International Journal of Educational

Science and Research (IJESR)

ISSN(P): 2249-6947; ISSN(E): 2249-8052
Vol. 5, Issue 6, Dec 2015, 21- 26
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

NO STRANGERS IN CLASSROOMS: A PERSPECTIVE OF

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE
PEI-HSUAN LIN
National Taipei University of Education, Taipei, Taiwan

ABSTRACT
This study was conducted in SH Elementary School where students with multicultural backgrounds in USA. As
a parent volunteer, I was allowed to participate in school activities. I am interested in investigating foreign students
learning in the school. The field data came from my observations of school environment, curriculum and classrooms,
and informal interviews with school staffs. The main participants in this study included k-I class teacher Y, ESL teacher
A, and two Taiwanese kids--Emily and Erica. The study found that culturally responsive practice plays an important
bridge to provide a safe and pleasant learning environment for students. School teachers could be cultural brokers for
utilizing community resources, building positive climate, providing cultural caring, and transforming curriculum and

Original Article

teaching.
KEYWORDS: Culturally Responsive Practice, Cultural Diversity, Cultural Broker

Received: Sep 24, 2015; Accepted: Oct 28, 2015; Published: Oct 30, 2015; Paper Id.: IJESRDEC20153

INTRODUCTION
School is a social institute where teachers and students bring their cultural background in. Traditionally,
with the viewpoint of cultural mainstream, cultural diversity has been seen an obstruction for students school
learning. To challenge the assumptions of the mainstream culture, multicultural educators take diversity as cultural
capitals instead of cultural hinders (Gay, 2000).
This study aimed at investigating how a school helped students with multi-cultural background. It was
conducted in SH Elementary School in USA. The 402 students came from 28 countries with 43 languages (data in
2011). As a school volunteer, I could participate in various curriculum and activities. I worked as a math volunteer
in k-1 teacher Ys class once a week (for two semesters) and ESL volunteer in teacher As class once a week (for
one semester). I am interested in investigating how the school build a learning environment to support students
with cultural diversity.
I concentrated on the networks of students life experiences among classrooms, schools and their families.
The main participants in this study included k-I class teacher Y, ESL teacher A, and two Taiwanese kids --Emily
and Erica. K-1 Teacher Y was a young lady. She was one of the most popular in SH elementary school. She liked
to give her students a warm hug after class to say good-bye. ESL Teacher A was about 35 years old with sunny
smile. Emily was a 5th grade girl. Her English ability was about 2nd Grade level measured by entrance exam. Erica,
a kindergarten student, couldnt speak English. The field data were mainly from my observations of school

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Pei-Hsuan Lin

environment, school curriculum and classroom, and informal interviews with school staffs.

SH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

SH elementary school (SH) is located in a Metropolis district. There were 62 faculties and 402 students in SH
(data in May, 2011). The students of SH were from two areas: the Village of SHwood and the housing of a university.
Students who living in the university housing were from 28 countries with 43 native languages. In teacher Ys K-1 class,
there were 16 students from 8 countries (data in September, 2010).
There were many institutes and resources near SH. The SH students were easy to access the resources--public
libraries, university facilities , Museums, community center of the university housing , community recreation center, etc.
These institutes provided various programs and activities for the residents and played important roles in social interactions.
This study aimed at investigating foreign students learning in a new school. The features of the school for support
students learning are discussed as below.
Cherishing Various Cultural Capitals
The diversities among students ethics, languages, and cultures were not seen as hinders for teachers teaching.
Instead, the administrators and teachers in SH utilized effectively parents involvement as resources for supporting
students learning, SH encouraged parents to join school activities by positive communication and interaction. Parents from
other countries did concern about their kids life in the school. SH adopted open strategies for encouraging parents to
participate in school activities, such as volunteer of administration, teaching, or after school programs.
Facilitating Learning by Administrative Support
SH employed ESL teachers with other language ability to help new comers. In SH, some of ESL teachers were
from China, Korea, Spain and French. For new comers, ESL teachers would enter their home classes to help. When k-1
new student, Erica, were in Ms. Young class in September, 2010. ESL teacher J who could speak Chinese went to the K-I
class to help Erica as possible as she could. ESL teachers were not only for teaching English but also for providing
assistance of students school life.
Library is one of most popular site in SH. Librarian, Ms. H. was a nice counselor for students. A Grade 4-5
Taiwanese student, Emily, whose English ability is about grade 2 by entrance exam. To help Ericas reading, Ms. H.
discussed with Emilys ESL teacher, then provided reading lists for Emily based on her age and language abilities.
Constructing Language Programs and Activities to Enhance Students Interaction
SH had several programs after school provide by PTA (parent and teacher association), such as language
programs, science clubs, craft classes etc. Most of the program teachers were parents with teacher certifications. Taking
language programs as an example, the programs included Japanese, Korean, France, Spanish, Chinese and Sign language.
Emilys best friend from Chili spoke Spanish. Emily joined Spanish program to learn her friends language. It was a way to
express kids friendship.
Designing Routine Multicultural Activities
SH held routine cultural activities for teachers, students and their family to share their culture and talents. Such as
variety show (students and teachers performances) in the first semester and international week (global village, food fairs,
Impact Factor (JCC): 4.3912

NAAS Rating: 2.72

No Strangers in Classrooms: A Perspective of

Culturally Responsive Practice

23

performances) in the second semester.

These activities taken charged by PTA were connected to classroom curriculum. For example, during international
week, K-1 teacher Y invited parents from other countries to introduce their food, customs, house and toys in her class.
The activities were designed to welcome parents participation. Parents took time to prepare the activities with
their kids. During the international week, most of the parents did their best for demonstrating their culture in the global
village and food fair. In the global village, the school became a big family.

CURRICULUM

TRANSGROMATION

BASED

ON

STUDENTS

CULTURE

AND

LIFE

EXPERIENCE
Effective knowledge should connect to students life and experiences. In SH, culturally responsive curriculum is
muti-dimentions.
Students Learning Integration Based on Their Own Language and Culture
My family visited SH by new semester in August, 2010. Seeing us walking inside the school building, principal L
came over to say hello. She ardently welcomed my kids to the school and led us to visit it. Would the students diversity
be problems for teaching? Especially when teachers facing students who were not familiar with English. I wonderet.
Principal L expressed that she had been SH for ten years. One of the features in this school is students multicultural
background, she was glad to make friend with enthusiasm forging parents. She pointed that the diversity had been one of
important resources of this school, and never be a hinder for teachers teaching. Students would love to come and get well
along with other kids soon.
During the first week of the semester, SH took receptions for parents. As new comers, many parents worried about
their kids who might have difficulty in following school learning due to the lacks of Egnlish ability. Some of them asked
for extra programs or materials to enrich kids English after school. One of ESL teacher responded to those concerns:
school learning is hard for kids with different language. As school teachers, teaching English is our responsibility. For
students, their work is to share their new school experience with family. Please give your kids to express their experience
and school learning in their own language instead of putting pressures on them.
At PTA (parent-teacher meeting), as a parent, I entered Emilys class to meet her homeroom teacher, Mr. E. We
discussed about Emilys leaning and assignments. Mr. E expressed that he encouraged his students to write narrative after
school. I told Mr. E that I would ask Emily to do it every day. I was surprised while Mr. E faced Emily and told her: If you
think one narrative every day is OK for you, then you could do it. If you think its too much, a narrative a week is Ok, too.
I want you to enjoy the pleasure of doing narrative instead of the pressure from it.
Constructing Curriculum Base on Students Ordinary Life Experience
In SH, curriculum contents were related to seasons or school routine activities. Giving an example, main learning
units for k-l classes were regarding to spring and Global in the second semester. The following instances were my ESL
classroom observations.
3.2.1 March 15, 2011. When I went down basement to ESL classroom at 9:20. ESL teachers photos were on the
wall outside ESL classroom. Inside the classroom, there were an America national flag and a big world map. On the right

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Pei-Hsuan Lin

side of the classroom, a variety of souvenirs given by foreign students were set in the bookshelf. On the left side, readings
leveled 0-30 for ESL students were in the other bookshelf. ESL students was asked to bring two readings as home
assignment based on their English ability and readiness. ESL teacher A took K-1 ESL students from their own home class
to the ESL classroom. There were 8 students who were from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Chili, and Mexico. Erica was
the leader that day. When students sat on the floor, Erica pointed the words in the board with a point-pen and led other
students to read loudly: It is March 15, Wednesday, sunny day. The Unit of the class had been on Earth (one subunit of
Global) since February. They had learned the five Continents in the world. One Chinese student told me that his county is
in Asia by pointing the big Map on the wall with silence voice. Teacher A asked students where they lived. Then, she passed
each one a paper with M. city map. She asked the students to write I live in M... on the paper and color it.
3.2.2 March 23, 2011. The ESL class had been still on the unit of Earth. The topic was regarding to houses. ESL
teacher A opened a big book in which shows different styles of houses, such as ice house, long-stand house, stone house.
A new student from Japan was in the class that day. Another ESL teacher Mimi from Korea came to the class for helping
the new student. After finishing the big book, students went back to their seat from the front floor. A volunteer parent helped
to pass the worksheet and gave assistances. While students were doing their seat work, teachers A had 1 or 2 students to do
comprehension testing each class. She had Erica come to her desk for the testing. The test was not only to help ESL
teachers monitor students progress but also help students to know their reading levels. For Erica, her reading level made
progress to level 6-7 from 1-2 level when she was a new comer last September.
3.2.3 May 4, 2011. Todays unit is flowers and animals in spring. ESL Teacher A and students took some
pictures in schoolyards yesterday. The pictures included flowers (daffodil, dandelion, tulip) and animals (squirrel, robin,
turkey). Teacher A printed out the pictures. At the beginning of the class, students sang two spring songs which revised
from childrens songs. They were enjoying the singing. Teacher A attracted students attention by pointing the pictures took
yesterday on the board. They were excited to see the beautiful pictures and discussed the names and colors of the flowers
and animals. Then students went back to do their seat work, making a small book with 10 pages about flowers and animals
in spring. On each page of the small book, it let kids to write by a sentence: In the spring, we see

. Everyone could

write his/her own sentences and picked the pictures on the board to stick it on the blank part in the page. For example, I
can see a red robin in the tree or I can see a white tulip in the garden. They were expected to do page by page. The pace of
ESL seatwork for each student was flexible. If the students couldnt finish the work in this class, they could keep doing in
next class. Its Ericas turn for comprehension testing. She was in level 9. Erica picked readings leveled 9-10 on the book
shelf for home studying today.
3.2.4 May 26, 2011. The ESL class started with it is May 26, Thursday, rainy while a leader led the class to
read loudly by pointing those words on a board. The topic is animals connected to the farm field trip for K-1 students last
week. The students saw lots of animals in the farm. They were allowed to hold a baby animal if they wanted. Erica had a
chick in her hands that day. In todays class, teacher told a ducking story with a big picture book. She also prepared
stickers, pictures for students seatwork. The seatwork was to finish the worksheet by choice one of their favorite animal
and fill out the brank by referring to the works appeared in the big book. Then they could draw or use sticker to finish a
picture with simple words.
Teacher A prepared some clean old socks for planting plant pal since the beginning of the unit of spring. Since
then, students had done their journal to trace the growth of their plant pal. The plant pals were growing green hair. Some
Impact Factor (JCC): 4.3912

NAAS Rating: 2.72

No Strangers in Classrooms: A Perspective of

Culturally Responsive Practice

25

of the students were busying in cutting the pals hair, some were busying in recording the length of the pals hair. Taking
care of their plant pal was much fun than doing todays worksheet.
Utilizing Symbolic Curriculum
One way for transferring culturally relevant curriculum is the application of symbolic curriculum (Tisdell, 2006)).
In SH, students could see world maps, their national flags and artworks around the school. In school, students could
introduce their national flag and traditional artworks to their friends by the map and decorations located in school corners.
They learned to know one another and different culture by the open, fresh and respect symbolic environment in the school.
Interactive Instruction and Strategies
Each student has his/her own learning style rooted in their live and culture. In SH, responding to students
differentiation, the nature of teaching was caring, flexibility and variety.
3.4.1 Caring Relationship among Teachers and Students. SH is an international school. The school welcomed new
comers anytime. Teachers showed their geniality in getting along with kids. For instance, Erica couldnt speak English
when she came to SH. She was used to give a hug to her homeroom teacher Y to express her appreciation or anxiety. Miss
Y was glad her students to interact with her by different ways. She said when a student comes to give me a hug or hold
my hands that means he/she feels safe and needs help. I enjoy the warmth with my students by different interactive means.

3.4.2. Providing Tiered Materials and Flexible Pace to Fit Students Learning Need and Readiness. Students
readiness, learning style and interest were different due to the mix-age and multi-cultural background in SH. In teacher Ys
classroom, she prepared different levels of learning files/boxes which including different materials, reading, and
assignments for each student. Responding to mix-age kids, grouping was a popular strategy in classrooms. In teacher Ys
classroom, students were divided into four groups according to their math readiness and abilities. She taught one group
each class while the other groups were doing their assignments or works prepared by teachers in their files. For younger
kids, like Erica, teacher Y gave them more time to do their work by their own pace instead of unifying the worktime.
3.4.3. Encouraging Students to Express Their Ideas and Feeling by Multiform. In teacher As and Ys classrooms,
there were lots of teaching aids in cabinets. Teacher Y indicated that it was important to learn by sensory for little kids. She
spend lots of time in collecting and preparing operational materials. In addition, she designed learning by planning games.
Her students often played cards to enhance the concepts of numbering. She thought that students could get along with one
another easily by playing games as well.
As new comers, some students had difficulty in speaking English. Teacher Y started her class by students sharing
stories with sign language every day. To give students opportunities to express their story and feeling, teacher Y adopt
several strategies, such as sign language, story books, weekly stars etc. Every kid had a story book to share her/his life
story. It could be done by writing, drawing, pictures, or photos. Week birthday star is one of favorite programs in the
classroom. The weekly stars prepared photos and told the class about their growth story. Those approaches were not only
for sharing individual growth but also the story regarding diverse environment and cultural characteristics. They learned to
know one another as well as their culture.

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Pei-Hsuan Lin

TEACHERS AS CULTUARL BROKERS

Schoolteachers, as cultural organizers and collaborators (Gay, 2000; Gentemann & Whitehead, 1983), can build a
bridge among students families. Teacher Y and teacher A welcomed parents to be volunteers in her classrooms. It provided
opportunities for parents making friends with another by participating in the classes. The trust and friendship among
parents affect students positive interaction after school.
Teacher Ys students often invited their classmates to join their family activities after school. For kids, birthday
party is one of most popular social activities. Erica was invited to her classmates birthday party. She attended Natashas
panama party, Kittys cake-baking party, and so on. For her, enjoying the exotic parties would be indelible experiences.
Parents did appreciate teacher Y for her kindness and patience to their kids. Two weeks before teachers
appreciation week (May 2-6), two parents invited others to help their kids design presents for teacher appreciation day
without notifying teacher Y in advance. Students made a thank-book by cards with their words. Teacher Y was amazed at
receiving the present. How touching she was when getting the surprise!
I had entered a study field with strange culture. During this time, I learned how the school teachers interpreted
students differentiation and response to their diversity. In SH, staffs and teachers took diversity as a normal part of the
school ecology. They admitted and appreciated the differentiations. They utilized diversity as resource to build support
systems for students learning during school time and after school. Student felt safe and enjoyed their learning in SH. There
was no strangers in the school after all.
REFERENCES
1.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research and practice. NY: Teacher College Press.

2.

Gentemann, K. M., & Whitehead, T. L. (1983). The cultural broker concept in bicultural education. Journal of Negro
Education, 52(2), 118-129.

3.

Tisdell, E. J. (2006). Spirituality, cultural identity, and Epistemology in culturally responsive teaching in higher education.
Multicultural perspective, 8(3), 19-25.

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.3912

NAAS Rating: 2.72