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A Culturally Relevant Lesson for African American Students
The performance statistics for African American students in public schools are alarming. Their suspension rates are twice that of European American students, and 20 percent of them are likely to drop out of school before graduation (Hum, 1993; Nielson, 1991). Educational researchers and practitioners repeatedly compare African American children to their European American counterparts and find them lower in achievement, IQ, creativity, reading, writing, and social and cultural. This deficiency approach to the education of African American students ignores the first tenet of a constructivist philosophy, which is to teach from the knowledge base of the learner (Henderson, 1996). Rather than a fault of the students, I propose that the deficiency lies in a system of education that refuses to adapt itself to differences among students.
Ladson-Billings (1994) proposes the use of culturally relevant instruction as a method of teaching African American students and improving their school success. She defines this type of instruction as a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These cultural referents are not merely vehicles for bridging or explaining the dominant culture; they are aspects of the curriculum in their own right (p. 18).
At the center of culturally relevant instruction is the culture of the learner. To develop an instructional program that is relevant to students educators need to understand the core beliefs and experiences of their culture. The National Commission on Teaching and American's Future (1996) proposes that Teachers must understand students and their many pathways to learning as deeply as they comprehend subjects and teaching methods. It means that teachers need to understand how students of different language backgrounds and cultures can be supported in learning academic content and how those with a range of approaches to learning can be met with a variety of teaching strategies (p. 13).
Teaching based on the learner's culture not only addresses the cognitive aspects of learning, but the affective as well. Students whose culture is respected are empowered to learn because the negative self-image that accompanies the rejection of their experience is eliminated. An appreciation of what they already know can motivate further learning by validating the idea that the students can learn.
Lee, Lomotey, and Shujaa (1990) point out that education for African Americans in an environment which denigrates their culture is self-defeating. They call for an African-centered pedagogy which (a) legitimizes African knowledge base; (b) builds on productive community and cultural practices; (c) uses and extends indigenous language; (d) reinforces community ties and promotes service to family, community, nation, race, and world; (e) promotes positive social relationships; (f) imparts a world view that idealizes a positive, self-sufficient future for one's people without denying the self-worth and right to self-determination of others; (g) supports cultural continuity and critical consciousness. When students see the benefits of education for themselves and their community they are more likely to be willing participants.
Ladson-Billings (1992) also advocates culturally grounded instruction for African American students. She conducted a qualitative study of a successful teacher of 29 sixth graders, 17 of whom were African Americans. She observed an approach to literacy which incorporated holistic, sociopolitical learning that validated and transformed the students' knowledge base through the use of literature and orature that was relevant to the lived realities of the learners. Students became a part of a learning community, aware of their ability to construct knowledge and meaning, and secure in the role they play in the future of their own lives, as well as in the life and future of their community.
In a similar vein, Gordon (1993) advises teachers of Black children to teach their students how to critically view the messages of the dominant society. This can be accomplished in part by learning African American history and culture. Only with a knowledge of their own culture can African American students more equitably reconstruct how they have been represented in the past, and create a more positive future. Gordon positions African American cultural knowledge at the center of teaching and learning for African American learners. King (1994) also emphasizes the need for a transformative process to change both the educational system and the society which supports it. She suggests a pedagogy that teaches African American students the ability to critically analyze their history, lives, and education, and empowers them to make changes in their conditions. Thus, the students should become actively engaged in the creative process of change. Thus, many educational researchers promote curricula and instruction that reflect the learners' prior cultural knowledge, which for African Americans includes movement expressiveness, verve, affect, communalism, expressive individualism, , social time, spirituality, and the harmony of humans and nature (Allen & Boykin, 1992), and a history of resistance against oppression.
However, culturally relevant instruction requires research and reflection by educators. It necessitates an awareness of the various communities and contexts in which learners construct meaning and an understanding of them within that context. Acculturation and variations of culture across class, gender, age, and region may make it difficult for educators to comprehend the moving target of cultural knowledge. Assumptions about the cultural knowledge of any student based on predetermined cultural norms may lead to stereotyping and further alienation of learners. Thus, culturally relevant instruction may be somewhat difficult to develop.
Nieto (1996) advises educators to listen carefully to students because their "voices sometimes reveal the great challenges and even the deep pain young people feel when schools are unresponsive, cold places" (p. 106). Too often, Nieto's advice is unheeded, and the student as a cultural resource is overlooked in the search for answers about how to improve educational effectiveness.
Culturally relevant lesson plan
The following is a culturally relevant activity for 6-12 grades that can be incorporated into a unit based on the parallel struggles in South Africa and the United States. The content and instructional methods place the African Diaspora experience at the center of learning and provides a way for teachers to tap into the thinking of their students.
Students read a poem by Langston Hughes after discussing Hughes' poetry and his contribution to U. S. culture.
Question and Answer
Langston Hughes
(1997)Durban, Birmingham, Cape Town, Atlanta, Johannesburg, Watts, The earth around
Struggling, fighting, Dying--for what?A world to gain.
Groping, hoping, Waiting--for what?
A world to gain.
Dreams kicked asunder, Why not go under?
There's a world to gain.
But suppose I don't want it, Why take it?
To remake it.
Questions
- Where are Durban, Birmingham, Cape Town, Atlanta, Johannesburg, and Watts?
- What do these places have in common?
- What do these struggles have to do with who you are today?
- What is Hughes' vision of life in this poem? What is your vision?
- In Hughes' view, what is the goal of struggle? What is your goal?
After the discussion the students do a choral reading of the poem several times. The teacher or another student may direct the reading, but suggestions for added sounds, music, rhythms, repetitions of phrases, etc. may be added by members of the class to experiment with the presentation of the meaning. All readers should try to represent the mood of their lines in the reading. The following is a representation of the way 22 8th graders decided to represent the poem. There are many other ways that are possible based on student interpretations. The numbers in brackets represent the number of voices.
Question and Answer [5]
By Langston Hughes [1] Drum and shakaree begin and continue throughout
Durban [1], Birmingham [1],
Cape Town [1], Atlanta[1],
Johannesburg[1], Watts [1],
The earth around [all]
Struggling[2], fighting[2],
Dying[4]--for what?[all][
A world to gain.[5]
Groping, hoping, [2]
Waiting--for what? [2]
(repeat)
Groping, hoping, [2]
Waiting-for what? [2]
A world to gain. [8]
Dreams kicked asunder, [3] Why not go under? [3] go under?
[1] go under? [1] go under? [1]There's a world to gain. [2]
But suppose I don't want it,[1]
Why take it? [1]To remake it. [all]
(whispered)
To remake it [5]
To remake it [5]
(overlapped)
Tooo reeee [5] maaoke [10] iiiiit [all](Drum and shakaree fade out)
After the reading students discuss the question
1. How would you remake the world?
They then write an essay or a poem on their vision of a world, and as important, how they think they might contribute to that vision. Projects can be developed to implement social action.
References
Allen, B. A. and Boykin, A. W. (1992). African American children and the educational process: Alleviating cultural discontinuity through prescriptive pedagogy. School Psychology Review, 21(4), 586-596.
Gordon, B. (1993a). African American cultural knowledge and liberatory education: Dilemmas, problems, and potentials in a postmodern American society. Urban Education, 27(4), 448470. Hughes, L. (1997). In The Norton anthology of African American literature. New York: WW Norton and Company
Hurn, C. (1993). The limits and possibilities of schooling: And introduction to the sociology of education (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
King, J. E. (1994). The purpose of schooling for African American children: Including cultural knowledge. In E. Hollins, J. King, and W. Hayman (Eds.), Teaching diverse populations: Formulating a knowledge base (pp. 25-56). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ladson-Billings (1992). Liberatory consequences of literacy: A case of culturally relevant instruction for African American students. Journal of Negro Education, 61(3), 378-390.
Ladson-Billings (1994). The dream keepers: Successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lee, C., Lomotey, K., and Shujaa, M. (1990). How shall we sing our sacred song in a strange land? The dilemma of double consciousness and the complexities of an African-centered pedagogy. Journal of Education, 172(2), 45-61.
National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (1996). What matters most: Teaching for America's Future. New York: Teacher's College, Columbia University.
Nielson, L. (1991). Adolescence: A contemporary view. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Mary Stone Hanley is a core faculty member at Antioch University, Seattle, where she teaches Multicultural Education, Curriculum and Instruction, and Social Studies methods to pre-service teachers in the Teacher Certification Program. She also teaches Drama as Pedagogy, Arts, Culture and Learning, and Diversity and Equity courses to experienced educators both at Antioch and elsewhere.
Mary received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on Multicultural Education and drama as an educational method. Her research has focused on using drama to motivate and empower adolescents, particularly those whose culture is marginalized in the schools. She has an M.Ed. in Educational Communications and Technology and a B.A. in Children's Drama.
Mary integrates her passion for the arts, empowering education, and African American history and culture by working with the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center in Seattle, WA, where she also works as a playwright with youth, staff, and theatre professionals to create learning experiences that value African American culture for middle and high school students.
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