Prompt: What are you noticing about the level of cultural responsiveness in your school rituals, routines and celebrations? What are the implications for your leadership?
As I reflect on the level of cultural responsiveness in my school my thoughts consistently land on the need for a school wide common definition of what it means to be culturally responsive. While many of the aspects of who we are tip toe in the realm of cultural responsiveness (i.e EL curriculum designs and CREW structures), we are just beginning to use the term to define our work and give depth to our collective purpose. We cite cultural responsiveness in our work plan in both faculty learning targets and our leadership goals for the year, but we have not come to a consensus on what that means. The moment is here for a looks like/sounds like unpacking for classroom practices and school wide systems, structures, and supports. As we begin to design the next professional learning cycle and redesign our work structures as a leadership team, we must work together to create an operational definition and strategic next steps to move our work forward.
Our structures and routines support begin culturally responsive. Our flex mod schedule allows for all students to have access to teachers and resources during the school day which eliminates access barriers due to transportation. Our curriculum structures like expeditions and case study designs are ideally supposed to allow students choice in expression of mastery, connect them to real world issues and work that matters, challenge them to consider multiple perspectives, and grant them access to learning that matters personally to them. Our CREW structure ideally gives every student opportunity to reflect on and celebrate their identity in a space that connects them to peers and an adult advocate that is consistently present for them. Realistically supporting being culturally responsive and actually being culturally responsive are two different things. For example, while all students have independent learning time in which they can access their teachers for one on one help, we know that not all students are using this time equally. In a recent student panel we asked a focus group of black students if they utilized the Academic Commons which are the spaces where students interact with teachers and have access to one on one support. The answer was a resounding "no." When asked why not students replied, "because my teachers didn't ask me to come." If the structure is there but we don't strategically create a space of belonging and welcome all students into the space equally, then we cannot be culturally responsive. We need to audit how we are implementing our structures and consistencies to ensure all students are recognized, supported, welcomed, and celebrated.
On the macro level we celebrate different identities through systemic models like Hispanic Heritage celebrations, German Appreciation Week, and other specific celebrations throughout the year. While these efforts are great and have grown tremendously over the past few years in authenticity and beauty, they exist in pockets of isolation. When walking the halls to view how students receive and experience our campus on a daily basis, it can be seen in the absence of content that students may not feel seen in their school. Material on the walls is bare and what is there is years old student samples, a few pictures of Student Council students who are mostly white, and random club posters that seem misplaced and lack context. Signs are in English and celebrations of the multitude of student identities in our building are lacking. Our social media accounts also reflect this need. We celebrate our school community heavily online but what is lifted is usually athletics and major awards ceremonies. Not all students identify with these celebrations. We need to refocus our attention on building spaces that celebrate beautiful learning and the beautiful people that walk our halls daily.
I linger in the word beauty as I conclude this reflection. Beauty is held by all of us. The beautiful pieces of us deserve to be seen, recognized, and celebrated and as educators we need to help students see, value, and celebrate their beauty. They deserve spaces where they feel encouraged and safe to be themselves, make discoveries about their identity, and explore the nuances that make them unique and worthy. We cannot do that if we live in one size fits all models that make learning and living normative. As we begin the work towards defining cultural responsiveness as a school, I hope that individual beauty is lifted as part of that definition. My challenge to myself is to ensure we are analyzing macro, mezzo, and micro level systems for consistent opportunity for students and staff to find their beauty and share it with the world.
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