Prioritizing Diverse Student Voices:
Appreciating and Respecting Students’ Cultural Experiences as Expert Knowledge
By Dr. Sherril English
Student Voice is known by educators as the manner in which teachers value, embrace, and encourage the “expert knowledge” that students bring with them into the classroom learning environment. This “expert knowledge” is often regarded by students as first-hand cultural experiences that can be shared with their teachers and classmates in an effort to empower, facilitate, and promote engaged learning spaces for everyone.
As an illustration of student voice empowerment, several weeks ago, I listened with compassion to an NPR episode of 5-year-old girls and boys discussing their concerns about entering kindergarten. Mostly, the children shared that they were nervous about making friends, having nice teachers, and understanding the lessons taught. In my opinion, what made the episode so powerful was that NPR assisted the 5-year-old children with asking questions and chose older children to “voice” their previous experiences with entering kindergarten.
The older students offered advice to the new kindergarten students about how they had made friends, how helpful their teachers had been when they didn’t understand something that was being taught, and how caring, fair, and supportive their teachers always were. As the episode ended, I imagined that the 5-year-old boys and girls entering kindergarten were feeling empowered and less concerned about their first-day of school because of the “expert student voices” coming from the older children. Not only is student voice extremely important for classroom teaching and learning, but students’ cultural backgrounds represent a wealth of knowledge for teachers who are willing to create culturally responsive practices that integrate students’ knowledge, learning styles, and prior experiences to enhance the effectiveness and relevance of learning (Ladson- Billings, 1995).
Research has shown that a cultural gap exists between PK-12 students and many public- school teachers in the United States. A report from the National Center for Education Statistics (2018) states that approximately 53 percent of the total U.S. public school population is made up of students of color. Although there has been a major increase in classroom diversity, the demographics of the teachers in U.S. classrooms, particularly in PK-12 public schools, have changed little over the past several decades, creating a cultural mismatch between students and teachers. However, the increasing richness of student diversity within the American K-12 public school classroom should be viewed by educators as encouraging for students, their families, and entire school communities. To maintain an engaged learning classroom that prioritizes, respects, and values students’ cultural experiences as “expert knowledge,” teachers must encourage the student voice of all students but especially ethnically, culturally, and linguistically marginalized students. Doing so has the potential to empower students to take a more active role in shaping their learning and to create positive learning outcomes for all students.
I have often stated that “teachers shouldn’t view themselves as the only experts within the classroom learning environment.” As families carry out their daily lived experiences, children learn who they are, whose they are, and how to respond to others based on these daily lived experiences. Ultimately, they acquire “expert knowledge” for their family’s routines, traditions, languages, racial identities, and overall ways of living and learning that can serve as a scaffold for the classroom curriculum in all subject content.
However, if what children learn at home is never mentioned or, worse, is considered strange by other children and teachers, children may refuse to speak their home language, eat certain foods, wear certain clothes, and follow certain religious practices (Gonzalez-Mena & Pulido-Tobiassen, 2021). Therefore, according to González, Moll, and Amanti (2005), when children enter the classroom, it’s vitally important for teachers to be prepared to honor students’ funds of knowledge (FoK) by using their cultural backgrounds and household “expert knowledge” as a basis for classroom learning. These FoK, represented by skills and wisdom, have been historically and culturally developed into cultural capital to enable children and adults to thrive within their cultural communities.
As classroom teachers prepare weekly unit and daily lesson plans, it’s essential for them to be able to make learning connections and to help their students link classroom learning with students’ “expert knowledge” or cultural capital. On many occasions, teachers have expressed to me how difficult it is to actually learn the cultures of all of their students in an effort to become more culturally inclusive. They also find it challenging to supplement their Eurocentric curricula to include the cultural backgrounds of students of color while still adhering to the state and local standards. Still, research has proven that students of color feel empowered when the curricula is inclusive of their cultures (Banks, 2010). Listed below are a few ideas teachers may consider incorporating into teaching and learning while learning to become more culturally responsive educators and listening to the “expert voices” of their students.
Examine your own cultural beliefs, assumptions, stereotypes, values, and biases. This process is critical to fully engaging students in learning and bridging the disconnect between student and teacher cultural backgrounds.
Evaluate your instructional practices. Ask yourself the question “whose culture counts?” When preparing to teach, think about whose culture matters based on how learning is endorsed within the “standard” curriculum. Be prepared to supplement your curriculum with authors of books that include myriad voices, histories, and cultures and that recognize the knowledge worth that various ethnic groups have contributed.
Seek out the cultural backgrounds of your students by developing and administering a cultural identity survey to assist you with learning about the many aspects that make up the individual cultural identities of each of your students.
Develop assignments (written or oral) that play a significant role in gathering information about students’ family traditions and how students view their daily cultural learning experiences inside and outside of school.
It’s important for teachers to remember that prioritizing the diverse student voices and expert cultural knowledge that all students bring with them to the classroom learning environment is paramount to their overall experiences of learning.
References
Banks, J. A. (2010). Series forward. In G. Gay (Ed.), Culturally responsive teacher: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed., pp. ix-xiii).
Teachers College Press.
Gonzalez, N., Moll, L. & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410613462
Gonzalez-Mena, J. & Pulido-Tobiassen, D. (2021, September 18). Teaching diversity: A place to begin.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/teaching-diversity- place-begin-0/
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory Into Practice (34)3, 159-165. U.S.
Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics (2018).
© 2021 Dr. Sherril English
Photo Credit: Canva Pro
Sherril English, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor at SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development
Sherril English joined the faculty of the Simmons School of Education and Human Development in 2008 and is currently a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Her 30-year educational background spans multiple teaching and administrative positions from elementary public and private schools to college. For ten years prior to joining SMU, she served as Principal of Dallas' St. Philip's School and Community Center. Dr. English has presented cognitive, social-emotional, and non-cognitive concepts and factors at numerous conferences for teachers, researchers, and parents. Dr. English's guiding philosophy that "education is a journey, not a race" is her way of encouraging adults to give children the necessary time, space, and instruction to grow and reach their God-given potential. Dr. English earned her Bachelor's degree from Texas Woman's University in Denton and a Master's in Education from Texas A & M University, Commerce. She holds elementary and secondary teacher certifications. In 2018, Dr. English completed her Ph.D. at the University of North Texas, specializing in curriculum instruction, school culture, college readiness, social justice, multicultural education, and urban education.
Currently, Dr. English teaches undergraduate and graduate students, supervises beginning teachers in local school districts, and provides collaborative support for the West Dallas STEM School as the College and Career Readiness Curriculum and Programming Design Director.
