms is a highly nuanced endeavor. Who we are culturally and how we interact with the world is an intriguing intersection of language, values, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences that pervades every aspect of a person’s life and continually changes and evolves. What culture is not is an isolated, mechanical aspect of life that can be used to explain phenomena in the classroom or can be learned as a series of facts, physical elements, or exotic characteristics (Banks, 2006; Gay, 2000; Kitayama and Markus, 1994). Neither is culture an experimental science in search of a law. Rather, it is a highly interpretive one in search of meaning (Geertz, 1973). Across cultural groups, all students are motivated, even when they are not motivated to learn what an instructor has planned.
This second edition builds on the first by updating global demographic shifts, elaborating on approaches that support the success of linguistically diverse students, and expanding the pedagogical repertoire and related theory of our earlier volume. Further, the concluding chapter provides ways to implement global trends in professional learning. Colleges and universities have more students than ever before whose perceptions and ways of making meaning vary from one another and from the instructor. Influenced by global forces and unprecedented patterns of migration and immigration, skillful postsecondary teaching requires skill and humility. In the United States alone, almost 30 million people were born in other countries. Forty-eight percent of students in New York City’s public schools come from immigrant-headed households that represent more than one hundred languages. In California, 1.5 million students are classified as English language learners (Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco, 2002). The implications of these statistics for higher education are significant.
This book proposes that teacher awareness of and respect for cultural diversity influence student motivation to learn. Ultimately it provides a theory and a set of practices that can help postsecondary educators develop a clear focus on intrinsically motivating instruction for all students. From literature and research that spans academic disciplines, we offer a motivational framework for culturally responsive teaching. It is an instructional compass that has been generative for over a decade as it has been used to develop new ideas and directions for lessons and courses.
As important as motivation is to student learning, scholars differ on their assumptions about motivation, in part because it cannot be directly observed or precisely measured. Psychology, a dominant historical lens for understanding student behavior, provides an important yet incomplete understanding of this remarkable intricacy. With the pernicious effects of racism still at work and the connection between economic status and academic performance in need of considerable attention, scholars and practitioners are turning to an interdisciplinary approach for more flexible and interpretive ways to understand motivation.
The essentials of this motivational framework are that it (1) respects diversity; (2) engages the motivation of a broad range of students; (3) creates a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment; (4) derives teaching practices from across disciplines and cultures; and (5) promotes equitable learning. This book specifically illustrates a pedagogical response to these essentials. Our goal is to create learning experiences that allow the integrity of every learner to be sustained while each person attains relevant educational success and mobility. Among the reasons we embrace this goal, we believe that a primary purpose of higher education is the intellectual and moral empowerment of learners to achieve personal goals that matter not only for themselves but for a pluralistic and just future.
To accomplish this, we provide extensive examples and illustrations of flexible teaching approaches. These are organized as a set of integrated norms and practices. Norms are explicit assumptions, values, and purposes that are shared among the instructor and learners. Practices are instructional strategies that can be adapted and applied across disciplines and programs. Finally, we provide specific ways faculty can collaborate to extend their own learning. The examples range from how to design a lesson with the motivational framework to how to adapt the Japanese lesson study process to the context of higher education in the United States.
Audience
College teaching and learning center directors, as well as faculty, are primary audiences for this book. However, the ideas here can be adapted to contribute to the instructional repertoire of high school teachers as well. In recent years, important pipeline partnerships between high school and college faculty have emerged to create seamless academic mobility for diverse groups of students. We hope this book will support this crucial work so that educators at all levels of a system can align and advance instructional knowledge based on principles of intrinsic motivation.
Finally, we hope this book will be useful to student services personnel. The motivational framework is easily adapted to the unique contexts and interactions that these indispensable professionals provide. Advisors and counselors can apply the motivational framework to create a counseling environment in which students feel included, positive, engaged, and able to succeed.
Context
The enterprise of instruction as a primary influence on student learning operates within the shifting context of local, state, national, and global politics. Furthermore, we know firsthand the demands on faculty time. While instructors have an enormous influence on student learning, we work within a larger policy environment and continuously negotiate competing commitments. Nonetheless, we believe that the instructional approaches in this book are pragmatic and offer concrete alternatives to entrenched conventional teaching.
Terms
It is always a challenge to determine how to use language in ways that are accessible and meaningful to others. We therefore briefly explain our choices. When referring to issues related to race, ethnicity, or culture, we frequently use the term cultural diversity. We realize that this term is sometimes criticized for subsuming and homogenizing racial, ethnic, economic, sexual, physical, and age-related identities, among others. Our work has been primarily in colleges and universities that serve diverse student populations, where there are many ethnicities and linguistic groups, first-generation college students, recent immigrants, and working adult learners. With a focus on practical, macrocultural applications of cultural theory, using language that accommodates a broad range of students has been useful to connect with faculty regarding the need for change. We know, however, that language choice not only represents how we think; it influences how we think, and we struggle with the imperfections of our choices.
We use culturally responsive teaching to mean understanding and constructing culturally respectful and motivationally aligned instructional practices. We use the terms instruction and pedagogy interchangeably, as we do students and learners. Instruction to some implies an approach to teaching that undermines the emancipatory potential of higher education and encourages passivity. We tend to prefer it, however, because it is widely used in academic and local communities within which colleges reside. It is accessible to the audiences we engage.
Overview of the Contents
Because many of the ideas in this book are complex, the book follows a narrative flow. By that, we mean that not all major ideas are identified or defined in the first chapter. They are presented and discussed as we introduce the conditions of the motivational framework.
Chapter One, “Understanding Relationships Between Culture and Motivation to Learn,” provides an overview of the intersections between culture and motivation. Our concern is that what seems to have once worked for classroom teaching is now inadequate. We elaborate on this idea by offering a rationale for teaching that intentionally supports intrinsic motivation among a range of learners.
To use intrinsically motivating instruction requires an understanding of learners’ perspectives and prior knowledge. Their responses to learning activities reflect their cultural backgrounds. Social scientists today regard the cognitive processes as inherently cultural.
Prior to introducing the motivational framework for culturally responsive teaching, readers will have an opportunity to examine some of their cultural values. Chapter One concludes with a graphic model of the motivational framework and a teaching example that illustrates the four motivational conditions for enhancing student motivation to learn.
Chapters Two through Five define, illustrate, and provide instructional strategies for the motivational conditions. Each of these chapters is devoted to one of the four conditions: “Establishing Inclusion” (Chapter Two), “Developing Attitude” (Chapter Three), “Enhancing Meaning” (Chapter Four), and “Engendering Competence” (Chapter Five). These chapters pragmatically and theoretically describe how each motivational condition embodies two related criteria, following this order: respect and connectedness for inclusion, volition and relevance for attitude, challenge and engagement for meaning, and authenticity and effectiveness for competence. Readers will find theoretical and pragmatic descriptions of each motivational condition, plus useful classroom norms and teaching practices that can be easily adapted to a range of academic disciplines.
Due to our own backgrounds and professional experiences, examples from the social sciences, education, and language acquisition are most frequent. However, whenever possible, we illustrate pedagogical strategies that colleagues from other disciplines have used. Our intention is that faculty in the science professions, general education, and all other areas of study can adapt the strategies in this book to their discipline-specific goals.
Chapter Six, “Implementing a Culturally Responsive Pedagogy,” provides ways for faculty to independently implement the motivational framework. It also provides detailed descriptions of activities for faculty development. These include a comprehensive set of all the instructional norms and practices that correspond to the motivational framework, a narrative example of a course that supports student intrinsic motivation, a syllabus that is revised based on the ideas in this book, cooperative learning and reciprocal peer coaching for instructors, how to develop research lessons by adapting the Japanese lesson study process, how to facilitate a book study based on this text, and a collaborative approach to reading articles for faculty development in a brief period of time.
In the Resources, we provide specific tools for instructional planning, peer coaching, and faculty development, including agendas for a one- or two-day faculty retreat on the ideas in this book.
Although our goal is to help faculty transform their instructional plans into intrinsically motivational plans for all students, there are tools throughout this text that can be integrated into teaching repertoires, regardless of an instructor’s beliefs about the relationship of cultural diversity, intrinsic motivation, and student learning. Ultimately we want to provide a cohesive instructional ecology that integrates vital constructs of motivation from many disciplines: psychology, philosophy, sociology, education, economics, linguistics, anthropology, political science, and cultural and spiritual studies. We realize that a sufficiently complex but cohesive pedagogical focus is needed to improve instruction for today’s students. Without a deliberate approach to lesson planning, enhancing student motivation too often becomes a process of trial and error that lacks cohesion and continuity. With a cohesive plan, there tends to be greater commitment to creating lessons with a well-coordinated range of motivational strategies.
The learning environment provides a meaningful context for addressing and redressing the ways in which bias occurs. The task of understanding, talking about, and working against racism and its consequences may seem formidable. Having the courage to challenge ourselves as cultural beings and skillful professionals is essential. We believe that all students, at all educational levels, can learn in a motivating way. In this book, we seek to provide a realistic approach toward that goal.
February 2009
Margery B. GinsbergSeattle, Washington
Raymond J. WlodkowskiSeattle, Washington
Acknowledgments
This book is the result of numerous conversations and the generosity of friends, colleagues, and students who have shared resources and perspectives. In this regard, we are particularly grateful to those who work closely with us. In particular, Margery would like to thank the core faculty team of the executive-level educational leadership preparation program at the University of Washington College of Education, known as Leadership for Learning. Watching these extraordinary educators communicate with students and teach in ways that are public and collaborative has significantly elevated our understanding of intrinsic motivation in practice. Margery’s UW colleagues are Kathy Kimball, Mike Knapp, Brad Portin, Marge Plecki, Meredith Honig, Mike Copland, Brieanne Hull, and, more recently, Doris McEwen.
We also thank David Brightman, senior editor of the Higher and Adult Education Series at Jossey-Bass, whom we regard as a true colleague for his patience, support, and critical insights.
We are eternally grateful to friends who have influenced this work: Suzanne Benally, Lois LaShell and Alan Guskin, Anita Villareal, Cathy Thompson, and Marianne Rubiner.
Finally, we thank Matthew Aaron Ginsberg-Jaeckle and Daniel Mark Ginsberg-Jaeckle. Their connections across generations and international communities are deeply rooted. They continuously teach us that possibility more than probability makes idealism both necessary and joyful.
M.B.G.R.J.W.
To Kathy Kimball—educator, artist, and friend
The Authors
Margery B. Ginsberg, with a background as a teacher on two Indian reservations, university professor, and Texas Title I technical assistance contact for the U.S. Department of Education, directs Leadership for Learning, a doctoral program for aspiring superintendents and system-level leaders at the University of Washington-Seattle. She also works nationally and internationally to provide support for comprehensive school reform. Her work has been the foundation for several comprehensive school reform designs.
Ginsberg’s publications include Motivation Matters: A Workbook for School Change (Jossey-Bass, 2003), Creating Highly Motivating Classrooms for All Students: A Schoolwide Approach to Powerful Teaching with Diverse Learners (Jossey-Bass, 2000), and Educators Supporting Educators: A Guide to Organizing School Support Teams (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1997). In addition, her work provides the foundational material for two video series, Encouraging Motivation Among All Students (1996) and Motivation, the Key to Success in Teaching and Learning (2003). She has a Ph.D. in bilingual/multicultural/social foundations of education from the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Raymond J. Wlodkowski is professor emeritus at Regis University, Denver, where he was the director of the Center for the Study of Accelerated Learning and the executive director and founding member of the Commission for Accelerated Programs. He is a licensed psychologist who has taught at universities in Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Seattle. His work encompasses adult motivation and learning, cultural diversity, and professional development. Wlodkowski lives in Seattle.
He received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from Wayne State University and is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and books. Among them are Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn, which received the Phillip E. Frandson Award for Literature for its first edition. Three of his books have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. Wlodkowski has worked extensively in video production. He is the author of Motivation to Learn, winner of the Clarion Award from the Association of Women in Communication for the best training and development program in 1991. He has also been the recipient of the Award for Outstanding Research from the Adult Higher Education Alliance, the Award for Teaching Excellence from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the Faculty Merit Award for Excellence from Antioch University, Seattle.
1UNDERSTANDING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CULTURE AND MOTIVATION TO LEARN
In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
—Thurgood Marshall
How can culturally diverse people in higher education learn well together in ways that are relevant and stimulating? For postsecondary educators, the response to this question can be examined through the lessons of history, linguistics, the arts, and any number of other disciplines. As each of us grapples with complicated notions about fairness, respect, or, for that matter, what it means to learn, this book offers forms of pedagogical action that are widely considered to enhance student motivation and learning. Our premise is that educators who seek to support learning among diverse groups of students need to be increasingly intentional and imaginative about instructional practice. Colleges and universities have more learners than ever before whose perceptions and ways of making meaning vary from one another and from the instructor. Influenced by global forces and unprecedented patterns of migration and immigration, skillful postsecondary teaching has become a highly nuanced endeavor.
In the United States, alone, almost 30 million people were born in other countries. Forty-eight percent of students in New York City’s public schools come from immigrant-headed households that represent more than a hundred languages. In California, 1.5 million students are classified as English language learners. In Dodge City, Kansas, more than 30 percent of public school students are the children of immigrants (Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco, 2002). The implications of these statistics for higher education are significant.
Although high school graduation rates have steadily improved in the United States, students from low-income families continue to perform significantly lower on assessments of literacy and mathematics achievements before they even start kindergarten. These differences tend to persist as students progress through school and raise considerable equity concerns (Lee and Burkham, 2002). Nearly half of black Americans have a high school diploma or less, according to 2005 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In contrast, more than seven in ten Asian Americans ages twenty-five to sixty-four and more than six in ten European Americans have completed some college (EPE Research Center, 2007).
Yet in the twenty-first century, a college degree has become more important than ever before. A college graduate in the United States earns on average $23,441 more per year than a high school graduate and $31,595 more than a high school dropout (Olson, 2007). And while only 7 percent of twenty-four-year-olds from low-income families had earned a four-year college degree in 1999-2000, 52 percent of those from high-income families had completed a postsecondary degree. Making learning more accessible at every level is not only a matter of equity. It has significant pragmatic value.
This book does not attempt to address the larger policy environment of postsecondary education in the United States and throughout the rest of the world. Although we are deeply concerned with broader issues and their influence on educational concerns, this book’s contribution is in the detail of daily teaching and ongoing program development. It is serendipitous that it comes at a time when colleges and universities are beginning to experience the same scrutiny on graduation rates and demonstrating what students have learned as elementary and secondary education. Our primary interest is, and has long been, to assert that there is more that each of us can do as educators and educational leaders to redress disparate learning conditions. This book offers perspectives on and ideas for strengthening pedagogical skill through the lens of intrinsic motivation.
Motivation is a topic that concerns most educators. Within our own teaching environments, we understand that students’ concentration, imagination, effort, and willingness to continue are powerfully influenced by how they feel about the setting they are in, the respect they receive from the people around them, and their ability to trust their own thinking and experiences. People who feel unsafe, unconnected, and disrespected are often unmotivated to learn. This is as true, if not more so, in college as it is in prekindergarten through twelfth grade. Such a conclusion does not explain all the issues and barriers related to the progress of people of color and low-income students in postsecondary educational settings, but it is fundamental to what happens among learners and teachers wherever they meet. In education, the day-to-day, face-to-face feelings matter tremendously with respect to whether people stay or leave and whether they are willing to direct their energy toward learning.
This book offers concrete ideas about how students and teachers can create a milieu that promotes learning. In our opinion, to do so means that those with the most power in the classroom, those often in the majority, must take the greater responsibility for initiating or participating in the process. The task is a difficult one. As Lisa Delpit (1988) eloquently states, “We do not really see through our eyes or hear through our ears, but through our beliefs. To put our beliefs on hold is to cease to exist as ourselves for a moment—and that is not easy. It is painful as well, because it means turning yourself inside out, giving up your own sense of who you are, and being willing to see yourself in the unflattering light of another’s angry gaze. . . . We must learn to be vulnerable enough to allow our world to turn upside down in order to allow the realities of others to edge themselves into our consciousness” (1988, p. 297).
In other words, this task requires raising questions about discrimination or scrutinizing one’s own power, even if that power stems merely from being in the majority. Certainly what follows in this book, when taken in the light of what typically occurs in many learning settings in postsecondary education, invites that kind of questioning.
Making direct suggestions for change was a challenge for us because we do not pretend to know what is best. Clearly we have very strong beliefs about what might be better. These beliefs are informed by research and experiences, both of which lead us to ask readers to keep in mind at least two sensibilities while reading this book. First, acknowledge what can and should be done on a personal level as soon as possible, and earnestly pursue it. Second, identify the larger long-term and institutional changes that require resources and collective action, and begin to discuss these with others to create the means to make them happen.
This book is not a blueprint. What is considered motivating varies across cultures and among individual human beings. People are experts on their own lives. Using a multidisciplinary approach that includes but is not limited to philosophy, anthropology, communications, critical theory, feminist theory, adult learning theory, multicultural studies, and linguistics as well as psychology, we offer an interpretive and process-based approach that is more in keeping with the metaphor of a compass than a map. There are essential directions to take because all people are intrinsically motivated to learn and share a common humanity. But the cultural terrain of each individual’s life so varies that the path to understanding another person is beyond the precision of any modern mental cartographer.
The Influence of Culture
The cultural composition of today’s postsecondary learners differs markedly from that of thirty years ago, when many of today’s college educators were beginning their careers or were still in school. If we look only from the perspective of ethnicity and language, we realize that the wave of immigration absorbed by the United States during the 1990s was the largest in seventy years and that today at least one out of every four people in this country speak a language other than English in their home. (For a more extensive discussion on factors influencing migration to the United States, see Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco, 2002; Adams, Bell, and Griffin 2007.)
In addition, 73 percent of all college students today can be identified as nontraditional learners (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2002). They possess one or more of the following characteristics: delayed enrollment into postsecondary education, part-time attendance, financial independence, a fulltime job, dependents other than a spouse or domestic partner, single parent, or nonstandard high school diploma. Interestingly, the majority of adult college students age twenty-five or older are women—approximately 65 percent (Aslanian, 2001).
It is not surprising that the topic of motivation and cultural diversity is of interest to so many teachers. For more than might care to admit it, the convergence of multiple and, at times, far-ranging perspectives among students contributes to a binary classroom dynamic with chaotic or laissez-faire exchanges, on the one hand, and majority cultural dominance on the other. For students armed with academic self-confidence and hierarchical connections, certain approaches to instruction may be uncomfortable. But we would argue that it is even more daunting for the increasing number of postsecondary students whose success relies on instructional interactions in the classroom. Their instructor’s attention to teaching is essential. Taking a closer look at the concept of culture can help educators understand why culturally diverse classrooms frequently challenge the resources of educators, even those who are earnest and experienced. Quite simply, what seems to have once worked for classroom teaching may now be clearly inadequate, whether in the area of encouraging motivation, initiating humor, or helping students to learn effectively.
As a society, we are two generations removed from legally sanctioned educational segregation, yet despite efforts to integrate urban schools through busing, many of us who now teach grew up in what appeared to be monocultural schools and communities. It is likely that we were socialized in our formative years with an unexamined set of traditions and beliefs about ourselves and a limited knowledge about others. In addition, as members of human communities, our identities have been fundamentally constructed in relation to others (Rogoff, 2003; Tatum, 2007). Being socialized and living in the dominant culture often lessens awareness that beliefs and behaviors reflect a particular racial group, ethnic heritage, sexual orientation, or gender affiliation. This is especially so if we are white, European American, heterosexual males. For many educators, it is not a stretch to think of these attitudes and norms as universally valued and preferred.
A dominant group can so successfully project its way of seeing social reality that its view is accepted as common sense, as part of the natural order, even by those who are disempowered or marginalized by it (Foucault, 1980; Freire and Macedo, 1987). We may not imagine that we hold negative assumptions or stereotypes toward people with other values or beliefs (Adams and Marchesani, 1992; Butler, 1993). In fact, for some, it may feel like heresy to acknowledge that Anglo Americans and dominant Western norms enjoy a position of privilege and power in this country’s educational system that has diminished other norms as valuable as cooperation (versus competition) and interdependence (versus independence).
Although culture is taught, it is generally conveyed in ways that are indirect or a part of everyday life (Anzaldua, 1987; Young, 1990; Schein, 1992). That is one of the reasons that it is difficult for most of us to describe ourselves culturally in explicit terms. The times we are likely to experience uniqueness as cultural beings occur when we are in the presence of those who appear different from ourselves. As an example, a person from a family and community that is emotionally demonstrative and sees this as a sign of open communication may embarrass or concern a person whose own traditions view public modesty as a mark of respect for that which is greater than oneself. When we meet others whose family or community norms vary from our own, it is akin to holding up a mirror, provoking questions we might not otherwise think to ask. Contrast and dissonance can be disturbing in spite of the opportunity they present to examine assumptions, making it possible to more deeply understand who we are in relation to one another.
The most obvious cultural characteristics that people observe are physical. On the surface, race, gender, age, and other observable characteristics signal social group membership. Clearly, however, physical characteristics provide only cursory insight into another person. In fact, it is interesting to note who is not typically defined by physical characteristics in media and everyday conversation. To be blunt, white men are rarely defined by whiteness and maleness. The idea about what is “normal” can be so psychologically ingrained that it is entirely possible to overlook one’s own assumptions about people whose physical characteristics or repertoire of behaviors fall outside a familiar sphere. Of course, even within the supposedly unitary majority culture, there is tremendous variation (Said, 1993; Lobo and Peters, 2001; Banks, 2001). A clear perspective on anyone’s interior landscape is remarkably complicated.
Educators who seek to be highly responsive to students are often puzzled by how to pedagogically enact their respect for diversity. Personal histories and psychological traits interact dynamically and distinguish human beings as individuals. The subtle complexity of who we are makes it difficult to define a person by a set of narrow or static characteristics. The primary point here is that the variation and distinction among cultural groups transcend a single set of cultural norms. When we accept norms as universal, we are likely to see deficit rather than difference. One common example occurs in classrooms where the teachers rely heavily on the Socratic seminar, one of several instructional methods that, in the absence of adequate student preparation, tends to favor those for whom assertive public discourse is a part of everyday life. Should an instructor perceive this form of active participation as evidence of being smart, entire groups of students may find themselves at risk of failure.
Certain forms of discourse in higher education are commonly viewed as a sign of preparation and analytical skill, and students with public reserve may be misjudged as underprepared, linguistically or cognitively limited, lacking in initiative, easily intimidated, or even arrogant. The presumption of deficit in human beings who fail to conform to expectations and standards that are commonly associated with a dominant culture is one of the key factors accounting for dropout rates from kindergarten through postsecondary education. Throughout the literature on retention and attrition, this phenomenon is attributed to a broad range of institutional barriers that fail to take into account the expectations and experiences of students from a host of cultural backgrounds, many of which may differ from those of the majority culture (Adams, 1992; Yosso, 2005; Hebel, 2007). It is our hope that there will always be ambiguity and nuance in understanding ourselves and others as cultural beings, learners, community members, and world citizens. However, being aware of and responsive to cultural variation is an essential aspect of equitable instruction.
In diverse postsecondary classrooms, we believe that opportunities for pluralistic discourse on issues of race, ethnicity, and a host of civic issues ought to occur across disciplines. The ability for human beings to engage respectfully with different belief systems extends well beyond the social sciences and humanities. All of academia must accept a share of responsibility. This matter is important to the educational quality of instruction, and the moral implications are vast.
If university-educated adults know little about their classmates and even less about the rest of the world, the impact of a university education as it relates to democratic values will remain largely theoretical (Galston, 2006). Today, more than ever before, discourse about tensions that arise from cultural pluralism in classrooms and global contexts is all too easily trumped by knowledge that can quickly be converted into utility (Engell and Dangerfield, 2005).
Culture is the deeply learned confluence of language, values, beliefs, and behaviors that pervade every aspect of a person’s life, and it is continually undergoing changes. What it is not is an isolated, mechanical aspect of life that can be used to directly explain phenomena in the classroom or that can be learned as a series of facts, physical elements, or exotic characteristics (Ovando and Collier, 1998; Valenzuela, 1999). Cultural awareness takes into account that human beings are suspended in webs of significance that we create. Drawing from Geertz (1973), an analysis of culture is “not an experimental science in search of a law but an interpretive one in search of meaning” (pp. 5, 29).
Geertz’s perspective is fundamental to this book. There are few hard-and-fast rules about entire groups of people. Similarly, there are few hard-and-fast rules about the ways in which human beings work and learn together. As teachers, being aware of our own beliefs and biases and being open to the meaning that is created through authentic interactions with diverse students is fundamental. Without such awareness, stereotypes and biases that reside within learning environments become agents of historic patterns of marginalization.
Stereotyping is rooted in our assumptions about the “average characteristics” of a group. We then impose those assumptions on all individuals from the group. In fact, some of the characteristics commonly associated with European Americans—for example, Christianity, individualism, and social conservatism—have become so pervasive that these traits have become a form of taken-for-granted national “commonsense” (Sue, 1991; Blum, 2005). Indeed, a great deal of heterogeneity exists within as well as across all cultural groups. “Seek first to understand” is a bit of wisdom whose genesis lies within many ethnic and faith communities.
Educators as well as students have beliefs and values regarding learning and the roles of teacher and learner. These are culturally transmitted through history, religion, media, family, mythology, and political orientation. The ways in which we experience a learning situation are mediated by such cultural influences. No learning situation is culturally neutral. If we are European American and teach as we were taught, it is likely that we sanction individual performance, prefer “reasoned” argumentation, advocate impersonal objectivity, and condone sportslike competition for testing and grading procedures. Such teaching represents a distinct set of cultural norms and values that for many of today’s learners are at best culturally unfamiliar and at worst a contradiction of the norms and values of their gender or their racial and ethnic backgrounds. In a Socratic seminar, many learners find themselves in a dilemma if they have been socialized toward a value of cooperation in their families and communities but are expected to be highly competitive within educational settings.
Few of us in postsecondary settings would care to admit that the way we teach compromises the learning of members of certain cultural groups. And many would agree that higher education has a responsibility to safeguard against a majority rule that functions oppressively for a minority. Yet in spite of new instructional technologies, teaching centers, and the language of learning styles, the tension between a serious examination of teaching practices and research is real.
This issue, as well as our concern that colleges and universities have moved too far away from involvement with the broader social communities in which they reside, exceeds our emphasis on pedagogy in this book. But our commitment to educational access and opportunity requires us to acknowledge that colleges and universities implicitly and explicitly perpetuate larger systems of inequality. We encourage educators to examine policy and structural issues in higher education and in local communities that undermine the conditions for change within classrooms. (On the themes of commercialization, student civic disinterest, and a desire to increase faculty involvement with their surrounding communities, see Galston, 2006, and Engell and Dangerfield, 2005.)
We also encourage educators to become familiar with various interpretations of the term diversity. It is a word whose meanings are dependent on the context in which it is being understood. An anthropological approach to diversity would provide a comparative view of human groups within the context of all human groups. A political approach would analyze issues of power and class. Applied to a learning situation and the purpose of this book, diversity conveys a need to respect similarities and differences among human beings and to move beyond simply developing sensitivity to active and effective responsiveness. This requires constructive action to change ideas and attitudes that perpetuate the exclusion of underserved groups of students and significantly challenge their motivation to learn.
In addition to the various academic connotations of the word diversity, some view its general use as platitudinal or euphemistic. Although we use the words diversity, cultural diversity, and cultural pluralism interchangeably, there is the belief that language associated with cultural differences must acknowledge issues of racism, discrimination, and the experience of exclusion. This argument implicates diversity as a way to dilute or skirt critical issues by implicitly representing all forms of difference— including individual differences and heterogeneity—within personal identities (Nieto, 2004; Geismar and Nicoleau, 1993; Adams, Bell, and Griffin, 2007). Some see the term cultural diversity as more closely connected to issues of racial, economic, and political marginalization. Our point here is to acknowledge that each of us has beliefs and understandings that guide and challenge our work within a pluralistic society. Despite the earnestness with which we use language, we are frequently implicated through the meanings we are trying to express.
Although we use the term diversity throughout this book, we are advocates for social justice education that includes an understanding that social inequality is structured and maintained in ways that protect privileged interests. By privilege, another common term in this book, we mean unearned access to resources and social power, often because of social group membership.
With respect to cultural diversity, this book offers a macrocultural pedagogical framework. Our framework is built on principles and structures that are meaningful across cultures, especially with students from families and communities that have not historically experienced success in higher education. Rather than comparing and contrasting groups of people from a microcultural perspective—one that, for example, identifies a specific ethnic group and prescribes approaches to teaching according to assumed characteristics and orientations—our approach emerges from literature on and experience with creating a more equitable pluralistic framework that elicits the intrinsic motivation of all learners. The complicated interaction of history, personality, cultural transmission, and cultural transformation is yet another worthy area of exploration outside the scope of this book. A macrocultural framework can provide instructional guidance without reducing dynamic groups of people to sets of stereotypical characteristics. Our emphasis is on creating multiple approaches from which teachers may choose in order to more consistently support the diverse perspectives and values that learners bring to the classroom. This does not, of course, preclude the need for ongoing examination of one’s own socialization, cultural identity, and related practices.
Personal Appreciation of the Concept of Culture
Unless we as educators understand our own culturally mediated values and biases, we may be misguided in believing that we are encouraging divergent points of view and providing meaningful opportunities for learning to occur when we are in fact repackaging or disguising past dogmas. It is entirely possible to believe in the need for change and therefore learn new languages and techniques, and yet overlay new ideas with old biases and frames of reference. It is possible to diminish the potential and the needs of others at our most subconscious levels and in our most implicit ways without any awareness that we are doing so. Mindfulness of who we are and what we believe culturally can help us examine the ways in which we may be unknowingly placing our good intentions within a dominant and unyielding framework—in spite of the appearance of openness and receptivity to enhancing motivation to learn among all students.
One of the most useful places to begin the exploration of who we are culturally and the relevance of that identity is to ask what values we hold that are consistent with the dominant culture. This question allows us to be cognizant not only of our dominant-culture values but also of the distinctions we hold as members of other groups in society. This is particularly important for fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation Americans of European descent. For many descendants of European Americans, one’s family’s country or countries of origin can be only marginally useful in understanding who we are now as cultural people in the United States. The desire and ability to assimilate, as well as affiliations with numerous other groups (religious, socioeconomic, regional, and so forth), can create confusion about the cultural origins of personal beliefs and values. Furthermore, culture is a dynamic and changing concept for each of us, regardless of the country of our geographical origin. Our cultural identities are constantly evolving or changing, and consequently values, customs, and orientations are fluid. Because we as educators exert a powerful influence over classroom norms, it is important to make explicit those values that are most often implicit and profoundly affect students in our classrooms.
Several approaches can help to personalize the concept of culture. One way to gain insight into the elusive concept of culture is to consider the research of sociologist Robin M. Williams Jr. (1970). Williams identified cultural themes that tend to be enduring reflections of dominant values, which in the United States have been northern European. These themes may or may not be operative in a classroom, but because belief systems influence teaching practices, the selected themes, condensed by Locke (1992), may provide a useful source for reflecting on prevailing rhetorical, cultural, and political norms in a classroom. In the list that follows, each theme, in italics, is accompanied by at least one alternative perspective. The alternative examples are meant to invite a conversation about counterbeliefs and values that students and teachers bring to a learning environment:
Achievement and success:
People emphasize rags to riches in stories.
Alternatives: Personal generosity is the highest human value; conspicuous consumption represents greed and self-interest; “rags to riches” is rooted in cultural mythology that overlooks the social, political, and economic forces that favor certain groups over others. Thus, achievement has at least as much to do with privilege as do personal desire and effort.
Activity and work:
People see this country as a land of busy people who stress disciplined, productive activity as a worthy end in itself.
Alternatives: People believe that caring about and taking time for others is more important than “being busy”; discipline can take many forms and should be equated with respect, moral action, and social conscience; a means-ends orientation has been the justification for such things as cultural genocide and environmental disaster; sustenance is a higher value than productivity.
Humanitarian mores:
People spontaneously come to the aid of others and hold traditional sympathy for the underdog.
Alternatives: Human beings are selective about whom they will help; for some, personal gain takes precedence over kindness and generosity; for others, human emotion is to be avoided because it makes them feel vulnerable and inept.
Moral orientation:
People judge life events and situations in terms of right and wrong.
Alternatives: People feel there is no objective right or wrong and that such a perspective tends to favor and protect the most privileged members of society; finding meaning in life events and situations is more important than judging.
Efficiency and practicality:
People emphasize the practical value of getting things done.
Alternatives: People believe that process is just as important as product and that it makes the strongest statement about what an individual values; living and working in a manner that values equity and fairness is both practical and just.
Progress:
People hold the optimistic view that things will get better.
Alternatives: People believe that the idea of progress assumes human beings can and should control nature and life circumstances; instead, we ought to acknowledge, respect, and care for that which we have been given, that which is greater than ourselves, and that which is, like life, cyclical. (Interestingly, many languages in the Americas and around the world do not include a word for progress.)
Material comfort:
People emphasize the good life. Conspicuous consumption is sanctioned.
Alternatives: People believe that a good life is defined by sharing and giving things away. The idea that life will be good if one owns many possessions leads to insatiable behavior and greed.
Freedom:
People believe in freedom with an intensity others might reserve for religion.
Alternatives: People believe that freedom without justice is dangerous; limiting freedom is necessary for equality; accepting the limitations of personal freedom is a sign of respect for others.
Individual personality:
People believe that every individual should be independent, responsible, and self-respecting; the group should not take precedent over the individual.
Alternatives: People believe that sharing and humility are higher values than ownership and self-promotion; self-respect is inseparable from respect for others, community, and that which is greater than oneself. Individualism can promote aggression and competition in ways that undermine the confidence and self-respect of others; independence denies the social, cultural, racial, and economic realities that favor members of certain groups over others.
Science and secular rationality:
People have esteem for the sciences as a means of asserting mastery over the environment.
Alternatives: People believe the earth is a sacred gift to be revered and protected. The notion of scientific objectivity is based on the mistaken presumption that human beings are capable of value-neutral beliefs and behaviors.
Nationalism-patriotism:
People believe in a strong sense of loyalty to that which is deemed “American.”
Alternatives: People believe that, functionally, “American” has meant conformity to Anglo European values, behaviors, and appearances; the way in which the word American is commonly used to describe a single country on the continent of the Americas is presumptuous and arrogant; “American” needs to be redefined in the spirit of pluralism and with respect for other global identities.
Democracy:
People believe that every person should have a voice in the political destiny of their country.
Alternatives: People believe that democracy is an illusion that perpetuates the domination of society’s most privileged members; people must have the means and capacity to use their voices—this requires access to multiple perspectives on issues and confidence that speaking up will not jeopardize one’s economic and personal security.
Racism and related group superiority:
People believe that racism represents a value conflict in the culture of the United States because it emphasizes differential evaluation of racial, religious, and ethnic groups. They argue for a color-blind ideology based on the assumption that social and economic advantage in contemporary life is the consequence of merit and hard work.
Alternatives: People believe that racism combines prejudice with power and is personal, institutional, and cultural. It has been used for over four hundred years as a way to secure the psychological, educational, and material dominance of a select group. Without acknowledgment of its existence, it is impossible for members of a society to examine the implications of advantage and power and develop practices that level the playing field.
When we clarify our own cultural values and biases, we are better able to consider how they might subtly but profoundly influence the degree to which learners in our classrooms feel included, respected, at ease, and generally motivated to learn. The range of considerations found in Williams’s cultural themes can be helpful as we think of questions to ask ourselves about our own assumptions and as we construct reflective questions to enhance the learning experiences. We offer the following examples, with related ideas:
Are classroom norms clear, so that if they are different from what students are used to at home or in their communities, they are able to understand and negotiate alternative ways of being?
It may be important to model behavior, provide visible examples of expectations, and elicit information through student polls or written responses to such questions as, “Do you prefer to work in a cooperative group? individually?” Some students are embarrassed to identify what they do not understand. The anonymity of writing, or conferencing with peers and then sharing the information with an instructor, can facilitate communication. One additional consideration is clarity about time. For students from communities where time is not a commodity that can be spent, wasted, or managed and is experienced more in relation to natural patterns, expectations about punctuality require thoughtful clarity.
Have I examined the values embedded in my discipline that may confuse or disturb some students?
Ask questions that encourage students to represent alternative perspectives; with students, construct panels that can discuss key issues from diverse perspectives and help students organize discussion groups for collaborative dialogue and knowledge sharing.
Are the examples I use to illustrate key points meaningful to and respectful of students?
Give one example from your own experience, and then ask students to create their own examples to illustrate different points, providing an opportunity for group discussion. Acknowledge the experiences of people from different backgrounds, and be aware of nonverbal language and voice. For example, there is some evidence that a voice with less modulation connotes authority and knowledge, while an approachable voice invites thinking. Regardless, seeking feedback through regular anonymous surveys can be instructive.
Do I have creative and effective ways to learn about my students’ lives and interests?
You might want to incorporate a photo board, artistic representations, occasional potluck meals, regularly scheduled discussion topics (including current events), acknowledgment of birthdays and cultural holidays, open sharing about yourself, a coffee urn at the back of the classroom as a site for informal discussion, and other similar opportunities.
Am I aware of nonverbal communication from a multicultural and cross-cultural perspective?
For many students socialized within the dominant culture of the United States, physical proximity has little effect on emotional safety or academic effectiveness. Similarly, a well-modulated voice signals authority and knowledge. But this varies considerably across cultures (Gudykunst and Kim, 1992; Remland, 2000), and a well-modulated voice, for example, is not necessarily one that is approachable or invites thinking. Although research on communication tends to be painted with a fairly broad brush, attention to voice, proximity, and other kinetic characteristics can determine who gets the floor, whose perspective is respected, and who enjoys learning (Goldin-Meadow, 2003; Andersen and Wang, 2006).
