My classroom is diverse when it comes to the cultures of the students that walk through my door every day. Everyone has different ideas, beliefs, and backgrounds. One thing that I have decided to work on this year is cultural equity. But how does that look in a classroom? I have created a series of film projects that will be shared throughout the community starting with a video bringing awareness to an issue. They will later build content for local businesses and will see their work displayed through social media and company sites.
Their first assignment is a project to show how much they all have in common with each other. Each student wrote a problem they face on a daily or weekly basis and submitted their sheet to me anonymously. Some chose to write their name on them to let me know what they are going through. They’re now creating a short video promoting awareness based on the topic they chose from the list developed by all 130 students. Students are required to supply research conducted along with a script that supports their view on the subject matter. They will also deploy my “funnel” concept where they start with the general topic and eventually discuss how it is currently affecting them or the community at our school. They will also be conducting interviews of friends and family to support their discussion before they conclude with a call to action.
Curiosity
Students are working together to complete the project as they prepare to discuss scripts and interview. They’ve also been asked to support their topic through valid research conducted online. Asking them to support their views and backup their statements adds validity to what they’re saying. I have found they’ve been doing more research under their own volition because they want to emphasize their project’s importance.
There is an important role schools play to identify the greater differences within educational practices (Niesche, 2012). Designing a project that gives my students a platform to speak out on something that directly affects them is huge. They are able to use the school’s platform to springboard a discussion in hopes for a movement of change within the community regarding their topic.
Questioning the topics and preconceived views makes the stories more interesting. Once the students have done their research to support their topic, they must also interview someone locally to get some additional perspective. Opening each project and reviewing the students’ projects with an open mind to avoid censorship will be important. It’s imperative the students’ voices be heard authentically.
Meaningful
We are engaging through equity as we bridge the communication gap between adults and teens. The students build a voice and have a chance to speak out about a subject matter that means a lot to them. While one student struggles with weight issues, another lives on the brink of being homeless. Sharing the struggles they face is a way of coping and can classified as a form of therapy but it also opened my eyes to what they’re facing. I used homeless and hunger as examples not knowing I have two students during the day going through those exact issues.
Taking a critical and problem-posing approach means the teacher is also a learner and the learner becomes a teacher. They each engage in dialogue that informs their actions and enables them to act in ways that help to transform their lives. (Coburn, 2011)
Students have found a meaningful discussion between peers as well as myself as we discuss their project. We have also opened conversations within their family at home. Some of the students just needed to be heard. I believe the students’ messages to the community will open moments for conversations with others because these are the voices of OUR students about real issues in our community. Many of the students are passed over for not knowing anything when in fact they are just misunderstood (Coburn, 2011).
Satisfying Outcomes
When working on their projects, the students are putting more effort into their work because they know their work will be shared with the public. The idea of someone listening to their opinion along with statistics that back their story is huge. In many cases, the projects are not only teaching them how to tell a story through video and how to work in Adobe software, but the projects are also strengthening support from friends and family (Paat, 2017). Ideally, our videos will improve the dropout rating as students learn through the videos by their peers to cope with the various issues.
At the same time, it’s important the community be educated in the issues our teens face on a weekly basis (Paat, 2017). While students have created a sort of therapy by working together, researching and talking, it’s important that adults are aware of the issues our students are facing. As a class, our hope is to open the eyes of our community and through our videos, someone will be moved, perhaps motivated to take action from their end and do something that is a step toward resolving these issues. The idea of getting the people in the community talking has peeked the interest of my students. I used to struggle in getting two complete sentences from some of my kids. Those students have now produced a full page of writing, in some cases two pages, because of the topic, chance to be heard, and hopes that the community will hear them.
Conclusion
The start of this project series has brought the class to an even ground as they discover how much they have in common. Many students have similar issues no matter what their background is like. They’re eyes are being opened to some issues they didn’t realize exist in our school. With the idea they’re videos will be seen on our weekly tv series and by the public, their hope is that someone will do something to resolve them. As they started the project, they filled the gap of knowledge by doing research and adding statistics to what they already knew or assumed. The projects become extremely personal and meaningful to each creator as they interview their friends and family members who are affected by their chosen topic. The interviews give insights into a more personable approach making the issues “real” and close to home. When they complete these videos and see them trickle on our weekly show and out to the community, the students are going to see the great work they’ve done and should feel satisfied with the quality of media they’ve produced.
References
Coburn, A. (2011). Building Social and Cultural Capital Through Learning About Equality in Youth Work. Journal of Youth Studies, 475-491.
Niesche, A. K. (2012). Productive Engagements with Student Difference: supporting equity thorugh cultural recognition. British Educational Research Journal, 333-348.
Paat, Y.-F. (2017). The Roles of Family, neighborhood, and school contextual factors on social work minority students' educational aspirations and integration. Journal of Human Behavior In the Social Environment, 232-249.
When You Embrace Culture, You Embrace Equitable Learning
Mdarndt approaches the topic of cultural equity in learning and engagement in the classroom setting by looking to their own classroom, filled with diverse students from different backgrounds, religions, experiences and ideologies.
The author hoped to motivate students by sparking their curiosity through engaging individual and collaborative projects. Learners were assigned the roles of researchers and educators. Instructors and the learner’s communities took part in the collaborative learning experience as learner, peer, instructor and interviewee all had the opportunity to learn from each other’s awareness projects and provide coping mechanisms to assist their peers. Learners were motivated to continue the project as their curiosity about each other’s cultural differences grew throughout the…
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1) Giving it a Voice
The instructor’s students come from a diverse background with different cultures, beliefs, and ideas. The instructor wanted to make sure the classroom experience culture equity by giving her students an opportunity to express their ‘voice’. She created a film project to spread awareness in the school and in the community. In the video project, students shared problems that they deal with on a daily or weekly basis. Herrington and Reeves (2018), said that it is important to focus on creating tasks and environments that are “cognitively real”. Herrington and Reeves (2018), also said that reflection and meta-cognition must be encouraged by setting up a task-based learning environment. The instructor in the blog achieved that by…
Using a film project for students to research and share personal issues they are dealing with brings better awareness to their experience and brings community together. Working with peers and community members, students discuss and address these issues to build better support.
Meaningful Goals
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Motivation to learn is promoted when a learner’s curiosity is aroused due to a perceived gap in current knowledge.
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