PROMPT 5: Relating to Delpit

As a culturally competent teacher we are encouraged to work with the family of our students. If I was to imagine being the teacher of the classroom where I volunteer at, I believe I would encounter some challenges. The students in this classroom are diverse and this means that they have different backgrounds. They get a different type of education back home from their parents which they consider important to have as survival skills in their environment. With this said some students in the classroom have a tough time listening to Ms. Klaire. At times she has to repeat things and when that doesn’t work she has to raise her voice and then they know it’s serious. It is tough to know how our student’s parents are racing their students and this is why it is a good thing to interact with the families. As a whole school we can have different types of activities that allow their parents to participate, the only problem is that sometimes we will not get the best amount of participation. In this case we will have to come up with many new things to help us get to know our parents better.

At times it is our responsibility to get and understanding of why we are not getting the respect of our students. In some cases students will not take us serious because we have a different type of way to show our authority. The theorist, Lisa Delpit, talks about this situation in her article, “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children”. Lisa beliefs teachers should adapt to the children’s culture. Learn what they know and integrate that into their learning. We should not tell our students that the way that they are being brought up is wrong but we should show respect to their parents cultures.