Who's In My Classroom?. Tim Fredrick
reaffirmed their belief that all students were capable of achieving success.19
Several more recent studies confirm that students consistently judge a teacher's effectiveness based on how much they perceive the teacher to know about them and how much the teacher creates a classroom environment that responds to them as individuals.20 Effective teachers are viewed as being able to develop a rapport with students that makes them feel connected to their teachers.
David Etienne, 16, attended extremely strict schools in Haiti. He shared a cultural background (though not a social class background) with his teachers, followed the rules, and learned to repeat what he had been taught. It was only when he immigrated to the United States and he experienced more responsive styles of teaching that he realized what he was missing. He writes:
[In Haiti] our fear of punishment pushed us to learn whatever we were assigned, so in a way, the teachers were effective. We did what we had to do, whether it was memorizing a passage, solving a math problem, or learning vocabulary words.
But looking back, I see that I never grew mentally in that school. They didn't teach us to think broadly or to be creative. Instead, I was always either doing what I was directed to do, or sitting back waiting for more directions. My classmates and I were taught what we needed to know to survive inside a classroom—things like dates and events in history—but not a lot that would help me survive in the world.
When I came to the United States I didn't know what to expect. On my first day of school in New York, I met my new teacher, Mr. Jean Pierre, who also was Haitian. He greeted me with “Sa kap fèt la, Boss?” which means “How are you doing, Boss?” in Creole.
That short sentence alone told me a lot. Normally in Haiti, teachers only speak French to students, because those who speak French are looked upon as superior. But Mr. Jean Pierre spoke pure Creole with me, and that made me feel that the person I was going to spend my days with at this new school would be able to understand me.
Of course, some teachers mistake “developing rapport” with lowering their standards or spending inordinate amounts of time socializing with students. But students do want to learn, and while they will go along with a teacher who skimps on standards, most students want a teacher who has both high expectations and finds ways to make them feel seen. Here's how Mohammed Hussain describes that balance:
Mr. Seltzer, my 8th grade teacher, was the embodiment of high standards. Tests were difficult. Pop quizzes could be given at any time He gave us lots of homework and expected us to do it. Throughout the year, we wrote frequently—outlines, research papers, book reports—and Mr. Seltzer expected us to produce quality work.
When I saw my low grades at the start of the year—in the 70s, when I was used to 90s—I realized that I could easily fail the class.
If you believe the stereotypes, Mr. Seltzer sounds like the kind of teacher that students would loathe. But Mohammed describes why that wasn't the case:
[Though] Mr. Seltzer held us to extremely high standards … still he was never boorish or a jerk to us. We could see his affection and regard for us despite his sternness. He once commented to me that he had many children, and it was not until later that I realized he was talking about his students. To Mr. Seltzer, we were his children and he expected us to be amazing and not disappoint him; just what he would expect of his own children. In turn, all of his students—those who loved to learn and even those who were not particularly motivated to do so—tried their best to live up to his standards.
[In the end] I got an 80 average. Though this was lower than I was used to, it meant more to me than a 90 from another teacher. An 80 from Mr. Seltzer was a real accomplishment.
Another important challenge in understanding how students develop is that people in the fields of education and psychology have relied (and often continue to rely) too much on theories of psychological development that are based on White European cultural norms.21 Over three decades ago, education scholar Martin Haberman offered a prescient caution that “teachers committed to a theory of development will hold expectations of what is normal and typical which they will inevitably transform into what is desirable. They will then develop and hold expectations for preferred behavior which supports their particular theory and makes them insensitive to other explanations and understandings.”22
Because of this tendency to define White cultural development as normative and desirable, the development of BIPOC students may be judged using an inappropriate standard. Differences in their development may be viewed as deficiencies that are attributed to race, culture, or ethnicity. Therefore, to be more effective in supporting the learning needs of all students, we need to be cautious in how those theories are applied so that we use them to inform but not constrain our teaching.
Connections between Home and School Help Students Meet High Expectations
Several scholars have discussed the importance of making connections between home culture and school as a hallmark of culturally responsive teaching.23 For example, Geneva Gay defines culturally responsive teaching as using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more appropriate and effective for them.24
More recent studies, however, have revealed that many students experience disconnects between home and school. Students experience these disconnects when their cultural beliefs and practices outside of school clash with those found in school.25 Such disconnects have been described as home-school dissonance. Dissonance is defined as the perceived differences between the values and practices present in students’ homes or out-of-school environments and those prominent throughout their formal schooling experiences.26
For example, in a study examining how such perceived dissonance influenced the emotional and academic well-being of adolescents, the researchers reported that, “Students from cultures outside the mainstream may experience a sense of dissonance when they encounter a devaluing of their beliefs and behaviors at schools that reflect the dominant White, middle-class ideology.”27 They also found that students reporting high levels of home-school dissonance also reported lower levels of academic efficacy, self-esteem, grade point average (GPA), and higher levels of anger and self-deprecation. Other researchers have also found that such dissonance is associated with lowered academic motivation and increased disruptive behavior in school.
In her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, Gloria Ladson-Billings describes culturally responsive teaching as a pedagogical approach that highlights the importance of making connections to students’ cultural backgrounds throughout the teaching and learning process.28 Some of the ways in which teachers demonstrate culturally responsive teaching include designing student-centered lessons, teaching in ways that make connections to students’ experiences outside of school, and having and communicating high expectations for all students.
Of course, there are countless ways to make content seem more relevant and engaging to students that also align with traditional academic goals. Here are just a few examples from students at Youth Communication. Annmarie Turnton's teacher used a connection to home culture in a way that made a classic social science concept come alive:
For