Curriculum : Curriculum And Curriculum

Reshaping Curriculum

Culturally relevant pedagogy requires teachers to reflect upon and reshape the curriculum to meet the needs of the students in their classroom. This student-centred pedagogical focus encourages academic improvement because all students acquire cultural knowledge; and therefore, learns through cultural diversity. Even if there is a mandated curriculum, adaptations can be made to the outcomes to meet the needs of the students while still achieve those outcomes. Adaptations to the curriculum can be integrated to improve the academic achievement of culturally diverse students.

Integrating culture into the curriculum is an important component of culturally relevant teaching. Teachers can use culture to redesign the existing outcomes to have a positive, meaningful, and engaging influence on all students’ learning. Research on culturally relevant teaching shows that students learn through building on their prior experiences and knowledge by connecting that background to current content and activities in the classroom (Morrison et al., 2008, p. 438). Researchers argue that learning is relevant to students only if it is connected to students’ identities (p. 437). This connection stems from the personal relationship teachers build with each student (Parhar & Sensoy, 2011, p. 195). When teachers learn about their students’ culture, they can use this knowledge to integrate students’ cultural views into the curriculum (p. 199). Integrating students’ culture can be “done as a way to validate students who are culturally diverse, helping instil in them a positive sense of cultural identity” (pp. 199-200). Culturally relevant teachers must use students’ cultural knowledge to assist them in teaching the curriculum. U...

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...sharing personal stories create acceptance among students and strengthen relationships (p. 111). The stories bridge the cultural gap between students of different cultures, increase listening skills, enhance self-reflections, and improve interactions between students. Storytelling also improves connections and relationships so students will stop segregating themselves in their culture group. Storytelling helps student engagement, creates new ways of communicating, helps students look at ideas in a different way, and changes their attitudes toward others. Storytelling allows for an appreciation of culture as students learn and understand other cultures in the classroom. This teaching strategy has proven to be a successful culturally relevant teaching practice. Teachers need professional training and support to effectively implement culturally relevant teaching.