Culturally Proficient Instruction
Can you remember a time when you
realized that even with your education and training, you did not know enough?
Can you remember the last time you asked yourself, why didn’t anyone ever tell
me about this? Have you ever looked across a classroom of learners and wondered
to yourself whether you had what you
needed to reach each of them?
My first two years of teaching
was the most difficult times I have ever experienced in my teaching career. I thought teaching was going to be a breeze,
standing before a group of 20 students and lecturing all day, sharing of what I
knew about a particular content area. Sadly
did I know my students were still just as confused as they were from the
beginning of my lectures to the end. I wondered to myself what am I doing
wrong? Why are they not showing any learning gains? Later, from trainings and through experiences, I learned that I needed
to create a culturally responsive classroom, an environment that fosters
culturally proficient instruction, in which I would be able to connect effectively,
myself, the content of the instructional material and students together. According to Robins (2006), a culturally
proficient instructor is one who “creates an environment in which you and your
students become a community of learners engaged in culturally proficient
practice—assessing the diversity of the classroom and the individuals in it,
valuing diversity, managing the dynamics of their differences, adapting to
those differences, and institutionalizing new ways of interacting as you and
they learn more about yourselves and about one another” (2006 p. 32). The first
step in my development processes was to self-reflect on my culturally based teaching
practices and beliefs. Second, I had to adapt a caring attitude so that my
students would feel respected and are respectful to my directions and rules. Last
I had to incorporate interactive teaching practices and materials in my
teachings that could help me respond appropriately to my students’ diverse
needs. After incorporating these changes into my teaching system, I notice my
students’ demeanor about learning in my classroom had begun to change in
positive way. I would observe greater
communication in the classroom, better on task engagement, increased
responsiveness to my expectations and instruction, and enhanced academic
performance. This I can say honestly was a vast improvement from my earliest
teaching experiences.
Reference:
Robins,
K.N., Lindsey, D. B., Lindsey, R. B., & Terrell, R.D. (2006) Culturally
Proficient Instruction: A Guide for People Who Teach (2nd Ed.). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc 
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