What is it about?
This article considers how developing an understanding of the beliefs, values, norms, and ways of thinking and learning of students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) is central to effective instruction for this population. Because these students are different from other English language learners (ELLs), teachers must develop the ability to suspend judgment by building deep cultural knowledge of (SLIFE). This can then inform curriculum and pedagogical practices that best support SLIFE in their transition and adaption to formal education. Following a review of culturally responsive teaching as outlined by Gay (2000; 2002; 2010), I continue with an examination of the Intercultural Communication Framework (DeCapua and Marshall, 2011; Marshall, 1994) intended to develop teachers’ understanding of cultural factors influencing students’ ways of thinking and learning. The article concludes with an exploration of a culturally responsive instructional model, the Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (DeCapua and Marshall 2011; 2013), designed to better serve SLIFE.
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Why is it important?
Students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) enter Western-style formal educational systems with knowledge, prior experiences, and very different ways of thinking than those expected and assumed by educators. Therefore, it is imperative that educators strive to implement effective culturally responsive teaching to address the very different needs of these students.
Perspectives
Too much of the conversation surrounding students with limited, interrupted, or even no formal education focuses on deficit, i.e., what they don't know when they come to our schools. It is time to reframe the conversation and focus on difference, i.e., how they come with different knowledge, prior experiences, and ways of thinking. Our task as educators is to get beyond the "heroes and holidays" approach to culture and to develop an understanding of how culture and prior learning experiences affect how people view and interpret the world around them. Only then can we best develop instruction that is truly culturally responsive.
Dr Andrea DeCapua
New York University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Reaching Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education Through Culturally Responsive Teaching, Language and Linguistics Compass, April 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/lnc3.12183.
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