This year marked my tenth year of service to my school district. As a way to reflect on this time of service and my growth as a culturally and linguistically responsive educator, I compiled a list of ten lessons learned in ten years. Based on your own experience as a culturally and linguistically responsive educator, how could these lessons be enhanced and what might be added to improve this list?
- Live your truth
We can’t teach what we don’t know. Own your experience, know your limitations, and be honest with yourself when you are struggling to make sense of something. Seek others who can help guide you. Becoming a culturally and linguistically responsive educator requires a lifetime commitment to the process of growing, changing, and responding to the unique needs of the diverse students all around you. Think of it as a continuum of learning and not an endpoint.
- Reflect on your practice
Have the courage to be vulnerable and invite reflective conversations about your practice. Observe other educators and develop professional learning communities with people you regard as effective (you can even do this online to broaden your horizons). Becoming a culturally and linguistically responsive educator requires community dialogue to share strategies, experiences, and practices. Think of it as building your superhero educator team and look for colleagues with a variety of talents.
- Empower students to lead
If we are to prepare students for the future, then we have a responsibility to teach them how to work together, to cooperate, lead, and support each other. Consider a variety of teaching strategies that facilitate meaningful dialogue among students, give them time to practice problem-solving skills, and manage their own learning. Think of your classroom as a workshop for developing the future leaders, innovators, visionaries, and community members. Academic content provides the perfect vehicle for this skill development.
- Humanize, humanize, humanize
Take the time to get to know each of your students and make sure they get to know you. As an educator, you have the honor of being a role model for young people. Make sure that you show them what it looks, sounds, and feels like to be valued, appreciated, instructed, guided, and empowered. Work with them to create your classroom dynamics and culture and be gracious with them even when they leave their best selves at home. Think of all the years of experience you have relative to the young people in your classroom. They will learn far more by what they see you doing than by what you say.
- Construct knowledge
Even from a young age, students bring diverse experiences to the classroom. Consider how you can work together to construct knowledge based on life experience and make sure to include diverse perspectives when teaching about any given subject. Think of learning as the process of constructing meaning and reflecting on experience and make room for plenty of conversation and reflection as students go through their day.
- Explicitly teach for identity development
Students are in a unique position of simultaneously growing intellectually and socially in our schools. Knowing that one does not happen in isolation from the other, consider how to infuse identity development into your existing routines and curriculum. Find ways for students to engage in multiple conversations with a variety of people -- other students and community members as well -- so that they learn about each other and from each other in any given moment. Think of your classroom as a safe place for students to explore their identity, individually and in relationship to others, so that they grow up feeling confident in themselves and their abilities.
- Perception is not always reality
Check yourself, your assumptions, and your beliefs on a daily basis. A lot of research has been done regarding the power of perception in constructing our reality. Think about how you perceive a situation, a student, or an interaction and consider how those involved might perceive it. Challenge yourself to look through a positive lens when interpreting any given event and you will find that resolving conflict, addressing issues, and supporting students’ growth will be much easier.
- Every interaction with a student should convey authentic care
There is a lot going on in our lives and in the lives of our young people. Take the time to smile at a student, say hello, and show them that you care about them. Create a list of “go to” positive phrases or sentence stems that you can use when you find yourself getting stressed about a student’s behavior or attitude. Tell students that you are glad they are here, that you care about them and their future, and that you value their uniqueness. You may think it doesn’t affect them, but, trust me, in the long-run it has a substantial impact on their lives.
- Deconstruct hierarchies
Author bell hooks described education as the practice of freedom. Our education system is rife with institutional barriers and segregation and students often end up tracked into different levels of academic intensity and resources, often along de facto racial and linguistic demographics. Approach course planning, student course selection, course offerings, and achievement data through a critical lens. Identify structural barriers to student achievement and work within your locus of control to eliminate these barriers. Think of your practice in terms of how you are specifically working to open all doors to students and actively refrain from closing students off from opportunity. Their lives depend on the education you are providing.
- Seek joy in the process of learning with and from students
Young people are the future. They are talented, inquisitive, and energetic. They have so much to teach us, and we have wisdom with which to guide them as they grow in their own experience, education, and character. Think about the amazing gifts students bring to our world and be excited about their ability to make it a better place. What an honor it is to share our classrooms with each and every one of these people!