IT’S NOT ABOUT HOLIDAYS AROUND
THE WORLD
FROM PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES TO
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE LITERACY
PRACTICES
Susan V Bennett, University of Mississippi
AnnMarie Alberton Gunn, University of South Florida St Petersburg
Mary Lou Morton, Walden University
Literacy Research Association Conference, 2013, Dallas, TX
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
 Cultural Diversity increasing
in United States
 Teachers often
Religion
SES
Language
underprepared for diversity
 Religious diversity often
ignored
Banks
Sexual
Orientati
on
Race
(Irvine, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 2000;
Santamaria,2009)
Gender
Ethnicity
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Critical Multiculturalism
(Tisdell, 2006)
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
(Gay, 1994, 2000)
Identity Theory
(Hogg, Terry, & White, 1995;
Stets & Burke, 2000)
CRITICAL MULTICULTURALISM
 The teacher’s culture, including religious beliefs, has
power in the classroom
 Teachers’ unconscious beliefs about diverse
populations affects their teaching practices (Berlak,
2008)
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
PEDAGOGY
Applying multicultural translations to
teaching
 Teaching styles accept different cultural learning
styles
 Child-centered planning
 Culturally pluralistic lessons
(Gay, 1994, 2000)
IDENTITY THEORY
 Individual becomes a member of a social group
 Individual relates to similar identities in a group
based on categories
 Self- Identity and group identity can change
according to context
 Many individuals choose their group identity based
on their spiritual and religious
(Hogg, Terry, & White, 1995; Stets & Burke, 2000)
METHODS & TECHNIQUES
 Case Study : to describe, explain, and understand
(Tellis, 1997)
 Participants: Purposive sample
 Asked students to participate
 N=4, two preservice teachers and two
inservice teachers
 Self-identified with these religious cultural
groups: Latter Day Saint, Sikh, Muslim, Jewish
 Age ranged from 21 to 40
DATA SOURCES
 Semi-structured Interviews
 Reflexive Journals
 Follow-up interviews via email
DATA ANALYSIS
 Transcribed interviews shared with participants for
check for accuracy, member checking
 Constant comparison to discover emerging themes
 Within case analysis
 Established inter-rater reliability at 92%
(Strauss & Corbin,1990: Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2007, Miles & Huberman, 1994 )
FINDINGS
 All had experienced discomfort in mainstream
Christian classroom culture
 Lynn and Fatim experienced Christian prayer in
school and work functions
 Dana felt isolated due to Christmas discussions
in school
FINDINGS, CONT.
 Lara contacted an instructor that course content
was not sensitive to her beliefs
 Fatim uncomfortable with classmate
conversations of alcohol and sexual relations
 Subedi (2006) stated that because schools are
rooted in American and Christian epistemologies,
students with religious beliefs outside
mainstream Christianity “face difficulties in
negotiating everyday school practices.”
FOUR EMERGING THEMES
 1. Separation of Church and State
 Participants’ beliefs of whether church and state should be separate
Lara: I love the fact that church and state are like
separated….I’d say it [religion] influences how I teach
Dana: I do approve there isn’t as much [religious study]
allowed in schools.
FOUR EMERGING THEMES
2. Important to Teach for Student Equity
 Teaching as a way to make a difference, not just an academic
curriculum
Lynn: I think most teachers think it’s okay to teach about
Christmas, because it’s the majority…I do Christmas,
Kwanza, and Hanukah- and any other religion that is
celebrated in my class. If someone doesn’t do religion, I
just don’t do it- I don’t want that child to be ostracizedit’s just not worth it.
FOUR EMERGING THEMES
3. Respect and Recognition of Religious
Diversity
 Respect of students’ rights, making a student comfortable in the classroom,
knowing your students, and not objecting to others religious/spirituality within
different contexts.
Fatim: You have to know your students….Also to contribute to
society that was very important also like I just didn’t want to be
just about me, me, me….. I also want to give back and contribute
in some way.
Fatim: I am not going to walk around and pretend that
I’m…I…look normal…
FOUR EMERGING THEMES
4. Personal Beliefs
 Connects issues that conflicted or made some impact, such as
discomfort, on the participants’ personal beliefs.
Fatim: ….I try to be proactive when I can….You can tell I
am Muslim from a mile away, but for the most part, I
wouldn’t be able to differentiate [what religion other people
own]…I’d just assume people are Christian. I know that’s
not a good thing, but like it’s always the default.
IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING:
WHAT TO TALK ABOUT?
 Teachers need to identify students’ religious
diversity (Literacy Autobiographies)
 Listen to students’ voices, ask for their
viewpoints
 Create a safe environment for sharing of
differences
 Discuss religion as a subject, without bias
 (Ayers & Reid, 2005; Douglass, 2000)
IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING:
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Use multicultural children’s literature
extensively, not just in December, a
month that represents a Christian
Privilege perspective.
 Au states
 Many teachers and publishers seem to believe that the
reason for introducing children to multicultural literature is
to teach them that people are more alike than different.
They do not seem to understand that celebrating and
maintaining differences many be equally, if not more
important to students of diverse backgrounds.
IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING:
EVALUATING CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
 Teachers evaluate multicultural literature that features religious
diversity considering these questions:
 Do the components (theme, plot, setting, characters) of the book exhibit the
characteristics of a well-written piece of children’s literature?
 Does the theme of the book have the potential, through a teacher lead
discussion, to advance the reader’s understanding of the religion portrayed in
the book?
 Does the book include accurate information or facts embedded within the
story about the religion portrayed in the story?
 Does the book avoid bias and stereotypes?
 Does the book have components that are relevant to the reader’s own life and
have the power to positively shape his or her cultural consciousness?
 (Gunn, Bennett, & Morton, 2012)
Gunn, A. A., Bennett, S.V., & Morton, M. L. (2012/2013). Culturally responsive
literacy pedagogy: Using children’s literature to discuss topics of religious
diversity. Florida Reading Journal, 49(1), 17-24.
Finding Resources
Example….
Research
Awards
•
http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/
FL Holocaust Museum
•
FL, NJ, CA, NY, IL
CONTACT INFORMATION
 Susan V. Bennett, Ph.D., University of Mississippi
 sbennett@olemiss.edu
 AnnMarie Alberton Gunn, Ph.D., University of South Florida-St.
Petersburg
 gunn@usfsp.edu
 Mary Lou Morton, Ph.D., Walden University
 Marylou.morton@waldenu.edu