Centering Culture in Learning
Over the last few years, centering culture in the learning experiences I provide has been a priority for me. I know it should have been all along, I just didn’t know any better. Once I realized my oversight, thanks to some great educators in my online network, I chose to make changes, learn, be intentional, and help others do the same. No matter where you are in your learning and implementation journey, I wanted to share resources that have been instrumental in changing my practices and providing the ability for me to be cognizant in my own planning about centering culture.
A book that has been instrumental in my learning and implementation journey is Unpack Your Impact by Naomi O’Brien and LaNesha Tabb.
I created this video review for the Teach Better Team. This book brings you on the learning and implementation journey of Naomi and LaNesha, sharing insights, resources, and their own experience with centering culture in elementary classrooms. Whether you teach the youngest or oldest of learners, this book has incredible content that is worth your time!
Not only have these two amazing humans co-authored this book, but they have countless resources published. Check them out here, here, here, and here. They even have a social studies club specifically targeting K-2 educators that I joined and can attest to the incredible content shared. Again, you might teach older learners, but these resources are easily scaled for older learners or might be just what you need to jump-start your own content creation! They are both great follows on social media, if that is something you are interested in as well.
Centering culture isn’t something for just some schools, some educators, or some geographic locations, it’s for all of us all of the time. Whether your classroom is the most homogenous or heterogenous cultural representation, we have to integrate culture, and not just integrate, it must be seamlessly folded into our practices. I know this can seem daunting, intimidating, and time-consuming, and yes, it might very well be all of these but we owe it to society to center culture; center understanding and acceptance, and center the celebration of culture. It’s also not about surface level, superficial “Holidays and heroes”, memorization of countries and capitals, memorization of anything really. It’s about internalizing culture, the beauty, the contributions, and the celebration of differences that are also ways of bringing us together. In fact, in my experience, I have found that so many of the differences have connections across cultures. Ways of celebrating, times of celebrating, reasons for celebrating — many cultures overlap and have even modeled their own practices off those of other cultures. Sometimes it is in contrast from culture to culture, and there is strength, beauty, and opportunity here to learn and to connect.
Please don’t misinterpret my previous statement about “holidays and heroes” as a call to not use these opportunities for learning and learner engagement. If this is where you are currently or your community is currently, that’s okay, after all this is a journey of learning. What I mean is that it can’t stop there, that can’t be a check in the box serving as proof that we are integrating culture into our learning experiences. We have to do better, culture must be an integral part of our practices so that it no longer stands alone and looks and feels like a check in the box. Culture isn’t a drop-down menu on a survey or to-do list, it is a part of what makes us human and is a part of each person’s identity.
If we recognize that learning must be engaging and relevance to our learners, we must also recognize that a part of this engagement and relevance is culture.
Where are you on your journey? Do you have resources or insight to share? Let’s collaborate, let's share, let's learn and grow together!
