Using Diversity to Enhance Learning

Much of the work focusing on multicultural education and diversity focuses on diversity as the "right thing" to do. This approach is steeped in a rhetoric of equal and fair treatment. However, more recently theorists in the area have begun to argue that diversity is a hallmark of a quality education, i.e., a failure to educate without diverse perspectives is a failure to educate (Banks, 1995; Gay, 1995; Sleeter, 1995). Unfortunately, few teachers have benefited from teacher preparation programs that help them take advantage of diversity as a value-added aspect of education. One part of the work in the Partnership for Literacy is designed to help teachers learn more about and make better use of diversity (their students’, the parents’, and the community’s) in the classroom to enhance learning.

The National Research Council report, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999), points out that students spend only fourteen percent of their time in school. This means that much of what students know, understand, and believe is influenced by their experiences at home and in the community. This home-community knowledge can be a platform for engaging students and extending learning. When this home-community knowledge is ignored or dismissed it also can serve to interrupt or stand in the way of new learning. For example, Epstein (forthcoming) found that African American middle school students felt that their parents and other family members were more reliable sources of information than school textbooks. Conversely, European American middle school students felt that the texts were more reliable and authoritative. Skillful teachers must understand the two discrepant perspectives on knowledge to insure that all students are able to benefit from school. Similarly, teachers who have limited experiences with people different from themselves run the risk of ignoring or misusing students’ perspectives that do not comport with how they see school knowledge and skills.

While much has been written about students’ prior knowledge and how it affects new learning (see Anderson, 1982; Bassok & Holyoak, 1989a, 1989b; Carpenter & Fenemma, 1992), prior knowledge is not merely what individuals hold in their heads nor their own idiosyncratic experiences. It also is not only a generic set of experiences that accompany developmental stages (e.g., believing that dead people are asleep or every animal with four legs is a dog). Prior knowledge also includes the kind of knowledge that learners acquire because of their social roles, such as those connected with race, class, gender, and their culture and ethnic affiliation (Brice-Heath, 1981, 1983; Lave, 1988; Moll & Whitmore, 1993; Moll, Tapia, & Whitmore, 1993; Rogoff, 1990, 1998; Saxe, 1990).

Teachers also come to the classroom with prior knowledge that is connected to their race, class, gender, and culture and ethnic affiliation. Given that most teachers come from European American, middle class backgrounds, their abilities to make sense of and use students’ different backgrounds may be limited. Our work uses teachers’ understanding and interrogation of their own backgrounds and perspectives as a springboard for making better use of students’ experiences and prior knowledge.

Ladson-Billings (1994, 1995) has argued that teachers who are successful with students who traditionally have not succeeded in school (specifically, African American students) are guided by a perspective that emphasizes academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. In the context of the Partnership for Literacy these things mean the following:

Academic achievement. Teachers must focus on the academic achievement of all learners. Thus what it means to achieve in the classroom must be clearly delineated and maintained. Earlier CELA-sponsored work (Ladson-Billings & Gomez, forthcoming) found that many of the students who needed the most academic attention received the least instruction. Indeed, when they responded to a question about what it meant to be a good reader and writer in their classroom, students said, "It means to be quiet." "It means to keep your hands to yourself." "It means to pay attention." Conversely, teachers whose students were experiencing success in literacy focused on specific aspects of reading. Their comments included things like, "A good reader tries to sound out the words." "A good reader looks at the picture to see if it will help you understand." "A good reader can understand what she reads."

Cultural competence. Teachers need to help students understand the value of their own culture(s) and how their culture affords them a chance to extend their learning. The Partnership for Literacy provides teachers a unique opportunity to move away from top down instructional models toward more organic, shared-learning models that capitalize on students’ learning. For example, Lee’s (1999) work on cultural modeling represents an excellent example of how teachers can deploy the rich, interpretive frames that students already possess in the context of language and literacy learning. The activities of the Partnership for Literacy help teachers unearth those aspects of their own backgrounds that resist seeing students as fully capable of achieving regardless of their race, ethnic, or social class backgrounds.

Sociopolitical consciousness. The third prong of a teaching approach that uses diversity to enhance learning depends on teachers’ understanding and willingness to develop students’ socio-political consciousness. Students do not experience schooling in a vacuum, and by middle school they are very aware of social inequities. Even when their personal experiences are positive, students can recognize the way members of various racial and social status groups are inequitably treated. The broader context of politics, media, and popular culture impact students’ thinking and feelings. Texts such as Walter Dean Meyers’ Monster reflect the everyday experiences of many urban students. However, school experiences rarely engage these kinds of issues in a substantive way. Successful teachers of diverse groups of students are deliberate in the incorporation of the broader social context and help students participate in meaningful and appropriate social action.

A comprehensive reference list is available.