Culture is often thought of in terms of ethnicity, beliefs, customs, and norms found in human societies that get passed down from one generation to the next. However, culture could also be looked at from the perspective of gender, race, sexuality, knowledge, class, abilities, laws, arts, habits, or social behaviors. 

In a classroom, cultural differences could explain why a student doesn’t question teachers and persons of authority or isn’t comfortable making eye contact with them. There are many more such behavioral examples displayed by students that reflect their cultural differences. A culturally responsive curriculum recognizes and appreciates such diversity and the significance of students’ cultural references in learning.

Culturally responsive teaching is a pedagogy that tries to help teachers recognize and appreciate the cultural nuances, which might have otherwise adversely affected the student-teacher relationship and eventually made student achievement suffer.

With a culturally responsive curriculum, teachers can empower all students to thrive in class. It’s a research-based approach to teaching that links students’ languages, cultures, and experiences with school lessons. Such connections help students build and hone higher-level academic skills.

Culturally responsive teaching considers multiculturalism an asset. With culturally responsive instructions, teachers can help students understand diverse perspectives and build empathy. They can also help raise students’ awareness about cultural and racial stereotypes, prejudices, racism, and other forms of intolerance, injustice, and oppression, and even challenge their attitudes and biases. 

By challenging students’ preconceived notions and mediating power imbalances in classrooms based on culture, race, class, and ethnicity, a culturally responsive curriculum can pave the way for academic equity and social justice.

Studies have found that a culturally responsive curriculum inspires students to learn. The essentials of this inspirational framework are that such a curriculum respects diversity; keeps a wide range of students engaged; creates an inclusive, safe, and respectful learning environment for all; promotes equitable learning; and derives teaching practices from across cultures and disciplines. Thus, such a curriculum makes learning more effective and relevant for students.

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Native American students face unique challenges in the education system. Many come from rural and low-income communities, where resources for education are limited. There is a shortage of qualified teachers, and those who are available may not understand Native American culture or the unique educational needs of Native American students. Additionally, many Native American students have experienced historical trauma and intergenerational trauma, which may impact their ability to learn and succeed in school.

One major issue in Native American education is the achievement gap between Native American students and their non-Native peers. According to a report from the National Indian Child Welfare Association, only 72% of Native American students graduate from high school, compared to 86% of all US high school students. Additionally, Native American students are less likely to attend college and complete their degrees.

There are several initiatives aimed at improving Native American education. For example, Native American language revitalization programs, which seek to preserve and promote Native languages in schools, have shown promise. These programs can help Native American students feel more connected to their culture and community and improve their academic performance.

Another important approach to improving Native American education is through collaboration between Native American communities and educational institutions. This includes involving Native American parents, students, and educators in decision-making processes and curriculum development. By centering Native American cultures and including them in the education system, educators can improve academic outcomes and strengthen cultural ties.

It is important to address the state of Native American education as it is crucial to the well-being and success of Native American students. Improving access to education and resources is a crucial step in bridging the educational gap between Native Americans and their non-Native peers. Additionally, taking a culturally sensitive approach to education can help Native American students feel more connected to their culture, community, and values, and improve their chances for success. 

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Hence, educators are tasked with the job of sieving through the projected images, videos, and writings to tease out those materials that may be, even subtly, promoting stereotypes.

Stereotype threat is considered to be situation-specific. People only experience it when they’re in a setting where negative stereotypes about their group are salient to them. For instance, a woman may experience a stereotype threat in a computer science or math class but won’t be expected to face it in a humanities class. It’s important to note that although stereotype threats are often studied with regard to academic achievement, they can also happen in other domains.

Educators can follow these strategies to mitigate stereotype threats in their classrooms.

Creating a welcoming environment free from bias: Educators set the tone within their classrooms, and students act the way that educators allow them to. Creating an environment free from bias and free from judgment is the responsibility of every educator. Educators should also work toward learning about their students’ backgrounds, so they understand students’ social and cultural norms.

Being diverse in what they teach and read: Educators’ classroom materials should be a mirror for their students in which they can observe themselves represented. Educators also need to avoid the potential pitfall of teaching about the same historical people from different cultures when there’s a wealth of diverse, historical people of color who they can choose to highlight. They need to push their thinking in this area. Even if their classrooms aren’t diverse, they should expose the students to multiple people and perspectives because it teaches them diversity and empathy.

Honoring multiple perspectives in the classrooms: Educators need to nurture an environment where students can hear from others who might not hold the same views as them, and educators must let them feel safe in doing so. This can include encouraging student questions or providing students with the space to share ideas.

Having courageous conversations: When educators reflect on their biases and create safe spaces in their classrooms, they create opportunities for courageous conversations with their students. They’re likely to have enlightening, perspective-shifting moments.

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If current trends continue, Generation Alpha children will be more ethnically and racially diverse compared to their Generation Z counterparts. Generation Alpha members will also be more likely to receive college-level education, more likely to be surrounded by college-educated people, and more likely to grow up in single-parent households.

Generation Alpha kicked off in 2010. It’s the same year in which the American Dialect Society voted “app” as the word of the year, Instagram made its debut, and Apple launched its first iPad. Surrounded by technology right from the very beginning, this generation considers digital tools omnipresent instead of just a trendy accessory. Growing up linked up and logged on, helped by the likes of Alexa and Siri, and engrossed in videos and everything visual, can have its unique advantages, including greater digital adaptability and literacy.

In early 2020, when the pandemic forced institutions and most employers to operate remotely, different technologies came to the rescue. For many children, including Generation Alpha’s oldest members that are now in elementary school, screen time soared. Before the pandemic, experts forecasted that Generation Alpha children would follow the activist footsteps of Generation Z and prioritize sustainability. Now, the pandemic’s radical reset of societal norms can further intensify this generation’s interest in reimagining a healthier, greener world.

With census population projections estimating that the country will become minority white by 2045, it can be safely said that Generation Alpha children are on track to become America’s most ethnically and racially diverse generation yet.

For General Alpha children growing up in the nation’s poorest households, the challenges intertwined in their family finances are long-lasting and wide-ranging. Poverty elevates a kid’s risk of experiencing health, social-emotional, and behavioral challenges. Child poverty also decreases academic outcomes and skill-building opportunities, weakening a student’s capacity to graduate from high school, learn, and more.

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In a world where race and ethnicity are becoming harder to fit into a neat little box, educators must support multiracial students. Here are a few ways that educators can actively support multiracial students and their families.

Don’t incorporate lesson plans or activities focused on physical characteristics

When playing games or dividing into groups, don’t tell students to separate or identify themselves based on physical characteristics, no matter how innocuous they may seem. For example, if playing a game of Simon Says, don’t say, “Simon Says all the students with curly hair rub their bellies!” This may seem harmless, but curly hair is an identifier of race for many people, and this can feel like something that makes students feel like they stand out negatively.

This doesn’t mean that students shouldn’t be discouraged from acknowledging differences in race and ethnicity or shy away from having conversations on these topics, but rather they should never feel any negative connotation or made to feel “different” for their physical characteristics.

Don’t label students

Don’t assume a student’s racial or ethnic background. For example, if a student appears white but checks multiracial/biracial on a questionnaire, don’t question them on it, publicly or privately. Or if a student of color has a white parent, don’t assume that the student is adopted.

Be aware of your own bias, and fight it

We all have prejudices and biases, whether we are aware of them or not. We form these prejudices based on personal experiences, stereotypes, what we see in the media, and more. Educators have a responsibility to their students to fight their prejudices, and the first step is to be aware of them, even if they are subconscious.

Some subconscious biases can seem harmless but still have detrimental effects. For example, a long-held stereotype is that all Asians are good at math. Now, imagine a high school math teacher with an Asian student in their class. If this student struggles with math, a biased teacher who subconsciously believes the stereotype all Asians are good at math may not give this student the attention they deserve and need, and this student’s learning may suffer.

Strive for equal representation in your classroom

Be aware of the messages you are sending your students through your classroom. If you hang posters, provide books, or play videos depicting only white children, this can alienate students of color and impede their ability to engage and learn. Make sure your classroom reflects the cultures and ethnicities of all your students.

As children seek to determine their racial identities, educators must support them by promoting positive self-image and creating a safe and inclusive environment. Multiracial students are particularly neglected since they are so underrepresented. By following the guidelines above, educators can make strides towards supporting multiracial students in the classroom.

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Correcting Concepts of Inferiority in Education Environments

One of the many problems that occur when disseminating multicultural standards is that many individuals may believe that their culture is superior to others. Often this stems from a sense of ancestral or cultural pride. Attempting to dampen that pride hardly ever has a positive outcome.

How can higher education leaders ensure that they are correcting concepts of superior and inferior cultures? When working with students in a higher learning environment, you’re often interacting with young adults who are capable of analysis and critical thinking.

Relying on those two skills, it is possible and reasonable to expect adults from various cultures to develop cultural relativism. The underlying idea is that cultural relativism will lead adults to understand that cultures are different, but not better or worse than any other culture.

The university environment is the perfect platform for these discussions. It is in a multicultural environment focused on learning, where people can assess the cultural norms they grew up with and learn from others who had different experiences.

The Case for Blending Cultures

Thought leaders Sleeter and Flores who have published research on the topic of multicultural teaching, both note that social interactions within multicultural education environments have fewer instances of prejudice. It is possible that multiculturalism, with its ability to blend cultures and define similarities between outwardly opposite cultures, leads to less social stereotyping. 

There are many benefits of blending cultures. Among the many cultures worldwide, there are underlying themes of self-esteem, actualizing self, identifying personal potential, rights, responsibility, and a community. However, not every culture is as individualistic and focused on the themes mentioned here.

That doesn’t mean that in a community-based culture the self is without mention. For example, in a culture that places family above self, the individual’s self-confidence may be lesser in exchange for strategic interdependence within the family unit.

When blending cultures, the result often leads young adults to take the best of both worlds. Those raised in individualistic cultures may find great joy in community-based atmospheres, whereas those who contributed to a community-based culture may find strength in working on themselves. 

Taking Conscious and Purposeful Action

University leaders, staff members, teachers, and administrators must all take note of the spread of a multicultural presence within their institution. Although many are happy to see the emergence of young adults coming into their own, there is the possibility of adverse effects.

Bring staff together to determine conscious and purposeful ways to impact the multicultural environment within your school. Are multicultural codes in place to ensure ethical conduct from students and staff? Do students and staff have the tools to make decisions regarding a student’s intrinsic value of their self and community?

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The costs were too high

At the time when the housing market collapsed and stocks declined, many families had to make some hard choices. This was especially true for many Black families that were impacted hard with unemployment and rising rent rates. In addition to what all families in America were experiencing, the state governments lowered their higher education funding. Due to this slashed funding, many colleges raised their tuition rates, making an already unaffordable education even more unrealistic for Black families. Only the elite upper middle class and upper class could afford college educations during the Great Recession.

 Black families struggled to send their children off to college, and the Great Recession made it worse. However, the rates of enrollment for Black students never recovered. Even more than a decade later, there still remains lower rates of Black students in colleges across America.

The largest decline

The Great Recession caused increases for higher education in some races. Research shows that when a crisis like this happens, many races will enroll in higher education for better marketability of their skills. However, the same is not true with Black individuals. In fact, schools saw a decline in the number of students enrolled.

The biggest decline in enrollment was Black women. There are 80,000 less Black women receiving a college education today than there was before the Great Recession happened. This is especially unfortunate because Black men and women are the least likely to finish their degrees. At just 38% of Black students completing their programs, the race gap won’t be closed. Historically, there have been more Black women than men who are enrolled in a college education. The job market needs Black women, but the Great Recession pushed this minority out, which only furthers the race gap in post-graduate careers.

 Work needs to be done

With rates of minority students still lower than they were before the Great Recession at more than a decade later, there is work that needs to be done. Educators need to push to get minority populations, especially Black women, applying for a college education. Resources and support need to be in place at all schools so that these race gaps can be closed. As the economy still recovers from the Great Recession, it’s important to keep in mind the cost of higher education. Additional scholarships should be offered to hard-working minority students to complete their degrees. Lack of funding has traditionally been a problem, but an increase in scholarships and support for applications could finally close the gap that the Great Recession put in place.

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America is a “melting pot” that includes people from various cultures, races, and ethnicities, so it is not surprising that the traditions and practices of various cultural groups get co-opted. People who grow up in communities with a lot of diversity pick up the slang, customs, and nuances of the cultures that are represented.

However, this is not cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation happens when the members of an oppressive or dominant group exploit the cultures of less entitled communities. This is usually done without a proper understanding of that culture’s history and the nuances of their traditions.

What is Cultural Appropriation?

In the introductory paragraph of this piece, we gave a brief explanation of what cultural appropriation is. However, to fully understand the concept, we must dissect the terms “culture” and “appropriation.” Culture can be defined as the traditions, ideas, beliefs, and speech associated with a specific group. Appropriation is the unjust and sometimes illegal taking of something that is not yours.

Black music, Asian martial arts, and Native American decoration, fashion and cultural symbols have been the most culturally appropriated things in American history. This can be traced back to the fact that Americans have a history of seeing people of color as less than human. And consequently, borrowing or taking from them was no crime.

Art forms and music forms that emanated from people of color end up being emulated by the dominant group, and after a period, these artistic contributions end up being associated with the appropriator and not the originator. The appropriators end up appearing innovative and creative, and the people they stole from continue to be labeled as unintelligent and unoriginal. This is particularly concerning, as this exploitation robs minority groups of the credit they deserve and perpetuates a false narrative of white superiority.

Avoiding Cultural Appropriation

As a member of the majority, it may be challenging for you to recognize that you are guilty of cultural appropriation unless it is brought to your attention. However, it is your responsibility to research ways to gauge if something you want to do is under the umbrella of cultural appropriation. Luckily, I have a solid method for deciding if an action is a cultural appropriation. I call it the D.E.E. method, and all you have to do is ask yourself a series of questions. Here we go:

Denigration: Does what I am planning to say or do, denigrate another culture? Meaning, is it respectful to the culture in question? How would the members of that culture feel?

Exploitation: Am I “borrowing” or “emulating” parts of this culture out of genuine interest or am exploiting it for material gains?

Embarrassment: Am I using portions of another culture in a satirical or comical way? Do I plan to embarrass members of the culture by making fun of their customs, practices, or beliefs?

If you are planning to do any of these things, then you will be guilty of cultural appropriation if you go through with it. If you have a genuine interest in the culture, then you may have a reason to emulate it. The exchange of traditions, foods, and customs helps to keep life interesting and the word diverse. Just make sure your intentions are good and that you portray the culture in question in a positive light.

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While it may be difficult to get the pronunciation of every child’s name right, the attitude of a teacher and effort he or she makes towards learning how to pronounce the child’s name correctly matters so much to the child.

Our names convey powerful messages about our existence. Your identity as an individual is centered around your name. Most names reflect the family culture and belief system. The naming tradition makes up the core part of every culture. A child’s name is one of the first things they learn while growing up.

Some parents and cultures give a name to a child relative to the story surrounding their birth or to honor a family value, but when a child is forced to adopt “Americanized” names or nicknames, the child gradually loses grip with his or her identity, origin, and existence.

Besides the child’s home, one of the places where a child is identified with his or her name is in the school system. Mispronouncing a child’s name repeatedly can have a lasting impact on them. It can make the child lose his or her identity, affect their confidence and negatively impact the child’s academic performance.

Frequent mispronunciation of a students’ name may make them become socially withdrawn and try to hide or fake their identity to fit in, which in the end can cause such students to lose a connection with their family roots.

A 2012 study conducted by Kohli and Solórzano showed that students with unfamiliar names had to deal with their teachers mispronouncing their names constantly. The worst aspect of it is when the teacher laughs at or makes a mockery of the students’ name instead of making a real effort to learn how to pronounce their names correctly.

Negative impacts of mispronouncing a students’ name:

1. Loss of identity

Students of ethnic minorities, immigrants and African-Americans are those mainly affected by the mispronunciation of names. Names hold ancestral and historical significance for many minorities and immigrants. Names bring stories, which students are often forced to adapt to an “Americanized” context.

To avoid constant embarrassment, many of these student’s adopt an  American name which has no true connection with their original name. A good illustration of this is a seventeen-year-old immigrant, Yee Wan from China, who changed her name to “Winnie” to make it easy for her educators to pronounce her name. This suggestion was made by her ESL teacher.

That experience spurred Wan the present president of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE)  to launch a campaign to promote the correct pronunciation of a child’s name in school irrespective of his or her cultural background.

Yee Wan, the president of NABE, launched the My Name, My Identity  Campaign in collaboration with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) to educate people about the lasting negative impact mispronouncing a child’s name can have on them and make propositions on how such issues can be remedied in schools and communities.

Again, the brother of Kohli dropped his native South Asian name, Sharad (‘shu-rudth’) and changed it to Sharub when he was in his ninth grade. But then, his teachers and classmates felt it was easier to call him Shrub, and that was the name they called him all through his high school forcing him to drop his original name and identity.

Michelle-Thuy Ngoc also dropped the second half of her Vietnamese name to make it more comfortable for others and only answered to Michelle. She eventually went back to her full name.

2. Loss of self-confidence

According to PBS News report, mispronouncing a child’s name can have a lifelong negative impact on them. Rita Kohli, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside reiterates that when a child experiences constant mispronunciation of his or her name by their teachers, they start to build a wall around themselves.

Over time, it’ll start to affect the child’s self-confidence, making them feel like they don’t belong, especially when their teachers make fun of their names and they are laughed at by their fellow students.

The PBS report also recounted an anecdote from a student at a school in Portland, Oregon who skipped her graduation and failed to receive her award because her principal “murdered” her Chinese name on the stage. The student was traumatized because the principal not only mispronounced her name but made a joke of it and attracted the laughter of the audience.

Although it can be difficult to pronounce the name of every student correctly, the teacher should make an effort t. A child may fail to answer the roll call because their name was mispronounced. Such an experience can make a child enter their shell, and become socially withdrawn.

3. Low academic performance

A child’s self-confidence affects their performance in school. A child that lacks self-confidence and feels shamed in the presence of their peers probably won’t perform well academically. Teachers should work hard to promote an inclusive culture in their classroom and the entire school. No child should be ridiculed or made to feel ashamed of their name, their identity or culture.

Santa Clara County Superintendent,  Jon Gundry, was a teacher of middle and high school  English as a second language students for more than a decade. When he was a teacher, he formed a culture of respect by learning the correct pronunciation of all his new students the first day they appeared in the class.

Learning how to pronounce your students’ name correctly is a huge step towards their acculturation. It makes it easy for them to cope in their new school environment.

4. Renders the student implicitly invisible

Carmen Fariña, a native-Spanish speaker during her kindergarten days in Brooklyn, was marked as absent for weeks for failing to respond to her name during roll calls. She didn’t respond because her teacher incorrectly pronounced her name. While the teacher thought that she was being obstinate, the poor child didn’t hear her name being called by the teacher.

As a present chancellor of New York City schools, Fariña drawing from her experience noted in her keynote address to the National Association for Bilingual Education, that mispronouncing a child’s name basically makes the child feel invisible in class.

5. Has a negative emotional and social  impact

Many immigrant students and students from ethnic minorities already must deal with not having a teacher that looks like them in their school. Also, they would rarely find a teacher who speaks the same language as them, and they struggle to learn a curriculum that is entirely different from what they are used to in their native land.

A 2012 study by Rita Kohli and Daniel Solórzano found that mispronouncing a student’s name is one of the hurtful microaggressions that the students can suffer. The study, “Teachers Please Learn Our Names! Racial Microaggressions and the K-12 Classroom,” found many instances of students who were shamed, anxious, or embarrassed because their names were constantly mispronounced in class. This makes them begin to gradually withdraw from their language, cultural origin, and family background.

The case of the native Chinese student in Portland, Oregon-area illustrates it all. As we discussed earlier in this article, the student failed to rise during an honors ceremony because their principal mispronounced their name and laughed over it, making the audience chuckle.

What teachers and fellow students can do to help

 When teachers overlook or downplay the necessity of correctly pronouncing a student’s name, they make the situation worse A teacher may not pronounce a student’s name correctly the first time, but he or she must make a sincere effort to get it right rather than making a joke of it and laughing about the mistake.

Teachers should work to promote an inclusive culture where all students from different cultural background feel like they belong.

Making a mockery of a child’s name affects their self-confidence. Mollie Robertson a math teacher at Iroquois High School in Jefferson County, KY believes it is the responsibility of every educator to encourage fair play and foster respect for all students in their class. She advocates for a safe learning environment for all by starting with the correct pronunciation of her students’ name.

A teacher can help by not laughing when they mispronounce a child’s name. And the students can show they respect their peers by learning to pronounce their names correctly and not laughing when someone gets it wrong.  Instead of laughing, they should help their classmates learn the correct pronunciation.

When teachers take the time to learn how to pronounce their students’ name correctly, they are helping them connect with their origin and helping them to form their true identity.

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Culturally responsive teaching asserts that specific knowledge about cultural diversity is crucial to meeting the educational needs of ethnically diverse student populations. Part of this knowledge about cultural diversity includes understanding the cultural characteristics and contributions of different ethnic groups. Culture covers many aspects, some of which are more important for teachers to know than others because they have direct implications for teaching and learning.

Teachers should use culturally relevant instruction as a strategy for reaching all students and improving school success. The use of culture to convey knowledge, skills, and attitudes empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically. These cultural referents are not only a means for connecting or explaining the dominant culture; they are features of the curriculum in their own right.

Teaching that revolves around the student’s culture not only addresses the cognitive aspects of learning but the emotional as well. When a student’s culture is respected, she is inspired to learn because the negative self-image that comes with rejection is removed. Furthermore, an appreciation of what the student already knows encourages further learning by validating the idea that all students can learn.

One requirement for developing a knowledge base for culturally responsive teaching is learning about the history, traditions, and quirks of specific ethnic groups. The understanding that teachers need to have about cultural diversity should go beyond minimal awareness of, respect for, and general recognition of the fact that ethnic groups express their values in a variety of ways.

This increased knowledge of cultural habits is needed to make schooling more exciting and stimulating for ethnically diverse students. Too many teachers believe that their content areas and cultural diversity are incompatible and that combining them is a conceptual stretch that may prevent disciplinary integrity. That this is simply not true.

Misconceptions about multicultural instructional strategies arise from the fact that many teachers do not know enough about the contributions that different ethnic groups have made to their subject. They may be vaguely familiar with the accomplishments of certain well-known individuals, such as musicians in popular culture or politicians in the city, state, and national government. However, teachers are not likely to know much about the less publicly visible but highly significant contributions of ethnic groups to science, technology, medicine, math, law, and economics.

Teachers should be well-versed in their students’ cultural values, traditions, communication styles, learning styles, contributions, and relational patterns. When they do so, they increase the likelihood that all of their students will live up to their academic potential.

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