The culturally competent teacher is aware of the diverse cultural groups represented in his/her classroom, investigates the sociocultural factors that influence student learning, and is able to integrate this knowledge into his/her teaching.
If Allan Johnson ever visited Scituate High School, he would be shocked. As author of the articles, "Our House is on Fire" and "Who, Me?", both of which concern diversity and social systems, if he took one look around my high school, all he would see is residential segregation and a huge population of students belonging to the system of privilege. That is because almost every student going to my old high school is white and typically comes from middle class families. And that is seriously not a generalization. Scituate is an incredibly rural town with cute, country houses that come with a hefty pricetag. But this is where I grew up, it is my personal history and, consequentially, might provide a challenge for myself as a teacher in a classroom. To be quite honest, tutoring at my school this semester was the first time I had stepped into a classroom that had more African American students than it did white students. It worried me for quite some time that I may not be able to relate to a diverse classroom as a teacher, but, thanks to Johnson, I have an idea of how to handle the situation and maybe change it, too.
A common misconception country bumpkins sometimes have about non-white, city students, is that they are tough, "gangster", unkind or bad students. I certainly do not agree with this viewpoint, but it does exist. Yet, as Johnson argues, these associations only exist because non-white, city students do not appear to fit into the definition of the "dominant category" [white, country students] and therefore are illegible for the system of privilege. And by system of privilege, I am refering to "a social advantage that is both unearned and comes to people simply because they happen to belong to a particular social category". So in Scituate, while white students, born and raised in Scituate, have the privilege of being treated politely by some teachers and trusted by other locals, non-white, city students in this school system might not share this advantage.
Yet a culturally competent teacher would be aware that such systems exist and would work to fight against them. As long as the systems of privilege exist, it will have a positive influence on some students' learning and a negative influence on others. So how would a teacher fight such systems? After a few weeks or so of tutoring, I noticed that, once the bell rang at the end of the day on Friday, several students would run over to my literary coach's room. I soon learned that, on every Friday, my literary coach hosts a reading and snack time for students after school. There is a bus that takes students back home afterwards. This is an example of a teacher who has recognized a sociocultural factor, such as: some students may have working parents who are not able to pick them up after school, and has integrated this knowledge AND fought the system of privilege simultaneously by providing busing so that any student could go! Now any student has the opportunity to continue their learning after school and this opportunity does not depend on any sociocultural factor. I believe Johnson would give a round of applause to that.
After tutoring at my school, I have witnessed several teachers who are clearly aware of the sociocultural factors affecting their students' learning. That, and reading Allan Johnson, has really provided me with the encouragement I needed to realize that I will be able to handle a diverse classroom, no matter my personal history. Yes, there will be challenges, of course, but all I need to keep in mind is that, in the long run, every student is simply a student. It is society that has marked each student of a different race with different privileges and stereotypes. And as we work towards fighting these set systems of privilege, we will, as teachers, become culturally competent.
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