Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Urban Classrooms
Abstract
AbstractMuch of the literature on Aboriginal education tends, and rightfully so, to emphasise the disadvantages Aboriginal children face when they enter into Western schooling. Cultural discontinuity theory proposes that cultural mismatch between the home and school cultures is an important factor in the alienation and school failure for minority (e.g. Aboriginal) children. Research certainly supports the view that Aboriginal students differ from their Western counterparts in terms of world view, learning styles and sociolinguistic etiquette. Current cultural ecology theory proposes that some minority group students (i.e. from ‘involuntary’ or ‘colonized’ minorities) rectify these differences in opposition and in resistance to the majority culture and thus play an active role in perpetuating school failure (Ogbu, 1987). In some urban schools, it appears that the inability of teachers to understand and cater for the cultural differences of their Aboriginal students is compounded by an active resistance to the school culture by those students. This paper investigates the teaching styles and practices of two teachers in urban schools who not only recognise and cater for the unique differences and abilities of their Aboriginal students but who have actively created learning environments in which student resistance is either directed towards group enhancing goats or rendered inappropriate. Pseudonyms are used throughout this paper.
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