Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies: Enhancing Learning Across Diverse Courses 

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This article feels to me like it's speaking to people who are used to being in a position of privilege and is encouraging them to 'allow' people from diverse cultures to participate fully in the courses they teach. So while I appreciate the sentiment, I'm not really comfortable with the positioning. Nor am I comfortable with the idea of passing out a questionnaire to "show students that you want to know about them, their learning styles, and their culture." That strikes me as about as artificial as it gets. And anyway, it isn't about what you want. So how would I do this differently? I'd try to parse the privilege out of it - it's a fact that people are from different backgrounds, that they can be critical and independent thinkers, and that everyone's ideas and opinions in a class are relevant. Whether you 'allow' this is irrelevant; a proper and professional approach to teaching (or anything) takes these as givens. You treat people with respect, consideration and care, no matter who they are, no matter who you are.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 29, 2024 04:33 a.m.

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