But That's Just Good Teaching

Lason-Billings, G. (1995). But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Theory into Practice, Vol. 34, No. 3, Culturally Relevant Teaching, pp. 159-165.

This articles discussing the need for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. It begins with linking schooling and culture, specifically with African American students. Culturally relevant pedagogy rests on three criteria, students must experience academic success, students must develop and maintain cultural competence and students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order. In one example the teacher focused on displaying African American males in a positive and productive way. By challenging the boys to be academic leaders they became examples for their peers to follow. Next, the article discusses cultural competence among African American students. Teachers utilized African American culture to motivate learning by integrating their music into poetry lessons, inviting family members to teach the class and by allowing them to speak their home language in class and translate it to Standard English. Lastly, the article discussed critical consciousness. It is important for students to be able to critique the very mores and values that make social inequalities in the classroom. One way a teacher handled this was by critiquing textbooks and class material with students, informing the community and providing newspapers with alternative and different perspectives.

1. what does cultural competence look like for my culture? This question is hard for me to answer and I'm not sure why. I guess that I don't really have culture competence. I don't really know what I would consider my culture or race. I am African American, white and Native American. I was raised by my white mother in Clarkston, an affluent suburb. I see myself as multi-racial and a part of multiple cultures, not completely defined by one. I want to be educated in a system that teachers awareness and appreciation for my roots and history, all of them. So cultural competence to me is integrating different parts of my many cultures into curriculum. Above being African American and Native American, I see myself as a minority fighting the same fight as Latin Americans and Asian Americans. A gain for one minority group isn't enough until every minority group shares the same rights and opportunities.

2. Clarkston High School teaches tolerance of other cultures but not acceptance. Going to school where segregation amongst students is as common as acts of prejudice inhibited the cultural competence of the African American aspect of my identity. Clarkston High School and the Clarkston community are predominately white and middle class. The minority members and white members of the community are segregated. This inhibits cultural competence because minorities are alienated and can't be themselves without becoming outsiders and doesn't allow for students to become aware of/appreciate other cultures.