6 minute read
Whole Child
Jenna Nelson, Ed.D.
Implications of Student Culture on Learning and Educator Ability to Support the Whole Child
Students bring diverse experiences, cultural identity(ies), and understandings that influence their interaction with the classroom curriculum and instructional practices. Educators must attend to students’ individual identity to effectively foster student learning. A central means for doing so is by attending to the needs of the Whole Child. In this article, I discuss the Association of
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Whole Child tenets and consider one of these tenets in relation to supporting culturally diverse learners. I also discuss implications for teachers and administrators to contemplate to best support the Whole Child.
ASCD Whole Child Approach
The ASCD Whole Child approach to education strives to “prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of today and tomorrow by addressing students’ comprehensive needs through shared responsibility of students, families, schools, and communities” (ASCD, 2013, para. 1). To address this call, ASCD (2013) developed five Whole Child Tenets for promoting long-term student success—healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. This article will focus on one
of the Whole Child tenets—supported— to highlight how educators can support the Whole Child by considering student culture and its impact on learning.
Culture and the Whole Child Framework
“The term culturally sustaining requires that our pedagogies be more than responsive of or relevant to the cultural experiences and practices of young people—it requires that they support young people in sustaining the cultural and linguistic competence of their communities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competence” (Paris, 2012, p. 25).
Culturally Responsive & Sustaining Pedagogy
It is valuable for teachers to implement culturally sustaining pedagogical practices (CSP) to foster the learning and achievement of culturally diverse students. CSP places students at the center of curriculum and practice to develop students academically. According to Paris & Alim (2017), CSP “positions dynamic cultural dexterity as a necessary good, and sees the outcome of learning as additive rather than subtractive, as remaining whole rather than framed as broken, as culturally enriching strengths rather than replacing deficits” (p. 1). CSP
By authentically bringing students and communities of color into educational practices, we can teach to and through student strengths and their individual experiences to enhance student learning and achievement (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Gay, 2000).
extends culturally responsive pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Gay, 2000) by ensuring that pedagogy is more than responsive or relevant. Under this pedagogy, educators work to support students in sustaining their cultural and linguistic understandings while aiding students in accessing dominant cultural competence (Paris, 2012).
Under CSP, educators must value and see all learners as whole and human (Paris, 2016). Using CSP, educators can work “to prove that [the] practices and ways of being as students and communities of color are legitimate and should be included meaningfully in the classroom learning” (Paris, 2016, p. 6). By authentically bringing students and communities of color into educational practices, we can teach to and through student strengths and their individual experiences to enhance student learning
and achievement (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Gay, 2000).
Supported
In the ASCD Whole Child tenets, the tenet supported requires that all learners have access to individualized learning opportunities and that their learning is fostered by qualified and caring educators (ASCD, 2013). According to ASCD (2013), a key indicator of the supported tenet is “our school personalizes learning […] to meet academic and social goals for each student.” The use of CSP aligns with the supported tenet because these practices consider individual student characteristics to guide the curriculum and instructional practices to support student learning. By developing a curriculum that considers student culture, language, ability, interest, background, and experiences, students can meaningfully engage with the material and grow academically and socially in the process.
By creating a curriculum aligned with CSP, educators can ensure that student cultural identity is authentically taken into consideration in the classroom context to develop meaningful learning experiences for culturally diverse learners. By attending to students’ lived experiences and viewing the culture of every learner as an additive quality as opposed to subtractive, educators can ensure that culturally diverse learners feel valued and seen within the school curriculum (Paris, 2012). When educators emphasize students’ cultural identity, students are more likely to engage with the course curriculum. Such actions, furthermore, support student academic growth and achievement.
Teachers and Administrators: Partnering for Supporting the Whole Child and Student Culture
Teachers and administrators play an influential role in the lives and learning of culturally diverse students. These stakeholders need to foster these learners’ social and academic competencies to help students fulfill their potential. To assist in the education of the Whole Child, educators need to attend to the reality that we must see each child as an individual to enable us to look beyond scholastic abilities and more fully understand and support the Whole Child.
The ASCD Whole Child tenets offer valuable insights for teachers and administrators to consider when fully supporting the Whole Child. In addition to attending to long-term student development and fostering the success of all learners, it is essential to consider how to support all culturally diverse students. As addressed in this article, a central means that educators can look towards to ensure that culturally diverse
learners are supported is the purposeful use of CSP. It is essential to remember that to be culturally sustaining, teacher pedagogical practices must be more than
responsive or relevant to the cultural experiences of students. Educators must support learners in “sustaining the cultural and linguistic competence of their communities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competence” (Paris, 2012, p. 95). Through doing so, CSP ensures that educators consistently support the multilingualism and multiculturalism of students in both their practice and the perspectives they hold of students (Paris, 2012). As we work to educate the Whole Child, stakeholders must understand and attend to the individuality of each learner as a human being to ensure that their academic, social, and emotional potential is fostered and that they are prepared for life beyond the classroom. need of attention in many school districts. To support culturally diverse students, educators must attend to any preconceived perspectives and work
to ensure that they view every student through an asset-based perspective. Using the ASCD (2013) Whole Child tenets, the following questions have been derived to offer teachers and administrators ideas to ponder as they work to educate the Whole Child with attention to student cultural identity:
• What strategies do we utilize to promote a supportive learning environment for culturally diverse students to ensure that we consider student cultural identity as we educate the Whole Child?
• In what ways are we considering culture when we are attending to the social and emotional development of the Whole Child?
• Where can we improve, and what supports do we need to move forward?
Next Steps: Questions for Teachers and Administrators to Ponder
Effectively educating the Whole Child through considering student cultural identity continues to be an area in
References
ASCD (2013). Whole child initiative. http:// www.ascd.org/whole-child.aspx
Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491.
Paris, D. (2016). On educating culturally sustaining teachers. TeachingWorks.
Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93-97.
Paris, D. & Alim, H.S. (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies. Teachers
College Press. Dr. Jenna Nelson (Ed.D.) is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction and Assistant Division Chair at Concordia University Chicago (CUC). Her current research is on curriculum and teaching practices for supporting culturally and linguistically diverse learners in gifted and talented education. Her research interests include gifted and talented education, secondary English education, literacy, and teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners.
