Integrating the Teaching of Culture and Social Responsibility

Joe McVeighAnn Wintergerst

JoeMcVeigh

AnnWintergerst

Integrating culture and social responsibility

What comes to mind when you think about teaching culture?

What comes to mind when you think about social responsibility?

Integrating culture and social responsibility

• How can English language teachers help promote tolerance of differences between people and cultures?

• As teachers, should we share our values, beliefs, and hopes in the classroom? If yes, how much should we share them?

Somewhere in those deep recesses of your mind and emotion you are guided by a sense of mission, of purpose, and of dedication to a profession in which you believe you can make a difference. Your sense of social responsibility directs you to be an agent for change. You’re driven by convictions about what this world should look like, how its people should behave, how its governments should control that behavior, and how its inhabitants should be partners in the stewardship of the planet. (Brown 2007, p. 512)

Tip 1: Introduce concepts of social responsibility, ethics, and human rights

• A story from Jamaica and Haiti

Introduce concepts of social responsibility, ethics, and human rights

• What is the goal of our teaching? More than just words.

• Connection between language, culture, ethnic/racial difference.

• Education is not neutral. (Nieto 2002) Questions about equity and social justice are at the core of education

• Need to go above and beyond basics of language and culture to develop respect and empathy

Introduce concepts of social responsibility, ethics, and human rights

Introduce concepts of social responsibility, ethics, and human rights

• Raise student awareness of issues.

• Gently lead into discussions or exercises to help them explore their own ideas and opinions.

Activity:Teaching culture examples

Activity 1: Thinking peace, doing peace

Thinking peace/Doing peace(adapted from Ochoa-Becker, 2003)

• Select 4 or 5 photographs that depict war and violence from magazines and newspapers. Allow students time to examine them carefully and then discuss the following questions:

– Why do you think this violence is taking place?– Could these problems have been settled in other

ways? How?– What are the ways we can help prevent war?

Thinking peace/Doing peace(adapted from Ochoa-Becker, 2003)

With the students, brainstorm the ideas that come to mind when hearing the word “peace.”

Thinking peace/Doing peace(adapted from Ochoa-Becker, 2003)

• Place students in small groups and have them discuss the following questions:

– How would you define “peace.”

– Think about a time you experienced peace. What was the situation? Why did you find it peaceful? Explain why you found it peaceful. Give an authentic example of your own to begin the sharing.

– Can you think of a place where you feel more peaceful than in other places?

– What can you do to contribute to peace at a local level among your friends, in the classroom, and in your family?

Tip 2: Manage contro-versial issues in theclassroom with respect

Manage controversial issues in the classroom with respect

• Shying away from controversial issues

• Not all topics appropriate• Complex issues can become the focus of

intrinsically motivating language learning (Brown 2007)

• Published textbooks avoid controversy• Teachers responsible for creating

atmosphere of respect (Brown 2007)

Manage controversial issues in the classroom with respect

• Encourage respect, voice of minority

• Select topics with care

• Give equal voice to all

• End discussion and move on when time is right

• Teachers own opinion – voice or remain neutral?

Activity 2: ControversialDebate

Activity 2 Controversial debate• Choose a suitable controversial topic.• Write a key question and follow-ups.• Teach the useful expressions (see handout)

• Write the topic on the board. Teach students any useful vocabulary.

• Break students into small teams. Give them time to discuss the topic and to frame their arguments.

• Hold the debate.• Bring the class together for debriefing.

Tip 3: Explore issues of power balance and the roles of teacher and learners

Explore issues of power balance and the roles of teacher and learners

• If teachers– Set the agenda– Choose the curriculum– Lead the class instruction– Create the tests– Grade the students

who has the upper hand?

Explore issues of power balance and the roles of teacher and learners

• “human relationships are at the heart of schooling.” (Cummins 1996)

• Negotiation of identity in the classroom is essential to the sense of self of teachers and students alike. (Wink 2005)

• “Education becomes an act of depositing in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat.” (Freire 1970)

Activity 3: Balancing

power in the classroom

Balancing power in the classroom

• Think about the balance of power in your classroom. Write a list of decisions you make and actions you take when managing the class. These might include common administrative tasks, choices about the syllabus, the correction of papers, or the delegation of turns when speaking. Then write a list of decisions students make and actions they take during class time.

• Think about which decisions and actions could be shared with or delegated to students.

Balancing power in the classroom

• Gradually begin experimenting with letting your students take on some of these roles.

• Share your ideas with your students and see what tasks they are willing to take on.

• Periodically reflect on the effect of having students take on more roles in the classroom. What is the effect on you? On the students?

Balancing power in the classroom

Some tasks that students might take on could include:• taking attendance or roll• writing notes or comments on the board• leading discussions• correcting each other’s written work• reading a dictation• collaborating on the grading process• establishing ground rules for classroom behavior• helping to choose the topics for the course syllabus• deciding when the next test should be and what it

should cover

Tip 4: Create respect for diversity and ethnic differences in the classroom

Create respect for diversity and ethnic differences in the classroom

• End discrimination by valuing diversity and ethnic differences

• Ethnocentrism: tendency of a culture to view its own values and beliefs as normal and another culture’s as wrong

• Need to reduce prejudice and discrimination, though not a value in much of the world (Bennett 2003)

Levels of prejudiceLevel of expression Examples

Talking about a member of the target group in negative and stereotypical terms.

“Those people just can’t be trusted.”

Avoiding or withdrawing from contact with the disliked group.

Not attending an event because you know that someone from the group will be there

Discrimination: excluding members of the group from certain types of employment, housing, educational opportunities, or other type of social institution.

Refusing a job, a house, etc. to someone because of the group that he or she belongs to

Physical attacks Attacking minorities or their property physically

(Samovar & Porter, 2004)

Create respect for diversity and ethnic differences in the classroom

• Avoid cultural bias (Lustig & Koester 2003)

• Manage student exposure to varied content about ethnic and cultural diversity

• Create a “true community” in the classroom (Orbe 1995)

– Inclusive– Strong sense of commitment– Necessity of concensus– Awareness of self and others– Secure enough to be vulnerable– Able to resolve differences

Activity 4: Working with others

Activity 4: Working with others

On the board write: “tolerance: the willingness to accept

others and their behaviors even if you do not like them;

prejudice: an unfair feeling of dislike against someone who is different from you.”

Discuss these with the class. Ask students for examples.

Activity 4: Working with others

Have students complete the questionnaire in the handout. (Or give this as homework in advance)

Discuss answers. Ask students for examples.

Lead students in a discussion about differences and responding to those who are different from us. Try to elicit from students ways in which we all might be more sensitive, tolerant, and helpful to others.

Tip 5: Incorporate principles of multicultural education in your classroom

Incorporate principles of multicultural education in your classroom

• Multicultural education – not the same as cross cultural / intercultural

• Looks at education from the point of view of those individuals who are different from the mainstream and asks how they can be included in the educational process.

• All social class, gender, racial, language, and cultural groups have an equal opportunity to learn.

Values of the core culture in the United States

The importance of individual freedom and self reliance

Equality of opportunity and competition

The importance of material wealth and hard work

A strong sense of individualism as opposed to group orientation

The idea of expansionism and manifest destiny

The importance of privacy

Belief in the future, change, and the inevitability of progress

A belief in the general goodness of humanity

Directness and assertiveness

An orientation to action Informality Cooperation and fair play

PragmatismThe distinction between work and play

The need to be liked

Values of the core culture in the United States from Banks and Banks (2001); Kearney Datesman, Crandall, & Kearney (2005); Althen (1988); and Stewart & Bennett (1991).

What the teacher can do

Dimension Application

Content integration Teachers use examples and content from a variety of cultures in their teaching.

Knowledge construction

Teachers become aware of how implicit cultural assumptions, frames of reference, perspectives and biases within a discipline influence the ways that knowledge is constructed.

Prejudice reduction Teachers make use of teaching methods and materials to modify students’ racial attitudes and consequential behaviors.

An equity pedagogy

Teachers modify their teaching in ways that facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse racial, cultural, gender, and social-class groups.

An empowering school culture

Teachers examine grouping and labeling practices, sports participation, disproportionality in achievement, and interaction of staff and students across ethnic and racial lines to create a school culture that empowers students from diverse racial, ethnic, and gender groups.

Dimensions of multicultural education. Banks & Banks (2001, p. 23)

Tip 5: Incorporate principles of multicultural education in your classroom

Activity 5: Sharing identities

• Make copies of the handout for Activity 5. Pass them out to the class.

• Have students write their answers. Then put students in pairs and have them discuss their answers.

• After students have shared their answers, write the following questions on the board. Then discuss them as a class:

– How do you define your identity?– What parts of your identity are most important to you?– What parts of your identity have you chosen? What parts do you

have no control over?– How does your identity reflect your culture?

Teaching notes:

Be aware that this exercise requires self-disclosure on the part of students and that some students may not be completely comfortable. Be sure to stress to students that they need not answer any questions that they don’t want. Also, take care to group students in pairs where they will feel comfortable sharing their answers.

Tip 6: Include critical pedagogyin your approach to teaching culture

Include critical pedagogy in your approach to teaching culture

• Critical pedagogy (Freire 1970)

• Self-examination• Critical pedagogy in TESOL (Pennycook 1999)

– Power and inequality between NS and NNS– Sexual orientation in different ethnic/cultural backgrounds– Power of English to subjugate others– Danger of divorcing teaching from a political stance

• Transformative power of critical teaching (Pennycook 1999)

– Awareness of self, language, issues needing change– Putting curriculum in hands of students– Pedagogy of engagement approach looks at fundamental issues of identity and

language. These topics form the basis of curricular organization.

Include critical pedagogy in your approach to teaching culture

• “Doing” critical pedagogy– Name problem or difficulty– Reflect criticially– Act to solve it

• Teachers and learners empowered to solve problems when:

– They trust each other– They believe their involvement will matter– They understand resistance and institutional barriers to change– They are aware of their own power and knowledge

(Wink 2005)

Activity 6:Four

Corners(adapted from

Wink, 2005)

Concluding thoughts

Questions&

Discussion

Activities © 2011 Pearson Longman.

Permission granted to copy for classroom use.

Copies of PowerPoint slides and handout with bibliography available at:

www.joemcveigh.org/resources

Available online at Pearson Longman

or

Amazon

ISBN-13:978-0-13-245822-1

ISBN-10:0-13-245822-5

Photo CreditsThe following photos used under a Creative Commons

Attribution license and found on flickr

Colorful Indian women “M Copy”Bracelet “The Chaine Maille Lady Anderson”Refrigerator magnets Joshua BarnetWoman listening Anton SavaraPicture frame J. D. HancockShoe shine “carboila”Role play on stage Nishanth JoisNonverbal communication David GoehringMagnifying glass Casey FleserColored lights on floor “Ishrona”Green leaves Miyuki UtadaQuestion mark Ethan LoftonThank you flower Joanne Q. Escober

Thank you !

Ann & Joe

www.joemcveigh.org