The culturally competent teacher involves and works with families and community resources, understanding the differences in families, the important influence of family participation in students’ learning, and the benefit of collaborating with the wider school community.
In this classroom the teacher has had many problems getting in contact with student’s parents. Often the parents work multiple jobs and are hard to reach both during the day and after school hours. Some parents are hard to get in touch with because they do not want the teacher to call them. Ms. H has set up an after school tutoring program to ensure that students are receiving help with homework outside of class. On the other side of the coin, there are parents that have contacted Ms. H with concern about their child’s grades and progress. Collaboration with parents is an essential element in a student’s success. If there is no communication between home and school large events, both in the classroom and within a family, can be overlooked as a possible cause for problems in either place.
Devon, a student I have worked closely with, suddenly became withdrawn and uncooperative. When I expressed my concern to Ms. H, she informed me that Devon was having problems at home and was being bounced back and forth between parents. Prior to knowing this I assumed that I had been doing something to cause his withdrawal and inattention to the lesson. Situations like this occur all the time; no one comes into a classroom without baggage. For some students the problems they walk into school with affect their performance and if the teacher does not know about these issues they may inadvertently add to the problem by punishing a student instead of helping them find an appropriate outlet. In Brown’s article, “In the good or bad of girlhood”, the students of Mansfield felt that their teachers didn’t understand where they were coming from. The teachers assumed certain things about them and had their own ideas about how they should behave. The teachers in this case could have alleviated some of the problem by talking to the girls’ parents and having a better understanding of their life outside of the classroom.
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I had almost this same problem in my classroom. I had a student that one day didn't want to listen to anyone never mind do his work and it really bothered me that he was so upset and the teacher was doing nothing about it. I later found out that he was upset due to family reasons and that she had purposly decided not to push him on the issue. I also connected my post with Brown and the ways that the girls felt the teachers did not understand them. From your posts I feel that your teacher is alot like mine and knows the students well and understands where they are coming from. I feel that we have been able to learn alot from our teachers. Not only the things that we need to do and be aware of as teachers but also the things not to do and things we would want to change and be aware of in our own classrooms.
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