When teachers don't understand

Teaching should be informed not only by the content of the discipline but also by the lives of the students.

By Bobby Hobgood, Ed.D.

Author’s note

This article is my reflection on why teachers sometimes misinterpret student behavior in the classroom. It is based on three scholarly articles on that topic, but it is also inspired by my experience in teaching a foreign language and by numerous conversations with educators who have been successful with teaching students from different cultural backgrounds.

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Being at the "top of the totem pole" does not always provide a great advantage, especially for an educator. Educators who are members of the dominant culture and who occupy a position of power, despite their attempts to appreciate and understand all of their students, often lack the insight into their students’ value systems and cultures that would enable them to teach those students effectively. This sociocultural deficit frequently leads to a misinterpretation of student behaviors and an inability to "meet students where they are."

The problem is magnified when the teacher also lacks the understanding of her role as a power broker in the classroom. She may not realize the strength of her position or her ability to make explicit to her students the rules or codes necessary to interact successfully within a given environment, whether it be that of the dominant culture or of any other. The ability to understand the dynamics of what happens when a white teacher misinterprets the silence of a Native American student or the misbehavior of an African American student is an essential skill for embracing a multicultural pedagogy. The teacher who possesses such skill can more realistically acknowledge the learning styles, values, and backgrounds of all students.

What constitutes the ability to teach and reach all students, regardless of their cultural background? The quest for strategies must begin with an understanding of the tenet proposed by Leslie Williams in her article "Developmentally Appropriate Practice and Cultural Values." She notes that we cannot engage in any educational practice that can be considered "value-free." Consequently, a teacher’s practice speaks loudly of who she is and what she believes. Her value system permeates how she organizes her classroom, how she presents new content to students, and how she interacts with students as they develop relationships with one another.

Williams’ article, along with Carol Brunson Phillip’s article "The Movement of African-American Children Through Sociocultural Contexts" and Lisa Delpit’s "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children," offers wonderful insights into the cognitive, social, and political dissonance between teacher and student. All three mention the need for the teacher to be aware of the perspectives that both she and her students bring to the classroom. This means not simply their understanding of how to behave in certain settings, but in particular the language they use while interacting with others. As Delpit remarks, "people are experts on their own lives." Young children in particular know how to behave in their community and at home, but they experience frustration in settings that do not share the same norms.

All three authors indicate that in order for the teacher to connect with her students, she must make explicit to her students the appropriate codes of behavior for the different settings in which they operate. She must make clear that in order to succeed in school and in life, they must be aware of how the language they use with their friends is different from the language they use in the classroom or with adults in their community. This awareness will allow them to react appropriately, choosing how to express themselves as they interact within a particular setting.

Linking all of the suggestions offered by these three authors is the idea that while recognizing the differences of students from various socioeconomic and racial backgrounds, we must always keep in mind that each student is unique. Williams discusses the child-centered perspective, which places the individual at the center of the curriculum. Phillips talks about empowering the child by allowing children to "act upon their environment and to use their expressive styles to solve the problems and meet the challenges of the school." And Delpit notes that teachers should not separate children according to family background but should rather ensure that their classroom "incorporate(s) strategies appropriate for all the children in its confines." Delpit further suggests that to understand student perspectives, we must become ethnographers, researching the backgrounds of our students to have a better understanding of their individual culture. Consequently, effective instruction in any classroom requires that the teacher’s instruction is informed not only by the content of the discipline but also by the lives of her students

References

Delpit, L. (1995). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. In Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (pp. 119-139). New York: New Press.

Phillips, C. B. (1994). The movement of African-American children through sociocultural contexts. In B. Mallory and S. New (Eds.), Diversity and Developmentally Appropriate Practices: Challenges for Early Childhood Education (pp. 137-165). New York: Teachers College Press.

Williams, L.R. (1994). Developmentally Appropriate Practice and cultural values: A case in point. In B. Mallory & S. New (Eds.), Diversity and Developmentally Appropriate Practices: Challenges for Early Childhood Education (pp. 155-165). New York: Teachers College Press.