Without question, the world’s schoolhouse is ever changing in its student demographics. In any city, large or small, regardless of the country’s history or the language of schooling, teachers work with student populations whose ways of being have been influenced by their cultures. We know that the word culture itself is hardly an easy term to define. There may be a tendency to oversimplify its definition, and it is a perilous situation when this happens in schools. Understanding the role of culture in learning takes time and introspection on the part of the educator. Culture is about far more than foods, how we dance, and how we dress for special occasions. Each student is a complex individual who represents pieces of all the culture groups with whom she or he has interacted from birth to adulthood. An appropriate definition of culture encompasses language, religion, norms of behavior, and numerous other factors that contribute to making each learner’s personality and learning style distinct. Culture delimits learning for English language learners (ELLs) regardless of their country of origin, and also for students growing up in multilingual nations. For example, a child born in Curacao, one of the islands of the lower Antilles, grows up interacting in Dutch, Spanish, English, and Papiamento. The way Curacaoan society views and values languages is reflected in students’ accomplishments and interpersonal interactions. During the 2 weeks that I spent on this island in the summer of 2013, I was exposed to individuals who beautifully and easily demonstrate the fluidity of their language repertoire. They move across languages to efficiently communicate with tourists from the United States, Holland, and Latin America. I heard taxi drivers speak to me in Spanish, to my husband in English, and to the person they said hello to as they rounded the corner in Papiamento. My lofty goal throughout the world would be for all learners to be afforded the freedom and opportunity to use all their languages this way within their worlds.

Competent teachers are those who explore the worlds where students are born and nourished to adulthood. In order to prepare interculturally savvy educators, institutions that prepare future teachers must carefully articulate culturally sensitive philosophies of instruction. These should acknowledge that learners be taught the content of math, science, and other subjects from the context of the people who made the discoveries, wrote the books, and use the disciplinary knowledge in their daily lives. In this article, I discuss what teacher educators can do to prepare teachers who will promote an appreciation of cultural differences in their classrooms.

Embarking on a Voyage of Discovery

If we hope to eliminate intolerance, we must first embark all current and future teachers on a voyage that will open their eyes to that which is not overtly visible. We must involve them in an honest examination of their own level of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett, 2010). The classroom ambiance begins with the teacher and how he or she views students. An individual who can identify his or her own prejudices will understand the arbitrary decisions that have led to his or her personal convictions. A practical way to begin the trip is to ask future teachers to read about the histories of their students and compare what they learn to their own history. When we explore who we are—what we take for granted to be the norm—and how this differs from others’ givens, we start the process of developing intercultural competence. The discovery helps us see the reality that much of what we define as appropriate is often no more than what we are used to seeing, doing, and blindly accepting as appropriate. This trip must be a requirement of all programs of teacher preparation because culturally sensitive instruction is what provides scaffolds to learning that allow teachers to reach all students (Gay, 2010). The voyage of exploration is the first scaffold to enlightenment.

Creating Welcoming Classrooms

Self-esteem, self-efficacy, and pride in one’s culture and language are all promoted by informed, supportive educators. Teachers are the gatekeepers who open or close the doors to social justice in schools. Competent teachers, armed with the tools to help students succeed, highlight students’ unique traits in their curriculum in order to give the students a sense of empowerment. When students feel validated in the school community, they do not have trouble challenging themselves to achieve success. Advocacy in action begins when practicing educators and/or teacher candidates investigate who composes their classroom culture with the start of every new school term (Nieto & Bode, 2012). It is only when we see into the other that we can truly understand and come to respect people whose past differs from ours. Informed teachers become mediators between home and school. Their classrooms highlight the value of linguistic and cultural differences. Teachers who uncover the knowledge learners bring to school view variations in language as the strengths that are the basis of students’ pluriliteracies.

Language diversity can be used positively or negatively, to welcome or separate, and to rank and sort. Indeed, language represents identity for teachers and students (Sercu, 2011). A person’s definition of the self is inextricably linked to his or her cultural capital in language and culture (Collins & Blot, 2003). This is why it is important to make sure that all the languages spoken in a school community are reflected in the classroom and school libraries. It is essential that students see themselves and their families’ experiences in the everyday curriculum. Also, when teachers use the students’ funds of knowledge as the basis of classroom examples and modeling, it is easier for the learners to access and grasp the content being taught.

Governments and school systems cannot be permitted to determine the languages and materials used in schooling. Teachers need the freedom to modify core curricula so that it will make sense to the students in their classrooms. If those outside the schoolhouse become the sole decision makers, they will define and control the development of learners’ identities. Students need room to explore their multicultural multilingual identities and levels of pluriliteracy, whether at home or at school.

The Future

Although curricula focused on intercultural sensitivity is something that should be the norm at all levels of schooling, we have far to go in accomplishing this. In the United States the momentum that is precipitating change is not a voluntary movement of advocacy. Instead, it is a reaction to the massive demographic changes in student populations. Schools are inundated with ELLs, and teachers and administrators do not know how to interact with and teach these learners. Indeed, the process of curricular transformation is needed across all groups of educators: preservice teachers, practicing teachers, and college professors who may have previously taught with a sole focus on content.

References

Bennett, C. (2010). Comprehensive multicultural education: Theory and practice. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Collins, J., & Blot, R. (2003). Literacy and literacies: Texts, power, and identity. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2012). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Sercu, L. (2011). The acquisition of intercultural competence: Does language education help or hinder? In G. Zarate, D. Levy, & C. Kramsch (Eds.), Handbook of multilingualism and multiculturalism (pp. 45–50). Paris, France: Editions des Archives Contemporaines.

Mayra C. Daniel was born in Cuba and, with her family, emigrated to the United States at age 10. She has taught Spanish as a foreign language at the university level and English as a second language at the K–12 level. Currently, she prepares future and practicing teachers to work with English language learners in the United States. Her volunteerism takes her to Guatemala, where she engages in professional development with practicing teachers and teacher educators.