The Role of Students

As I progress towards becoming an active student teacher, and eventually a teacher, I intend to utilize the practices of culturally responsive teaching to show respect for my students and all that they carry with them. Geneva Gay defines culturally responsive teaching as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them more effectively” (2002). As I plan lessons, activities, and units for my future classes, I will ensure that they are done so with my students in mind. In culturally responsive pedagogy, we are teaching material that is relevant, accessible, and meaningful to the lives of the students. As a teacher, my goal will be to stray away from conventional norms of a Eurocentric and white supremacist framework. I want my students to feel acknowledged not just by me as their teacher, but also by the actual content of the class. When class content is tailored to students, there is greater engagement, participation, and retention. Every student should feel empowered by their learning. I want my future students to come out of my classes feeling equipped with the skills they need to survive and thrive beyond the classroom. The most effective way to achieve this is to use the students and their feedback as resources for building a curriculum.

In pursuing a culturally responsive pedagogy, it is essential to include students’ funds of knowledge in class. Funds of knowledge are the skills and pieces of knowledge that students carry into the classroom with them every day; these range from cultural knowledge to family life/routine and experience. One of the most important parts of respecting and acknowledging students is recognizing that each one has something to offer and that knowledge beyond “school” knowledge is incredibly helpful. For instance, Gay describes instances in which students are told that their natural ways of speaking are not appropriate for class. Gay writes, “Because they are denied use of their natural ways of talking, their thinking, intellectual engagement, and academic efforts are diminished as well” (2002, 111). When we tell students that what they know is not acceptable or sufficient, we diminish any form of confidence, curiosity, and trust in the students. As a teacher, I will aim to make it clear that all forms of knowledge are valuable to class content and interaction.

The graphic attached illustrates ways in which students’ funds of knowledge can be accessed by teachers. Often times, students’ funds of knowledge are not going to be explicit; they are not as easy to learn as students’ names or faces. Teachers must utilize relationship-building strategies to recognize and utilize their students’ funds of knowledge. In recognizing that students' learning continues after they leave the classrooms and return home each day, teachers more deeply perceive as students as whole people. All students have more than one teacher, and many of those teachers are their parents, grandparents, or close relatives (Moll et. al. 1992). At home, students inherently learn social skills and routines that they bring to class each day. Accessing students' funds of knowledge includes getting to know and maintaining contact with students’ families, engaging students in conversation, and connecting their lives and behaviors to class. As a teacher, I hope to strengthen these skills overtime so that I am successful in incorporating students into lessons and meeting each student where they are.

As a white woman who has always had education accessible to me, I know that I hold much privilege as a student and future educator. As I have progressed through my teaching preparation, I have been reminded that I will never truly be able to feel or experience some of the pain and struggles that others have gone through as a result of their race, class, or sexual/gender identity (Love 2019). I keep my positionality at the forefront of my mind whenever learning or interacting with students. As a white teacher, I am going to have the responsibility to have conversations with my students about issues of systemic racism and discrimination; it would be a betrayal of my role as a teacher to remain silent on these issues just because I do not feel the repercussions of them myself. I am learning how to use empathy and privilege to offer students the space and opportunity to address problems of inequity. I also cannot ignore that the education system itself is broken. Students enter schools every day and are expected to fail; I want to become a teacher who shows all students that they can succeed and persist through our systems that are systemically oppressive. It will be hard, but it is absolutely essential to being an effective educator. My goal will always be to use what I have been given by broken systems to support students in their journey through self-discovery and development.