Volume 14, Issue 1 -

As the school population becomes increasingly diverse with students of differing ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, there is a need for more responsive practices that capitalize on the cultural capital that such students bring to the learning process. Current practices especially in mathematics teaching are failing to meet the learning needs of most diverse students thus contributing to their lack of success. Further, few teacher education programs have successfully tackled the challenging task of preparing teachers to meet the learning needs of diverse students. This article explores the theory of constructivism and its implications to mathematics teaching. The article further explores culturally responsive pedagogy and what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher. In their analyses, the authors draw parallels between culturally responsive pedagogical practices and strategies for teaching based on a constructivist view of learning. They demonstrate why the general principles derived from the constructivist theory are particularly suited for teaching diverse students consistent with notions of culturally responsive pedagogy. Some recommendations for teacher preparation are then provided.

The purpose of this study was to analyze high school physical education teachers’ beliefs and understandings regarding culturally relevant pedagogy and teaching Black males in urban high schools. The participants were forty Black 1 and White 2 physical education teachers (male = 23, 57.5 %; female = 17, 42.5 %) randomly sampled from urban high schools. The research method was descriptive survey. Data were collected with a demographic questionnaire and a multidimensional attitude scale, which was constructed in the theoretical orientation of culturally relevant pedagogy. Descriptive and inferential statistical procedures were used to analyze the data. The teachers held mostly favorable beliefs about teaching Black male students, but their beliefs tended to vary as a function of their gender and race/ethnic status. The findings and implications are discussed.

In this paper we build a conceptual framework to argue for culturally compelling instruction that leads to teaching for change. Culturally compelling instruction calls for a substantive shift in how teachers view their students, communities, and what the perspective might mean for students’ future when they have access to alternative learning opportunities. The framework encourages teachers to take a stance and assume responsibility and ownership for their own decisions about the curriculum and instructional delivery. Most prominent is to acquire a depth of understanding of their students’ identities and needs. To represent our vision for culturally compelling instruction we use the lead poisoned water crisis in Flint, Michigan, USA as an illustrative case. Our work provides an example of how a real-world circumstance such as Flint’s may be integrated into content area subjects to frame a culturally compelling instructional practice.

In-class participation is a common component of many university students’ course grade, yet there has been some debate over whether it is fair to grade participation, given that some students are “ naturally” introverted. In this paper, we problematize the central assumption that the arguments against grading participation rest upon: that classrooms are neutral spaces into which a range of personalities come together, each with unique needs that should be recognized and supported. As educators whose work and teaching is grounded in critical social justice frameworks, we argue that there is a fundamental dynamic that is missed when silence is presumed to be a-political. We argue that classrooms are microcosms of the wider society and as such, are political spaces in which dynamics of unequal social power also play out; there is no neutral classroom or natural mode of engagement. In this paper, we lay out the foundation of a social justice approach to teaching and problematize the notion of neutral classroom spaces. We speak back to some of the most common arguments against grading classroom participation and in doing so argue that participation in classroom settings is a central element to dismantling social injustice in our wider communities.

The study was designed to explore the general knowledge, practices and views of students with visual impairment about HIV/AIDS in order to identify the gaps in students’ knowledge and inform decisions on instructional strategies and materials to improve students’ knowledge. Specifically, the study examined the nature of knowledge students with visual impairment have about HIV/AIDS; described the practices and views of such students about individuals living with HIV/AIDS. The study adopted the descriptive cross-sectional survey design, and used multi-staged stratified, and purposive sampling techniques to select 83 students with visual impairment in two Junior High Schools in Ghana. The participants completed a questionnaire and the researchers adopted descriptive and inferential statistics including frequency distribution, percentages, and chi-square (X 2 ) test, to analyze the data. The findings were that majority of students with visual impairments held correct notion about HIV/AIDS; although, majority of the students understood the mode of transmission of the disease, a significant number of them held misconceptions about the modes of transmission. For example, some of them felt HIV/AIDS can be transmitted through body contact, coughing and sneezing, sharing lavatories and casual kissing as well as blood donation. In terms of views about persons living with HIV/AIDS, there were no variations in the students’ opinions. Furthermore, knowledge about HIV/AIDS has positively influenced the sexual behaviour of majority of students in the study. Chi-square (X 2 ) computation at 0.05 significant level revealed no variations in students’ responses according to sex. Recommendations were suggested to the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service and other organizations for consideration.

Children need attention, especially those who have no home, family, school or friends. Refugee children are compelled to leave all of their belongings and to begin a new life in a place they have no idea or knowledge about. Educational institutions, teachers and friends are important for children. Can refugee children find what they expect from life in countries they migrated to? This study aimed to find out how refugee children experience life in a new place they resettled. The purpose of this article was to examine the way teachers identified and addressed the needs of refugee children as they encountered the standard curriculum in a state school in Denizli, Turkey, during the 2015–2016 school years. The method of the study is phenomenology. Seven teachers at the school provided information through semistructured interviews. Data were analysed by coding and trying to find themes and categories. Results showed that in order to achieve a successful educational program for refugee children, teachers should seek multicultural education to learn about students' backgrounds, including social and cultural values.

Despite the increasing number of children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds in the United States, limited research exists synthesizing what is known about the prevalence and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in these communities. Children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are disproportionately diagnosed with ASD and, there is a need for practitioners and educators to be culturally competent at addressing challenges and practices related to ASD for children and youth. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature related to parental perspectives on ASD, in children from a wide range of culturally diverse backgrounds to provide information and resources to practitioners about the importance to strive for cultural competence in practice-related work.