Transcript Culturally-Responsive Classroom Management

Culturally-Responsive
Classroom Management
& Organization
Elise Trumbull
California State University,
Northridge
Overview of Session

Classroom management and organization as
part of culturally-responsive pedagogy
 Equity issues related to management and
organization
 Using a cultural framework to understand
differences
 Crafting management and organization
strategies that are culturally-responsive
Definitions

Classroom Management: the set of
strategies used to ensure a productive,
harmonious learning environment

Classroom Organization: the ways
teachers structure time, space, and
classroom interactions to promote
learning
Definitions continued…

Discipline: any action taken by the teacher to
directly control student behavior

Punishment: a form of discipline entailing
either withdrawing a privilege or subjecting
the student to unpleasant consequences

Culture: the shared values, beliefs, and ways
of knowing and living of a group
Casting a Broad Net

“Classroom management … involves
planning, facilitating, and monitoring
experiences that are conducive to high levels
of learning ... It also entails creating …
classroom environments that are personally
comfortable, racially and ethnically inclusive,
and intellectually stimulating.”
Geneva Gay, 2006, p. 343
Management and Organization:
Part of Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy
Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy
Curriculum
Instruction
Assessment
Home-School
Relations
Classroom
Management &
Organization

Culturally-responsive pedagogy:
Instructional practice… designed with
learners’ cultural values, knowledge,
and ways of learning taken into account
and that empowers students to
succeed…
Trumbull & Pacheco, 2005, Vol.I, p. 85
Equity Concerns

“[M]uch of the current high levels of racial
disproportionality in school discipline is a
reflection of teachers not understanding and
incorporating the cultural values, orientations,
and experiences of African, Latino, Asian, and
Native Americans into curriculum and
instruction.”
Geneva Gay, 2006, p. 343
Cultural Competence

Teachers’ cultural knowledge is
essential also to the development of
caring relationships and the
interpersonal skills to interact with not
only students but also their families.
Weinstein, 2003
When a Visitor Comes…

Mrs. Hernandez is in the middle of alphabet
review with her 18 kindergarten-first-grade
students seated on the rug in front of her. She
has to leave the group for several minutes at
a time to talk with with Mr. Sanchez, a parent
volunteer who is building some shelving for
the classroom.

What can she do to keep the children
appropriately busy?
Proverbs reflect cultural values.
Stand on your own two feet.
 The early bird gets the worm.
 None of us is as smart as all of us.
 The nail that stands out gets pounded
down.
 God helps those who help themselves.
 Many hands make light work.

Two Different Orientations
Individualistic
Collectivistic




Classroom= a group of
individuals with
individual needs who
learn individually
Individual responsibility,
individual materials,
prescribed helping
Developmental goal:
independence


Classroom= a group
who can benefit from
each other and jointly
learn
Group responsibility,
shared materials,
automatic helping
Developmental goal:
interdependence
Cautions about Generalizations
Framework only a starting point for
raising questions
 All cultures are both I and C– just
different emphases
 Individuals vary
 Many people multi-ethnic/multi-racial
 Cultures change

The Bridging Cultures Project
Seven teachers– who became
researchers
 Four researchers @ three institutions
 Latino students in Los Angeles area
 Individualism-Collectivism Framework

When is helping cheating?

A student reads workbook directions for another
student.
 A student helps his friend with a math problem in
class.
 A student whispers an answer to another student in
response to a teacher’s question.
 Three students work on homework together.
 One student shares her homework with another.
 Four students work together on a standardized
practice test.
 One student whispers an answer to another during a
written spelling test.
When is sharing okay? When is it
borrowing?… stealing?





A student takes a pencil from a friend’s desk
without asking.
A student gives her pencil to a friend. Now
she has none.
A student takes a book home from the
classroom without asking.
A student wears his brother’s shirt to school
without asking.
A mother eats part of her child’s school
breakfast without asking.
Capitalizing on Students’
Cultural Strengths: BC Examples






Students help each other and the teacher.
Students teach each other.
Students manage the classroom when the
teacher cannot.
Students share jobs.
Students share classroom property and
space.
Students help absent peers.
Classroom as Family
Orientation of helping, sharing, group
success……
 Cited as positive for both African
American and Latino students
 Builds on what students know from
home
 Makes sense to parents

Mrs. Pérez’s Pledge to the World

I pledge allegiance to the world,
To cherish every living thing,
To care for earth and sea and air,
With peace and freedom everywhere.
Organization and Culture
Desks and tables
 Bulletin boards
 Materials
 Social relationships
 Home-school connections

A Goal: Classroom Orchestration

structuring classroom interactions and
activities in ways that harmonize
values of home and school and draw
on students’ cultural resources to
resolve problems, avoid conflicts, and
minimize the need for discipline
Rothstein-Fisch & Trumbull (in press).
References
Evertson, C. M., & Weinstein, C. S. (2006). Classroom management as a field of
inquiry. In C. M. Evertson & C. S. Weinstein (Eds.). Handbook of classroom
management: Research, practice, and contemporary issues (pp. 3-15).
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gay, G. (2006). Connections between classroom management and culturally
responsive teaching. In C. M. Evertson & C. S. Weinstein (Eds.), Handbook of
classroom management: Research, practice, and contemporary issues (pp. 343370. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of
AfricanAmerican children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Rothstein-Fisch & Trumbull (in press). Reconceptualizing Classroom Management:
Building on Students’ Cultural Strengths. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Trumbull, E., & Pacheco, M. (2005). The teacher’s guide to diversity: Building a
knowledge base. Vol. I, Human development, culture, and cognition.
Providence: Brown University.
Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Greenfield, P. M., & Quiroz, B. (2001). Bridging
cultures between home and school: A guide for teachers. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.