Culturally Relevant Classroom

“Teachers cannot hope to begin to understand who sits before them unless they can connect with the families and the communities from which their children come”

-- Lisa Delpit

“…40 percent of children in U.S. public schools are from culturally diverse backgrounds (Colombo, 2005).  Creation and construction of classroom has to be mindful of the community of children and families being served.  As programs grow and expand to include diverse communities, often times these “…culturally and linguistically diverse students…feel like they are moving from one world to another as they go from home to school” (Colombo, 2005), making communities of exclusion rather than inclusion.   The goal of inclusion provides children and families a place where “the look and sounds of the room reflect the family cultures and daily lives of those children” (Derman-Sparks, Olsen Edwards, 2010).  Inclusion leads to more parental engagement and parental participation in the program and the overall learning experience of the child.  The idea of inclusion is in the forefront of my mind when designing a classroom. 

When thinking about environment one has to consider the aesthetics of the room.  There must be warm colored walls with neutral colors such as sage.  As the color envelopes around you welcoming you in, so should some of the furniture, which should be natural.  Pieces of home should be represented throughout the room, baskets, dark wooden or wicker chests.  Although commercial materials such as plastic bins and toys have a place they should be excluded from the environment.  Materials that represent the caregiver and staff should be included in the décor; pictures, blankets, or special personal items; this sending the message that we want to share who we are and that we invite conversation for sharing information.  Bulletin boards or wall space should have a sense of open space with selected children’s work displayed.  Children’s work does not all have to be displayed all at once, like other materials, the work can be rotated from week to week to showcase all the children therefore avoiding anyone feeling exclude.  Along with the children’s work, there should be pictures of the children in the program engaged in various activities; those pictures should be 5x7 or even 8x10 photographs to be seen clearly from various areas of the room.  The physical environment is an evolving process as piece as materials can be added and incorporated. 

The evolving element is the children and the families and they should be equally represented in the classroom.  Pictures of the children would be placed throughout the room; 8x10 or 5x7 photos would include the children engaged in classroom activities as well as pictures that include children with their families.  Another way to make families present would be to create special areas in the classroom for family displays.  The areas would be changed from month to month to include all the children and families; one area would include a family photo table displaying the child and their family photos from home and another table would include the child’s favorite books that are shared at home with mommy and daddy. 

Families would also be asked to complete “All about me” boards that relate to the family unit.  These would also change monthly and feature questions such as, what games the parents played as children, what they remember about school and their favorite food growing up (Derman-Sparks, et al., 2010).  The parents each day would also have the opportunity to connect with their child on a daily basis through a “talk to me, talk to you” binder where parents could leave little notes for the children and the children could leave notes for mommy and daddy (Laureate, 2011).  The teacher could share the exchanges with the children during circle time or even before naptime.  These notes could also shared by parents with children in a small cozy are designated for such an exercise.  That area would have pillows and blankets giving a feeling of warmth and comfort. 

Teachers would also be very relevant in this environment having a face in it too.  Their family life and culture would also be shared and displayed creating a further sense of community.  The notion behind such a classroom is to create not only an environment that looks like home, but also an environment that provides support and a shared experience for both the children and their family (Laureate, 2011). 

References

Colombo, M. W. (2005).  Empathy and Cultural Competence.  Reflections from Teachers of Culturally Diverse Children.  Young Children on the Web.  Retrieved from www.journal.naeyc.org/about/permissions.asp.

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Laureate Education. (2011). [Video]. Welcome to an Anti-Bias Learning Community"