Curriculum & Instructional Support

Cultural Proficiency

Culture is central to student learning. Culturally responsive education recognizes, respects, and uses student identities and backgrounds to create optimal learning.

Teaching methods that use references to a student’s culture help the student understand mainstream culture through a lens of recognition and acknowledgement. The link between culture and classroom instruction derives from evidence that cultural practices shape thinking processes.

Teachers who use and respect their students’ languages, cultures, and life experiences follow these principles »

A culturally responsive education addresses attitudes, environment, curriculum, teaching strategies and family/community involvement. Review a continuum of goals and outcomes that schools and educators will follow » (PDF)

What people want

Cultural values and beliefs are so accepted by each group that they are not questioned or even need to be stated. While each culture thinks its own ways are superior, conflicts with other cultures are not always caused by our differences. Improving intercultural relationships and valuing diversity requires patience, flexibility, humility, acceptance of the unknown and, perhaps most importantly, a sense of humor.

Following are some values all humans share. By focusing on what is shared, we can break out of our ethnocentric boxes and begin to find new ways of educating all students for success in life.

Human commonalities

Renowned education theorist Ernest Boyer said true multicultural education affirms the individual while recognizing the universal nature of all people. He suggested a curriculum based on cultural similarities encourages deeper understanding of subject matter. Meeting the challenges of diversity is a central goal of quality teaching. Boyer’s human commonalities provide a firm structure for this goal.