Culturally Responsive Teaching

      Single story narratives are the bane of advancement. Just as it would never be acceptable to use only one source to write a research paper, it is never acceptable to view an event from a single perspective in an academic or professional setting. There is a reason that the cornerstone of any business curriculum is a SWOT analysis, as this basic analytical tool teases us away from the single story narrative. In other words, any business at any given time has strengths and weakness, as well as opportunities and threats. Quality control is another central premise of a solid business curriculum, which essentially translates into the importance of regular feedback with specific assessment benchmarks. 

     These very lessons that are taught in business to evaluate different perspectives and progress are applicable to teaching. We must apply these practices of SWOT analysis and QC to our students, and most importantly, eventually teach these self-evaluation skills to our students. Problems can only be resolved once they are identified, so accurate self-evaluation is a critical skill in generating lifelong learners for our 4.0 economy and beyond. 

     Using tools like the dominant learning style are also helpful, as is collecting qualitative data from families about a student's home life. Similar to marketing, the better you know your audience (student), the better you can tailor your message for successful encoding and retaining of information. It was really helpful for me to realize that not everyone benefits from the trial and error approach that works well for me. In fact, forcing a student to use a specific method could actually create more stress, raising barriers to learning. Integration of all four learning styles especially when children are too young to really know or assess which style works best for them should provide the best learning outcomes for the class.