Teachers’ texts in culturally responsive teaching

Kesler, Ted. (2011). Teachers’ texts in culturally responsive teaching. Language Arts, 88(6), 419-428.

This article, which questions some kinds of teaching practices that seem to promote awareness of diversity but actually can marginalize some students, was an eye-opener for me, and probably would be for many teachers. Many teachers, including me, come from European-American, middle-class backgrounds, and embedded within those backgrounds are certain lenses through which we view culture. Assignments and activities which we would view as enriching and very special experiences might actually be detrimental to children with backgrounds quite different from our own. I don’t think most teachers intend to discriminate or marginalize, but we often assume things and don’t question what we do enough, until an instance of marginalization (which we have inadvertently facilitated) comes up and hits us in the face, as we see in the three stories Kesler relates from his experience here.

Kesler’s first story concerned a “My Family Tree” assignment, one that is still common in many schools but that really is highly questionable in today’s increasingly diverse classrooms. As Kesler points out, the family tree assignment usually involves a worksheet which has places for children to fill in the blanks with various standard kinds of family members. The worksheets tend to all look alike—that is, unless your family structure causes you to leave some blanks empty, or there are people you consider family for whom there are no blanks that really fit. In Kesler’s story, a student who was adopted from Russia is marginalized, and her adoptive mother advocates for her and brings the situation to Kesler’s attention. The student creates her own representation of her family (her “Family Flower”) showing how there could be many ways of representing families.

Kesler’s second story concerned an African American child’s feeling marginalized by the class field trip to Ellis Island. For European-Americans, Ellis Island symbolizes hope for a new life, and above all, a CHOICE to uproot and look for something better. For those students, the field trip would be a celebration of sorts. For others, it would be a painful reminder. For African-Americans, coming to America meant enslavement, and Ellis Island accentuates the choices they were denied. Would a field trip to the site where African-Americans entered the U.S. to become slaves be a celebration? One of Kesler’s African-American students, who had felt marginalized by the Ellis Island trip, brought to school a program from her grandfather’s funeral that celebrated his life. Perusing that artifact led Kesler to help her focus on her family’s migration from the south to Chicago, which linked her heritage and that of European-Americans under the common theme of moving toward a better life.

Finally, Kesler relates an experience with preservice teachers in which he attempted to survey them about their lives in an effort to learn more about them and help them form connections with each other. Though the survey questions (about family, educational background, and employment history) were well-intentioned, the categories used ended up puzzling, excluding, and even marginalizing some students as they struggled to respond to the items but could not always find ways of responding that were accurate and/or comfortable for them. Kesler used these conflicts as a teachable moment, and he and these preservice teachers worked to revise the items to make them more inclusive.

Kesler grounds his work in critical literacy theory, which tells us that all texts are inherently political, and they will always empower some people and marginalize others. Some teachers might be tempted to respond that complete inclusiveness is then impossible, so they will refuse to be bothered by it, and will state that they refuse to “walk on eggs”. Even worse, some will reject the critical literacy view entirely and continue in their present practices, clinging firmly to their belief that the way they see cultures and families is the “right” way, and that the “mainstream” version of these concepts should be promulgated in schools. But even though texts can never be neutral, it is important to be constantly questioning them. If I become aware that a text I have presented or created excludes or marginalizes someone, that is enough. I must then work (preferably collaboratively with others) to make that text as inclusive as is humanly possible. The important thing here is not the achievement of perfect inclusiveness, but the willingness to question and make changes that will enhance the learning experiences of all concerned.