Culturally responsive classroom management: awareness into action

This article expands discussions of culturally responsive pedagogy by focusing specifically on the tasks and challenges of classroom organization and management. First, we examine three prerequisite understandings that underlie teachers' ability to manage diverse classrooms in culturally competent ways. We then consider specific approaches and strategies for enacting culturally responsive classroom management (CRCM) and reflect on the ways that management practices promote or obstruct equal access to learning. We stress the fact that developing CRCM is an ongoing, long-term, and often discomfiting process, in which cultural diversity becomes a lens through which teachers view the tasks of classroom management.

   MARIA EMIGRATED FROM MEXICO to the United
   States when she was 5. Now in a third-grade,
   monolingual English class, she sits quietly at
   her desk and speaks only when her White, middleclass
   teacher calls on her. She does, however, raise
   her hand frequently to ask if she's doing her assignments
   correctly. Her teacher believes that Maria is
   insecure and overly dependent on her. In class, she
   often chides her to be more outgoing and independent;
   she repeated this message on Maria's report
   card and at parent conferences. Maria's teacher is
   unaware of the fact that Hispanic parents tend to
   expect their children to be quiet and obedient in school
   and to seek advice and approval before acting.

   Houng, a Vietnamese American girl in second grade,
   repeatedly answers "Yes," when her teacher, Ms.
   Adams, asks her if she understands. Her written work,
   however, consistently reveals her confusion. Frustrated
   and annoyed, Ms. Adams concludes that Houng
   lacks motivation to learn and chastises her for not
   seeking help. Ms. Adams has no idea that the literal
   equivalent of "yes" in Vietnamese is "da," which
   can also mean "I am politely listening to you."
   (Grossman, 1995)

   James is an African American sixth grader who is
   loud, active, assertive, and quick to interject comments
   into a class discussion without raising his hand.
   His teacher (who is African American and was educated
   in predominantly White schools) realizes that
   the school's emphasis on quiet, passivity, and turn
   taking is strikingly different from the behavioral expectations
   that exist in James's home; nonetheless,
   she believes it is important for James to learn "appropriate"
   classroom behavior. For this reason, she
   frequently reprimands him, makes him miss recess,
   and has him stay for detention.

The teachers in all of these situations are interpreting and responding to their students' behavior from the perspective of mainstream sociocultural norms. Although well-meaning, these teachers are acting in ways that actually discriminate against students from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds. Such discrimination occurs when teachers do not recognize that behavior is culturally influenced; when they devalue, censure, and punish the behaviors of non-mainstream groups; and when they fail to see that their management practices alienate and marginalize some students, while privileging others.

Unfortunately, the misunderstandings and misinterpretations that give rise to this kind of discrimination are likely to become more frequent as the cultural gap between students and teachers widens. Calls for "culturally relevant pedagogy" (Ladson-Billings, 2001) and "culturally responsive teaching" (Gay, 2000) address the need for teachers to develop the knowledge, skills, and predispositions to teach children from diverse racial, ethnic, language, and social class backgrounds. This article expands these discussions by focusing specifically on the tasks and challenges of classroom organization and management. First, we examine three prerequisite understandings that underlie teachers' ability to manage diverse classrooms in culturally competent ways. We then consider specific approaches and strategies for enacting culturally responsive classroom management (CRCM).

Prerequisites of Culturally Responsive Classroom Management

Like culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally relevant teaching, CRCM begins with an understanding of "the self," "the other," and the context. First, we must recognize that we are all cultural beings, with our own beliefs, biases, and assumptions about human behavior. We need to articulate and examine the values implicit in the western, White, middle-class orientation of U.S. schools, such as the emphasis on individual achievement, independence, and efficiency. By bringing cultural biases to a conscious level, we are less likely to misinterpret the behaviors of our culturally different students and treat them inequitably.

Second, we must acknowledge the cultural, racial, ethnic, and class differences that exist among people. A desire to be fair and impartial sometimes leads teachers to strive for "color-blindness" (Nieto, 1994), and educators are often reluctant to talk about cultural characteristics for fear of ignoring heterogeneity among group members and "essentializing"--seeing groups as static, monolithic, and homogeneous. But in order to be culturally responsive, we must acquire "cultural content knowledge." We must learn, for example, about our students' family backgrounds, their previous educational experiences, their culture's norms for interpersonal relationships, their parents' expectations for discipline, and the ways their cultures treat time and space. At the same time, cultural knowledge should not be used to categorize or stereotype, nor to imply a clear understanding of another's cultural beliefs and world view (Mishne, 2000). Instead, teachers should use acquired cultural knowledge as a way of demonstrating an openness and willingness to learn about the aspects of culture that are important to students and their families.