Implicit Biases and Culturally Responsive Teaching
In the contemporary world, many scholars are pursuing their studies in different countries. For instance, the United States is from a vast and alarmingly increasing number of ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse families. According to the statistical analysis of the country in 2011, the foreign-born student made up 49% of the students, increasing from 39% in 2001. Following this diversity, the commission of the ministry of education in any country should consider the issue of students’ welfare. However, for long time education, leaders and educators in the United States have never been reflecting on diversity, and due to that, the performance of the foreign-born students and international students has been adversely affected. For instance, in 2012, the instructors in the country involved 84% whites, 7% blacks, 7% Hispanic, and about 2% Pacific Islanders and Asians (Donahue-Keegan, Villegas-Reimers & Cressey, 2019). This educators’ composition substantially affected the education system following the performance of different schools. In curbing this problem, educators ought to give deaf ears to the political stands and decisions. Instead, educators should ensure that they are producing the best students, regardless of cultural background. They should reflect on the diversities and mitigate the implicit biases in their educational philosophy.
Introspective Reflection on the Responsiveness to the Cultural Diversities and the Implicit Biases
I am a high school teacher with a work experience of four years in the mathematics department. I have taught mathematics for the entire time I have been in the ministry of education. Having been in the job course for the whole of the time, I have realized that it is critical to developing an educational philosophy as an educator. Educational philosophy is a guide with teaching principles (Donahue-Keegan, Villegas-Reimers & Cressey, 2019). My morning infusion is to come up with a lesson plan, revisit the work of previously taught lessons, and prepare for the class materials. When I enter into the class, my first step is to ensure that I scan the entire class to identify the class attendance. Given that the students are from different backgrounds, some may be forced to be absent from the class by circumstances. For instance, most students in my class have been victims of depressions and psychological problems, and these are some of the factors that affect the students’ performance adversely. My prime factor of consideration is the composition of my class. This factor is based on gender, race, culture, and social diversities. The reason why I am much concerned with the class composition is to ensure that my instructions are not tailored to a specific group but all class members and ensure that all student interests are attended. Consequently, my educational philosophy ensures that I produce the best products from my subject worldwide.
There are different ways that my practices portray my educational philosophy. For instance, during my lesson, I use nationally accepted language that is known to all races. This is to ensure that every student in my class, whites, blacks, and Hispanics understand my teaching. Following the difference in students’ ability to understand, a group of students most of the time is left out. In such cases, regardless of the cultural diversities, I create extra time to attend them and ensure that they caught up with others. I encourage students to work hard by talking to them about college and university education and its importance. I usually tell them it is not about landing at university or college, but it is about which university they have joined. The aforementioned practices, among others, are for general class, not for the white, not for the other groups. However, I have some implicit biases in my teaching practice. For instance, if a student is performing better in mathematics subjects, I usually love such a student and gives him or her more attention than others. As an educator, this is not recommendable since when the other students realize the favor, it will be chaotic (Donahue-Keegan, Villegas-Reimers & Cressey, 2019). Additionally, due to my seriousness in my class, I tend to throw students out of class if they are not cooperating. This is not the case since such students will be left behind, and it will affect my class performance.
In my profession, I have been influenced by one of the best high school teachers, Mr. Chen. He is a science teacher whose comments and tendencies have been effective in teaching, and I have espoused them in my profession, and they have worked.
Some of the tendencies and comments of Mr. Chen include going the extra mile to ensure that every student attains his or her best and more (Chen, 1961). In an institution there an allocated time for every lesson and most of the times the time is not enough to elaborately discuss a point and therefore it calls for an educator to create time, visit student’s discussion, establish their weaknesses and strengths, and reach them at the individual level among other practices. Also, talking about education at the tertiary level helps in making students think big academically. Mr. Chen additionally gives extra help for the students who are left out during his lesson; he meets students after school for further academic help and mentoring them, takes time to answer questions of all students regardless of their cultural backgrounds, and considers the weaknesses of students to ensure that he effectively addresses them. During his lesson, he stresses on the important points, he talks to his students like adults without despising anyone and not giving them answers (Chen, 1961). He likes the best students, either is a white student or black student, and supports him or her. These are some of the practices that an educator should employ to ensure that he reflects on the cultural diversity among students.
Being an international educator, I have a cultural lens that I employ in my teaching profession. As an educator, my objective is to ensure that my relationship with the students is established. When I entered the teaching profession, I realized that different cultural norms are critical to the students’ understanding and scholarly attainment. It is from that time that I decided to establish the best way I can make my class a contact zone. The primary step was to interact with students and establish their diverse cultural norms and beliefs. I, therefore, start by asking each student more about subtle cultural elements. From the students’ responses, I learn various cultural aspects that concern class participation. For instance, there are those students who argue that when a young person is speaking to an adult, direct eye contact is not allowed. This helps me understand there is such a scenario when a student is answering a mathematics question during my lesson. Some other students complain that according to their cultural beliefs, the aye not allowed to dress in shorts or skirts. They are required to cover their whole body. As an educator, I observe this cultural element to ensure that the institution, in general, is a contact zone.
Another crucial step in my attempt to understand cultural identity is that I profoundly engage parents in the students’ studies. Parental engagement has been a critical step in the management of culturally-based problems in education sites. Parental involvement has proven to be positively effective in the scholarly attainment of their children. However, following structural theory, there ought to be a better understanding and interaction between the agents and school structure agents (parents and teachers, respectively). The sensitivity to cultural diversities is fundamental in exacerbating any roadblock to the involvement of parents or guardians at school (Donahue-Keegan, Villegas-Reimers & Cressey, 2019). When the PI is inhibited, then the educator is said to have interfered with the academic achievement of students due to inadequate cultural understanding.
Therefore, based on the cultural lens, I profoundly value the cultural diversity in my class. I employ all mechanisms to ensure that I have identified all the cultural norms of an individual student so that I considerably give my instruction. For instance, in the United States, Christianity religion is the most favored to all other religions; in my class, this is not the case. I do value all religions and observe all sacred commands. This practice makes my students from all religions feel recognized. As an educator, it is significant to realize that when a student feels part of the institution through encouragement, his or her academic performance improves.
Following my cultural lens, there are some practices that I will commit myself to ensure that I have uplifted, supported, and helped scholars with disabilities in the future. First thing, I will ensure that I encourage parental involvement in students’ academics. This is one of the practices that helped me know my students better, especially cultural issues (Donahue-Keegan, Villegas-Reimers & Cressey, 2019). The initiative of parental involvement is crucial, especially to these students who cannot manage themselves since PI will be helping in mitigating emotional and depression fatalities on a student. Additionally, I will always be creating time to attend to students who have questions, left behind, and slow in understanding, among other critical factors affecting students’ understanding. Bearing in mind that there are cases of slow learners, as an educator, I will ensure that I create my time to undress the issue, among other issues.
Based on my cultural norms, there are some practices that I will establish. For instance, the respect of adults by young people is among the cultural practices that I will establish in my class. Even if some cultures do not consider this, to me, as an educator, I will ensure that discipline prevails in my class, whereby every student will owe everybody respect. I am among the people who do not entertain nonsense, and therefore I will establish discipline in my class. Alongside that, I will be honoring students’ cultural identities in my classes. I will be allowing those who culturally do not practice direct eye contact when talking to adults, and I will be allowing people of the same race to have a discussion in their simple language that will help them understand better. I will ensure that I share my cultural knowledge with my students to ensure that they understand each other’s cultural diversity so that they can effectively interact and benefit from each other.
References
Chen, W. Y. (1961). The Teacher of the Year: Medicine and public health. China Q., 153.
Donahue-Keegan, D., Villegas-Reimers, E., & Cressey, J. M. (2019). Integrating social-emotional learning and culturally responsive teaching in teacher education preparation programs: The Massachusetts experience so far. Teacher Education Quarterly, 46(4), 150-168.