Module 6 - Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Activity 1 - Group work, reaction to Culturally Responsive Differentiated Instructional Strategies

• How are many of the issues covered are transferable to the community college classroom?
• How do you consider formative and summative assessment as it relates to meeting the needs of your students?
• How do you interpret "respectful activities?"
• What experiences do you have with flexible grouping?
• How would you order the 7 Building Blocks of Differentiated Instruction from easiest to manage to most difficult to manage?  What is your reasoning behind this order?
• What criticisms do you have about culturally responsive differentiated instructional strategies?
• In addition to the reading, what has worked for you?  How do you know it worked?

Activity 2 - Cultural and Diversity Advocacy

• Beyond optimizing your teaching & the learning environment for a diverse group of students, how do you or can you take another step by becoming a (stronger) advocate for your students?
• What can you do at the department level?
• What can you do at the college level?
• What can you do for the community that Kirkwood serves?
• What support is available to you to at these levels?
• What additional support do you need? 

Diversity Focus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

 Kirkwood Community College's

 International Programs for Faculty & Staff

Opportunities with Fulbright

 

Opportunities with our GEN partners

Feedback Session

Notice: This is not an official module of the project pilot.  This week we will be reflecting on and evaluating the first 5 modules.  Next week, we will conclude the pilot with our 6th and final module.


Session Objectives: By the end of this session, participants should be able to...

1. Identify the highlights of the pilot project's first 5 modules
2. Identify topics or ideas regarding diversity and intercultural competence that needed more emphasis
3. Identify topics or ideas regarding diversity and intercultural competence that should have been included
4. Suggest alternative options for structuring the organization of the Culturally Responsive Classroom
5. Discuss best frames of time to offer the series to a larger Kirkwood faculty audience
6. Express interest in facilitating all or parts of a module or two for a future project on the Culturally Responsive Classroom
7. Determine the value of interactive activities (In the Box/Out of the Box, Fishing Polar Bears, Redundancia) in relation to the value of discussions
8. Review the syllabus, commenting especially on the performance standards

Activity 1 - Discuss highlights of the pilot project

Activity 2 - Discuss suggestions for improvement on the pilot project

Activity 3 - Participate in developing a strategy for next steps beyond the pilot

• Structure of the series (one full day, multiple days in a week, once a week, semester long)
• Synchronous and/or asynchronous delivery
• Facilitators and guest speakers
• Ratio of interactive activities and discussions

 Activity 4 - Performance standards

• Review the syllabus, or
• Take time to provide evidence of one's learning and growth

 Alternative Activities

• Review and/or comment on videos
• Review and/or comment on recommended online resources

Module 5 - Communication Styles

Module Objectives: By the end of this module, participants should be able to...

1. Meet the objectives for the Redundancia activity (see below)
2. Explain the importance of non-verbal communication in overall communication, especially in cultures with less direct communication
3. Question their assumptions about people or cultures with communication styles different from their own

Activity 1 - Redundancia

• Become aware of changes that occur in our behavior and in our reactions to the behavior of others when communicating in a foreign language.
• Learn how language ability influences perceptions of overall intelligence and competence.
• Discover methods for enhancing the accuracy of communication in a nonnative language.
• Comprehend how emotions may modify, interfere with or assist in the process of communication in a foreign language.

Objectives from Barbara Kapler, distributed by NAFSA in 2001

Redundancia © 2011 Nipporica Associates, LLC

Activity 2 - Verbal and non-verbal communication

• What messages do you communicate verbally and/or non-verbally to students?
• Exploring Nonverbal Communication - University of California Santa Cruz
• The Secrets of Non-Verbal Communication - Dr. Chris Shea, Ted Talks (21:02)

 Activity 3 - Communication styles

• What mode of discussion is most appropriate for your class?  Why?
• How open are you to multiple modes of discourse? 
• How do you react to direct versus indirect communication styles?
• How do respond to emotionally-restrained versus emotionally-expressive styles of communication?

Module 4 - What is the relationship between culture and higher education?

Module Objectives: By the end of this module, participants should be able to...

• Compare the differences of their high school experiences to present day high school experiences
• Describe real or imagined high school experiences of their students
• Identity the differences of higher education from their experiences to present day experiences
• Describe real or imagined expectations and experiences of their students at Kirkwood

Activity 1 - Your high school education

• What was your high school education experience like?
• How different is your high school now compared to then?
• What didn't you like about your high school back then?  How have these issues changed?
• How many of your Kirkwood students attended your high school?

Activity 2 - Your Kirkwood students' high school education

• Do you know where your students went to high school? 
• What ideas do you have about high schools in other part of Iowa?  In Chicago?  
• How can you even guess how high school was like academically and socially for those who come from another country? 

Activity 3 - Your higher education

• What made you decide to go to college or university?
• What tests did you have to take in order to gain admittance to your college or university?
• How did your expectations of college or university differ from your later experiences?
• What was your higher education experience like socially?
• What was your higher education experience like academically?
• How different is your college or university now compared to then?
• Besides the degree you earned, what do you value most from your higher education?

Activity 4 - Your Kirkwood students' higher education

• Why do you think your students decided to go to Kirkwood?
• Did your students have to take the same tests you did to get a higher education?  If not, how are they different? 
• How can you learn about your students' expectations about education at Kirkwood?
• How does the Kirkwood student experience differ socially from your higher education experience?
• What do you think your students value most about their Kirkwood education?

For the next module, please take the Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory to assess your style of resolving conflict.

Module 3 - What is the culture of your classroom?

Module Objectives: By the end of this module, participants should be able to...

• Provide a rationale for or against creating learner profiles
• Discuss how to use and maintain learner profiles
• Compare their group membership with their perceptions of their students' group memberships
• Develop strategies of better understanding their students' identities
• Elaborate on the results of the "Five Tricks" card game

Activity 1 - Learner Profiles

• Do you keep a learner profile of your students?
• Why?
• How?

Activity 2 - Cultural Profiles

• Not Racial Profiling
• Recall the cultural profile you made of yourself
• How many of the students fit into each your the identity groups?
• What proportion of your students fit into other identity groups?
• Why would you want to learn more about your student's identities?
• Besides making assumptions, how do you learn about their identities?

Activity 3 - "Five Tricks" Card Game

• Get into groups of 4-6
• No verbal communication is allowed
• The player taking the most tricks in the game wins.

Activity 4 - Reflect on a video of student life

• Chinese students at the University of Iowa
• Video concerning Kirkwood students is a project for Fall 2013; tentatively planned for use after the pilot

Module 2: What cultures do you belong to?

Module Objectives: By the end of this module, participants should be able...

• To identify oneself as a member and non-member of certain groups
• To compare group membership status with colleagues
• To explain the level of loyalty and commitment one has towards groups they are members of
• To provide examples of bicultural, hybrid, or multicultural identities
• To explain the level of security one feels as a member of a group
• To discuss strategies of overcoming identity exclusivity and insecurity
• To apply all these concepts above to their students

Activity #1 - In the Box/Out of the Box

Activity #2
How do you identify yourself as a being a member of a group?

• Draw a mind map with your name in the center circle.
• Branching from the center circle are different groups that you know or feel that you belong to (ethnicity, family, profession, community, gender, beliefs/worldview)
• Take 5 minutes to create and embellish this circle.

After graphing your identity, compare your mind map with a partner.

• How do your identities differ?
• What groups do you both belong to?
• What groups did you forget to include on your mind map?
• What surprised you about your similarities and differences?  Why?

Activity #3 - Identity Inclusivity

• How positively or negatively do you believe the greater society (Iowa/USA) views each of the groups that you claim to be a member of?
• How loyal and committed do you feel to each group?
• How do you feel or what do you think about non-members of each group?
• The previous question may lead us to stereotyping and ethnocentrism as we focus on differences.
• Some of us may belong to multiple groups within the same category, which is an example of bicultural, hybrid, or multicultural identity.

Activity #4 - Identity Security

• How secure do you feel with your membership to each of these groups?
• Did you inherit this membership or did you choose it?
• For those that you inherited, would you be comfortable with other identities?  (For example, if you identify as American, would you be comfortable as Canadian or Mexican?)
• For those that you chose, would you be comfortable removing that identity?  Why or why not?
• Have you ever felt marginalized?  If so, in what way?

Theorems

1. The more inclusive an individual's identity orientation, the greater his or her capacity to engage in cooperative intercultural relationships
2. The more secure an individual's identity orientation, the greater his or her capacity to engage in cooperative intercultural relationships (Kim, 2009)

Strategies to Overcome Identity Exclusivity and Insecurity

This is easier said than done as these strategies ask one to reevaluate and change one's core identity and relationships.  We are who we are because we are comfortable with who we are.  Any change can make us uncomfortable.  The terms below may challenge your core belief system, but the awareness of this challenge will help you understand difficulties you may face with relating to people who you perceive as different from you.

Individuation (Kim, 2001, 2005)

• Have a clear definition of one's self in terms of identity and membership within groups
• Perceive the other person as an individual first before a member of his or her group/culture

Universalization (Kim, 2001, 2005)

• Be aware of the relative nature of values and of the universal aspect of human nature

Cosmopolitanism (Appiah, 2006)

• Have a moral worldliness that takes precedence over a nationalist ideology

Module Evaluation
Click here to fill out a brief survey

Module 1: What is the culture of Kirkwood and the community it serves?

Module Objectives: By the end of this module, participants should be able to...

• To produce an individual and group definition of culture
• To compare our definitions with others
• To attempt to identify culture(s) of, within, and surrounding Kirkwood Community College
• To explain the relationship between Kirkwood's groups, communities, or cultures
• To provide examples of culture as a process

Overview of the Course

• Introduce the facilitators
• Introduce the syllabus & schedule
• Browse through the site

Participant Introductions

• Name, department, years at Kirkwood
• What inspires you to learn about others?
• How do you handle ambiguity in the academic context?

Activity 1 - What is culture?

Activity 2: Discussion - Kirkwood Culture/Kirkwood's Cultures
Does Kirkwood Community College have or produce its own culture?
Does Kirkwood have definite institutional cultures?

• Faculty cultures
• Adjunct faculty cultures
• Administrative cultures
• Department cultures
• Staff cultures
• Student cultures

How do these cultures relate to each other?  How do these cultures differ?  Why do these cultures differ?

How do you feel when immersed in these cultures?  Why do you feel this way?

Activity 3: Discussion - Community/Culture

What is the community that Kirkwood Community College serves?

How can this community be defined culturally?

What is the relationship between the cultures within Kirkwood and the cultures in the community that Kirkwood serves?

How do foresee these cultures changing in 5 years?  10 years?  50 years?

Module Evaluation
Click here to fill out a brief survey.