Summary of Journal:Culturally responsive practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students
Reference:
Utley, C. A., Obiakor, F. E. & J. P. Bakken (2011). Culturally responsive practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities – A Contemporary Journal. 9 (1), 5-18. Retrieved from http://www.ldworldwide.org/research/learning-disabilities-a-contemporary-journal
Summary:
The article starts by giving statistics about demographic trends regarding the United States’ aggregate and public school populations, which are both becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) while the teaching force remains mostly White, middle class and monolingual. This situation creates a demand for new teaching skills within these “traditional” educators in order to accommodate the needs of the growing CLD student population. Furthermore, CLD students with learning disabilities (LD) present additional special challenges since factors like race, poverty, social class, gender, language and religion influence their learning style, school progress and behavior. CLD students tend to be excluded from general education, or have lower achievement resulting with special education needs, at higher rates than “traditional” White students. CLD students are placed at risk due to their teachers’ failure to be able to recognize these cultural differences, stereotyping and general ignorance about the student’s particular cultural background.
The article attributes the underperformance of many schools to the cultural, personal and academic gaps between CLD students and their teachers, while suggesting to reduce these differences through a culturally responsive teaching approach, which should integrate the student’s linguistic, racial, cultural, experiential, and social background into all teaching dimensions thereby rendering enhanced relevance to the CLD student. The concepts of this approach should be incorporated into all aspects of the education process and environment, including into curriculum
Utley, C. A., Obiakor, F. E. & J. P. Bakken (2011). Culturally responsive practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities – A Contemporary Journal. 9 (1), 5-18. Retrieved from http://www.ldworldwide.org/research/learning-disabilities-a-contemporary-journal
Summary:
The article starts by giving statistics about demographic trends regarding the United States’ aggregate and public school populations, which are both becoming increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) while the teaching force remains mostly White, middle class and monolingual. This situation creates a demand for new teaching skills within these “traditional” educators in order to accommodate the needs of the growing CLD student population. Furthermore, CLD students with learning disabilities (LD) present additional special challenges since factors like race, poverty, social class, gender, language and religion influence their learning style, school progress and behavior. CLD students tend to be excluded from general education, or have lower achievement resulting with special education needs, at higher rates than “traditional” White students. CLD students are placed at risk due to their teachers’ failure to be able to recognize these cultural differences, stereotyping and general ignorance about the student’s particular cultural background.
The article attributes the underperformance of many schools to the cultural, personal and academic gaps between CLD students and their teachers, while suggesting to reduce these differences through a culturally responsive teaching approach, which should integrate the student’s linguistic, racial, cultural, experiential, and social background into all teaching dimensions thereby rendering enhanced relevance to the CLD student. The concepts of this approach should be incorporated into all aspects of the education process and environment, including into curriculum