Why Culture Counts?

A week ago, Palomar PD and BSI/HSI sponsored a workshop given by an invited scholar, Dr. Sandra Darling, who has presented to thousands of educators nationwide on topics such as standards-based education, curriculum assignment, inclusion practices, transformational leadership, school improvement, strategic planning, and assessment practices in addition to co-authoring books and publishing articles in educational journals. Dr. Darling's achievements in the area of culturally sensitive teaching appear to be particularly noteworthy. She has argued that poverty alone is not the cause of low achievement in our schools and that to close the achievement gap, we also need to attend to the culture of the learner.

Using careful research, Dr. Darling shows why it is vital to take into account the needs, beliefs, and values that students of poverty and diverse learners bring to class every day, to differentiate between collectivist learners and individualist learners, and to create a culturally responsive classroom.

Many of her ideas make perfect sense to me, especially when we want to yield results in our ESL classrooms and when Palomar claims to strive to be more learner-centered. If you did not have a chance to attend her productive workshop last Friday, click here for her PowerPoint slides. If you cannot open the .ppsx file, please email me so I can send you the file in a different format. (Many thanks to Gary for sending me the original file.)