knows a lot about how individual beliefs and values influence teaching practices. She gives some practical advice about how to make sure that stereotyping and biases don’t get in the way of good instruction. Dr. King is an expert in this area, having published many articles and books on culture and teaching.
Watch as Joyce King shares the principles of culturally relevant pedagogy and explain why it is important. She also explains what is meant by cultural competency and give examples of what culturally relevant pedagogy looks like in the classroom. Continue watching as Joyce shares what mentors can do to directly address stereotypes and biases.
Steven Athanases, Ph.D.
Steven Athanases, Ph.D., co-authored Mentors in the Making: Developing New Leaders for New Teachers with Betty Achinstein (another expert contributor to MentorModules.com). Dr. Athanases is a Professor at the University of California in Davis and conducts research on educational equity and teacher education.
Steve shares the importance of new teachers exploring their own cultural and linguistic experiences as well as questions they should ask themselves related to culturally and linguistically diverse students. Next, you’ll hear his advice to mentors on ways to help new teachers manage diversity during their first year of teaching. He mentions James Banks’ five domains of multicultural education–Can you describe all five after you watch this? What can new teachers to do ensure that they’re addressing all learners?
Maria E. Fránquiz is the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Utah. Having written and edited several books and articles about English and dual language learners, she is an award-winning researcher and scholar on language learning.
Maria Fránquiz shares about the importance of academic language support and informal assessments. She tells about code-switching—when speakers (and writers) express themselves by mixing two languages or dialects together. She ends by talking about sharing children’s and young adult literature—it’s a great way to guide students (and teachers) to understand differences in culture and language.
By now, you’re probably understanding culture to mean “A shared set of beliefs, attitudes, and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization.” The first two “Give it a Try!” activities will help you to understand how your own cultural lens shapes your mentoring and your teaching.
The third activity is a good one to do with your mentee as a way to synthesize and communicate your knowledge about language acquisition, Finally, the fourth activity can be a useful learning experience and demonstration of your cultural competency and critical thinking. Try this last one with a peer or new teacher–the discussions are guaranteed to be fruitful!
ACTIVITY 1: Self-Analysis of Diversity Issues and Implications
ACTIVITY 2: Culture Quilt
Making Culture Quilts is an activity that can be shared within a class of adult learners and with children. The activity is a great way for participants to consider their own cultural backgrounds, share their backgrounds with others, and begin the conversation about culture. A culture quilt can be made from anything–paper is usually the easiest but feel free to get creative here!
The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to explore your own culture as well as the cultures of the students you teach in order to develop as a culturally responsive teacher. There are three parts to this activity:
- Create your Culture Quilt* and share it with your fellow mentors. A quilt is a large covering stitched together from many smaller pieces of cloth. Similarly, a number of different characteristics define an individual’s culture. Construct your own culture quilt. Each of the sixteen boxes in the grid contains a question related to a specific aspect of culture. Column 1 is your family history; Column 2 is the cultural other; Column 3 is the cultural self–personal; and Column 4 is the cultural self—professional. On a standard piece of poster board, replicate 