Equity and Culture

 This summer I went to the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Institute. The focus of AVID is to help those students who might get through the cracks without additional help get the tools to and support to be college ready. The session I attended was called Equitable Classrooms. 

As a student working on my preliminary administrative credential, this session landed quite differently than it would have just going as a teacher. It forced me to think more globally about the session than just what happens in my classroom on a day to day basis. 

One of the things that stuck out to me the most was the discussion around language use. The facilitator, a principal in New York, said that they have changed the term English Language Learner in her school to Multi-Language Learner. She said that this shift emphasizes the positive nature of the fact that these students are not limited.  

The use of inclusive language is an important part of being inclusive in schools. The language choice that both the students and adults make have an impact. They can be positive or harmful, and they can often be simply misinterpreted. In AVID Culturally Relevant Teaching: A Schoolwide Approach (2016), Boyko et. al, discusses the awareness of using language that is respectful, relevant, and intentional should guide word choice. The language should be inclusive and avoid generalities, stereotypes, or negativity. They also discuss how promoting the use of inclusive language in the classroom and with other educators fosters a sense of safety on the campus and respect for students (p. 311). 

In her work Culturally Responsive Teaching, Geneva Gay (2000) asserts that self-advocacy and leadership is engendered when students are encouraged and given the freedom to find their voices. According to the Great Schools Partnership (2013), student voice refers to "the values, opinions, beliefs, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students in a school, and to instructional approaches and techniques that are based on student choices, interests, passions, and ambitions." Students who are given this freedom of voice move from being passive observers to active participants in the classroom. This does not mean that teachers, administrators and those in the school community need to learn about all cultures; however, it does mean educators do need to choose to understand students' cultural identities in order to build positive and inclusive classroom environments that engage students in consistently equitable learning opportunities.

All of this stood out to me primarily because language has power. It is important to be aware of not only the use of language but teaching and giving students the power to have a voice. A huge change can be affected on a campus through this work.