Sociocultural Distinctiveness

The culturally competent teacher should be able to account for, demonstrate awareness of, and respond to the sociocultural distinctiveness of his or her students, families, and communities when planning for and delivering instruction.

The classrooms that I volunteer in consist of all students of minority. There are several Hispanic children which make up the majority of both of the classrooms I work in. Other ethnicities represented in the classes are African American and Asian. Both of the teachers I volunteer with are middle aged white women. These students obviously walk into a classroom with a background and culture that is different from that of their teachers. It is a little harder to point out the specific characteristics of these children that are influenced by their background because they are so young. They are still at the age where social boundaries are not completely apparent to them yet, and everyone is basically equal in their eyes. However, there are subtle actions and dialog that shows the reality of their situation financially and the influence of the culture that exists where they live.
According to Infoworks, 66% of the entire population of the school is Hispanic, 23% is African American, 8% is Asian, and 4% is White. These statistics are clearly represented in the classrooms I volunteer in. Overall only 2% of the students in the entire school are bilingual. In this school, 43% are English Language Learners, and 55% are non-recipients. It is also clear by looking at the information that the majority of the population of this school is living in poverty - 93% are eligible for free or reduced lunch. These statistics may seem a little disheartening especially when you look at the proficiency and realize that in nearly every subject this school falls behind. However, while this school according to the standards of the No Child Left Behind act is considered to be failing- it is not. These students might not be in the percentile that the government feels they should be, but considering the challenges they face everyday I think they are doing pretty well. A child who does not know how to speak English is clearly going to have a more difficult time than a child who does when forced to learn in an all English instruction. Taking into account that almost half of the children at the school are English Language Learners there is bound to be a discrepancy when compared to a school that is made up of mostly students that know English. The situation in this school greatly relates to the theorist Goldenberg who discusses the problems that English Language Learners face and how things in that area need to change. One of the main points that Goldenberg tries to get across is the idea of transfer, or that a student who knows how to read and write in their native language first will have an easier time learning to read and write in English. One shocking statistic shows that in the elementary school where I volunteer, 91% of ELL students do not reach proficiency in Math, and 84% of ELL students do not reach proficiency in reading. Non-ELL students have only 31% not reaching proficiency for both reading and math. The discrepancy between the two is undeniable. Like Goldenberg says, these students are going into an environment knowing one language and being taught in another. According to Goldenberg, 60% of ELL students are in all English instruction. Looking at the percentage of students in my school that do not reach proficiency, you can see a direct effect of these students who are being taught in all English instruction. These ELL students are being looked at as a problem rather than an asset as far as statistics are concerned. I cannot speak for the ESL program and the school, but I imagine they are trying their best to help these students but are lacking the resources to do so. Placing the same difficult standards on a school like this one and a school that is from a rich suburban area seems to me to be pretty ridiculous. Enforcing the idea that these students come in with a different skill set that is an asset and not a detriment will strengthen their self-worth, education, and ultimately the society they live in.
These students walk into the school with so much potential and many obstacles to overcome. A culturally competent teacher should be able to recognize a student's potential and help to encourage and foster that potential in a way that the student can understand and prosper. In the classrooms I volunteer in I have not seen and sort of favoring going on between the teacher and certain students. It is important for the teacher to take into account the environment these children are coming from and try to help them to understand the way the world works, and encourage them to succeed. I know that the teachers in the classrooms I am in are trying to understand and help. It is definitely a different world than the one I grew up in and the one that I was facing in elementary school. One day in the kindergarten class, a little girl raises her hand and says "Teacher guess what, my mom almost got arrested last night because the lady downstairs was being bad so she called the cops". This teacher acknowledged and dismissed the comment all at once and continued on with the morning activities. I am sure this teacher is aware of where these children come from because she has to be after hearing stories like that all the time. I did not spend enough time watching these two teachers teach to be able to tell how well they work toward delivering instruction while considering the sociocultural distinctiveness. However, what I did observe is that they truly care about their students and are trying their best, which is a step that is always involved in creating a better education for these children.