The organizational environment of the school consists mainly of two aspects: staffing and human resources, including leadership, and organizational and structural operations. All these aspects should be taken into account by any school wishing to consider cultural differences. Given the culturally responsive characteristics of educators, it seems essential that organizations and governments work to develop and integrate them into their educators. As do school leaders, teachers need cultural competence and support to respond to cultural sensitivities. Consideration needs to be given to preparing the future workforce through teacher training. The main problem is that cultural responsiveness in education cannot happen only in the education sector – it must happen in the whole society (Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning). The most effective teacher strategies include community involvement, respect for language and culture, partnerships, commitment to working with indigenous peoples, creative collaboration, and an understanding that issues are complex and context-dependent.
There is no doubt that to provide successful learning and schooling experiences for students; educators must become more bi-cultural and better understand the belief systems and values of the primary culture of each of the students. It implies that teachers are willing to learn to understand their students and meet their needs (Stembridge, 2019). This makes the biggest difference at the classroom level and needs to be supported through policy and processes. It must also occur at all levels of the organizations responsible for schooling, including those preparing and developing teachers. Further research is needed to build and sustain the pathway that prompts the shift from ethnocentric to bi-cultural education provision. Quality education for all school students is an entitlement; until teachers genuinely and actively engage with and respect the culture of origin of the students, the entitlement will remain undelivered for a significant proportion of children.
References
Information Resources Management Association. (2021). Research Anthology on Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning. IGI Global.
Stembridge, A. (2019). Culturally Responsive Education in the Classroom: An Equity Framework for Pedagogy. Taylor & Francis.