Culturally Engaged Instruction

Answers by Ms. Renee Moore

You’ve developed a strategy called Culturally Engaged Instruction (CEI) for teaching English and, in particular, grammar to African American high school students.  What are the basic tenets of this approach?

Culturally Engaged Instruction (CEI) is a term I gleaned from the work of Gloria Ladson Billings, author of The Dreamkeepers: Effective Teachers of African American Students (I communicated with her while I was doing my own classroom research), and other educational researchers who have plowed this ground before.  She and other researchers, use the term “culturally relevant teaching” to describe the practice of teachers using approaches that are harmonic with the backgrounds and experiences of their students. I chose the word “engaged” to emphasize the transactional nature of teaching and learning as I observed and practiced it in my own classroom.

I define CEI as dynamic practice shaped by informed and collaborative analysis of the particular cultural experiences, strengths, and learning goals of a specific group of students within a particular community.  On the surface, it is basic good teaching to get to know one’s students and their backgrounds. I just took it a step or two further in relation to the specific history of language instruction and Blacks in America.

Your writings point to the beginning of the school year as the most critical time to begin understanding students in their cultural context.  How can teachers take maximum advantage of this opportunity to engage their students?

The beginning of the school year, as Harry Wong and others have told us, is very important for many reasons.  In relation to CEI, it represents a fresh start for teacher and students; getting to know each other based on the realities of who we are right now in our life journey, rather than based upon pre-conceived ideas or formulas.  We do ourselves and our students a great injustice by assuming things based upon such demographic factors as living conditions, socioeconomic levels, relatives, or what last year’s teacher said.

Engaging in meaningful activities at the start of the year to learn about students and their level of performance also introduces the concept of real research and real learning. It establishes tangibly the importance that you attach to each student as a unique learner, and helps reinforce the work habits and procedures you expect for the year (circa Wong).   I made a very BIG DEAL out of my first-of-the-year assessments, setting aside at least one full week of class to conduct and analyze them.  Students were involved in the analysis as well as the performing of these pre-assessments.  Also, teachers should make sure they’ve given every type of learner an opportunity to express his or her knowledge, skills, goals, and talents.                   

The beginning of school is also the time to establish meaningful connections with parents, guardians, or significant adults; in order to further understanding of the cultural context of the students and to establish healthy communications before any problems arise.

Would CEI be applicable for the teaching of other subjects?

Some of the features of CEI that I talk about in my research are tethered to the language arts because of the relationship between culture and language. However, I am sure it is applicable in other subject areas, simply because it is built around the time-tested concepts of getting to really know one’s students, the community, the school’s climate, and all of the factors that impact on what we do.  I think it is supremely counterproductive to pretend that we can create an insulated little world within our classroom into which the other aspects of our lives or our students’ lives do not permeate.  It is possible, however, to establish a clear perimeter that demarcates our classroom experience from the rest of the world, where we and our students can consciously choose to move into different types of relationships and conduct. 

Would CEI be applicable for teaching other minority students?  for teaching white students?

The principles of CEI would absolutely be applicable for teaching any group of students and diverse groupings of students.  I learned from personal experience that we should never assume any group of students is culturally homogenous, even if they are all from the same ethnic or racial group.

What can teacher preparation programs do to help future teachers engage culturally with their students?

Teacher education programs have come under some extremely harsh attacks recently for the quality of their work in preparing future teachers; and some of that criticism is justified.  Fortunately, many of them are making major moves to improve the quality of training experiences and theoretical foundations given to teacher candidates.   It is still a fact, however, that most of the people coming through teacher ed programs are from different cultural backgrounds than most of the students they will be teaching.

One way teacher ed programs can help candidates is to introduce them to the work of master teachers who are from different cultural backgrounds. This serves the dual purpose of learning about cross cultural issues as well as learning teaching techniques and styles that may be particularly effective with diverse cultures. It also helps build respect within our profession across cultural and ethnic lines (something that has been a real problem in many places for a long time). The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has an initiative in this area called Quest, in which the work of master teachers, along with background and contextual information, is collected in multi-layered websites which are then used by teacher educators in their work.   Another way to enrich the teacher ed experience is to involve master teachers in the surrounding communities (such as National Board Certified teachers, and others) more directly in the teacher ed programs as co-instructors or seminar presenters.                 

I have a particular peeve with teacher ed programs that put candidates into what I call “Fantasy Island” student teaching positions.  New teachers in most school districts do not get to choose their assignments; they are put in the area of highest need for which they have credentials to teach.  Many student teachers never experience how to relate with students of different cultures until they find themselves employed by a district facing their first school year.

What can school districts and administrators do to encourage cultural understanding in the classroom?

Cultural understanding is built on respect and information.  One long, hard fight we have had in this country is accepting the fact that we are a nation made up of many cultural backgrounds.  Some people have chosen to shed their native or historical cultures to adopt a more homogenous, socially acceptable American culture. Others choose to hold and cherish their traditional cultures within the experience of being proud Americans. Both groups (of taxpaying citizens) send their children to public schools.                     

Districts and administrators can set the tone for respect of cultures in many tangible ways, including providing information for parents in their home languages or honoring the holidays or special customs of cultures represented in their schools. One of the most important ways they can encourage cultural understanding is by hiring and respecting educators from various cultures, and allowing those educators to recommend and practice culturally appropriate methods in their teaching

You have been a teacher-researcher since your early days of teaching.  Is it important for all teachers to incorporate some element of research into their careers?

I believe all truly accomplished, masterful teachers are reflective of their practice. Engaging in classroom research has tremendously affected my teaching over the years. One of the greatest benefits of being a teacher / researcher is that I am constantly asking questions about my own teaching. 

Research takes many forms: from the formal, structured gathering of data culminating in publication; to the simpler, yet profound rethinking of a classroom activity that didn’t quite work out (or did unexpectedly well).  As professionals, we also have an obligation to review regularly research being put forward within our field and give thoughtful feedback to the authors of that research.  One reason so many faulty educational theories are out here is because those of us in a position to question or challenge them remain silent in the professional dialogue. Many of us see a report in the newspaper or a professional journal and never consider that we could (and should) respond to it either directly to the author or in a letter to the editor.  Research is, after all, an on-going conversation within a field or profession. Classroom teachers need to become more proactive participants in that conversation.

You mentioned in your article, “Circles of Influence,” that the No Child Left Behind Act disrupted the teaching method you’ve spent years honing.  How did you handle the changes in your classroom, and what advice would you give other teachers who seek to balance quality instruction with the new law’s requirements?

This is a painful issue for me and many, many classroom teachers right now.  Ultimately, the stifling decisions being brought to bear on me and how I could teach my students, contributed to my decision to leave the K-12 classroom and accept a full-time position at the community college level, where I could teach relatively unhindered. What disturbed me most was the admission by administrators and policy-makers that even though I am by all current measures an excellent teacher (yes, including my students’ performance on standardized tests), I still was not allowed to make my own decisions on curriculum and methodology.  I still was required to follow the script, the timeline, and the advice of consultants (some of whom I knew personally) who had either limited classroom experience or had been mediocre, even poor teachers themselves.

Although my personal and family situation made leaving the best option, my preference would have been to stay and fight for the professional rights of teachers to teach (a battle in which I am still deeply active).  While NCLB itself does not require the rigid adherence to formulas and scripted curriculum, panicky administrators and uninformed policymakers are pushing more classrooms down that road, to the detriment of all of our students.

Fortunately, not all schools or districts are as short-sighted as others and some have actually learned to reward their best teachers by giving them more, not less, professional freedom.  My strongest advice to teachers is to teach well and continue to push for real teacher voice in the setting of policy, development of curriculum, and in all areas of assessment.  Groups such as Teacher Solutions, which is bringing together teacher leaders from around the country to help draft guidance or policy makers on issues such as professional compensation for teachers, keep me hopeful that the level of professional respect for teachers will grow in coming years.

About Renee Moore

A native of Detroit, Renee worked as a freelance journalist for 10 years before moving to the Mississippi Delta with her husband to pursue their vision of ministry to young people. The mother of four returned to college to complete her B.S. in English Education at Delta State University (1990) and earned a Master of Arts from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College in Vermont (1997). Actively involved in teacher-research, Renee is also a Writing Project Fellow (Delta Writing Project) and has received numerous awards and grants, including $30,000 from the Spencer Foundation (Chicago) for her work on teaching standard English to African American students. Renee is a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) in Adolescent English Language Arts. She is the only active classroom educator serving on the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (California). She also currently serves on the State (MS) Commission on Teacher and Administrator Education, Certification, and Licensure. Active for many years as a workshop presenter and trainer, Renee has also taught part-time at Delta State, as well as Coahoma and Mississippi Delta Community Colleges. Since becoming a teacher, her writings have been published as chapters in four books and several professional journals.

Renee taught English and journalism at Broad Street High School in Shelby, Mississippi, where she also served as Lead Teacher, from 1998-2005. Prior to that she taught for nine years at East Side High School in Cleveland (MS), where she was also a District Teacher of the Year. In August of 2005, she moved to a full-time position as English instructor at Mississippi Delta Community College, in Moorhead.

For more on Renee, her research, and a look at what she does in the classroom, visit: http://goingpublicwithteaching.org/rmoore/