Muñiz, J. (2019). Culturally

Culturally Responsive Teaching; A 50 State Survey of Teaching Standards

Student’s name

Institutional affiliation

Muñiz, J. (2019). Culturally Responsive Teaching: A 50-State Survey of Teaching Standards. New America.

The article Culturally Responsive Teaching: A 50-State Survey of Teaching Standards was developed by Jenny Muniz on the New America website as one of the reports on educational policies. The author, Jenny Muniz is a Program Associate for New America’s Educational Policy Program. Muniz also sits as a member of their English education learning team. Here Muniz is tasked with proving analysis and researching practices and policies that relate to educational equity, English learners, and culturally responsive education. Before joining the PreK-12 team where she is currently serving, she served as Millennial Public Policy Fellow, for the same organization. Prior to joining New America, Muniz was a second-grade teacher in San Antonio. She served as a lead bilingual instructor in the campus and was an Urban Leaders fellow where she supported the Oakland School District Board of Education and Oakland Promise. After learning about Muniz’s background in the pedagogy field, I have gained increased trust in the content of this article. With the diverse professional experience she has, I trust that the findings of this research are accurate because they have research was undertaken by an expert.

This article is recent as it was published on March 28th 2019. The fact that the document is up-to-date has a lot of influence on my understanding of the topic. Rather, it shows me that the topic of teaching standards is an important issue of concern that is worth paying attention to. It makes me even more curious to know more about why culturally responsive teaching is an issue of interest in present-day society. The article’s publishing organization, New America, has the sole purpose of renewing America through continuing the quest of attaining the highest ideals for the country. Further, New America is dedicated to openly confronting challenges caused by social and technological change and seizing opportunities created by the changes. Besides articles, New America also publishes blog posts, books, podcasts, press release reports, and the news on various issues that touch on social change in America (Muñiz, 2019). The articles intended audiences are scholars, researchers, academicians with an interest in matters of teacher competency and culturally responsive teaching. The article also speaks to general members of the public, educators, curriculum developers, and education departments in general. This article is scholarly because it was written with a specific audience in mind. The fact that the article was published on the Institute of Educational Sciences website, a government website shows that the text is peer-reviewed making it a scholarly article. The author appeals to the need to make major investments in the training of culturally responsive educators, one that goes beyond coursework and workshops. The author points to comprehensive teacher training as a critical avenue of incorporating culturally responsive teaching standards. There is a bias as regards who pushes culturally responsive teaching. Muniz writes, “Teachers are the drivers of culturally responsive practices in schools and classrooms.” I feel this is a bias because it is not only teachers that are responsible for culturally responsive teaching practices. I feel that even curriculum developers, the curricula itself, and the education department have a hand in it too.

The ideas and arguments fronted by the author are sensible to me as they agree with my ideologies of pedagogy. This text insists on the need to undertake educator training which they can leverage in their teaching methods. This makes sense because I believe that without prior training educators will not effectively deliver to the needs of their learners. They will continue using traditional methods of teaching which have only proved effective in producing graduates that cannot turn ideas into meaningful action.

As regards gaps, the fact that the article points out that some states have incorporated culturally responsive teaching standards while others have not shown a clear case of lack of professional teaching standards in the educational sector, The main concern here has to do with the fact that the institutions in charge of regulating teaching standards is sleeping on their jobs. I feel that the question of implementing culturally responsive teaching standards should not be in question because without a doubt, it is beneficial to students, and as such, states should do whatever is necessary to implement it.

The evidence that I found to be most convincing has to do with the mention of a 2018 survey that was conducted among teachers from New York City that found that less than 1 in three teachers had gone through professional training on dealing with ethnicity and race issues in the classroom set up. This text is convincing because it speaks about a survey done by a Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools. The organization is known for doing research making it easy to trust the finding of the research.

The evidence that I found to be least convincing has to do with the fact that hiring a teaching workforce that is more racially diverse significantly translates into cultural responsiveness. I fail to find this statement convincing because I believe that hiring a diverse workforce coupled with training can improve cultural responsiveness. Hiring educators from all racial backgrounds will not make a difference on its own. It must be supported with training for it to work effectively.

Without a doubt, this article changed my thinking when it comes to culturally responsive pedagogy. It made me understand why there is pressure to invest in teaching strategies at all levels of education. It made me realize that the knowledge gained in education is only important if students act on it. It made me understand the need to adopt a more personalized approach to learning, one that takes into consideration, the experience, social and cultural background of learners.

After reading this article, I have increased my understanding of various aspects on matters of culturally responsive pedagogy. I understand that effective culturally responsive teaching results from the combined efforts of key players in the education sector. I now understand that training alone is not enough to ensure the uptake of culturally responsive teaching strategies. For it to work, follow-up exercises must be placed at the center of the training. Additionally, I have learned that culturally responsive pedagogy not only benefits students alone but also teachers and by extension, the entire society.

Worth noting, this article is similar to other texts that I have come across that touch on gender-responsive pedagogy. Just like other articles, this text insists on the positive impacts of culturally responsive teaching. The text stresses the need to invest in developing educators that are culturally responsive through trainings. Like other texts, this article asserts that investing in competent teachers goes beyond workshops. It is about proving teachers with the necessary support they need to execute culturally responsive learning.

After reading the text, it is now clear to me that although enormous strides are being made in the right direction to ensure culturally responsive learning, there is still room for improvement. There is a need for future research to delve into the need for revising the current teaching standards so that they incorporate culturally responsive teaching competencies. This includes culturally responsive communication, self-examination for biases, real-world problem solving, and paying attention to educators’ understanding of systemic biases.

References

Muñiz, J. (2019). Culturally Responsive Teaching: A 50-State Survey of Teaching Standards. New America.