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Culturally Responsive Teaching: The Twilight Show with Louise Marie · Teachers Talk Radio

0:00
Welcome to TKO Talk Radio! Thank you for listening!
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Hi, good evening, viewers and listeners, whether you're listening live or playing back.
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Welcome and thank you for joining myself. And I'm joined here with my wonderful
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guest, Geraldine Tando. Hi, Geraldine.
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Hi, so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
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Well, I was just saying, I thought viewers kind of know how we know each other.
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We started talking to me on LinkedIn like a couple of years ago.
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Geraldine currently works in Northampton International Academy,
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just around the corner from where I work.
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And I've always been inspired by the stuff that you do, Geraldine.
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So it's a real pleasure to have you on the show.
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Thank you so much. It's actually a really cool link, isn't it?
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Because the school that I work at is part of the same trust,
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the EMAT trust, the school that Louise actually went to.
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Do you want to tell us more about your school experience?
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Oh, yeah. I was at Prince William in Aundel. So it's a lovely school, a lovely area.
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And like I said, it was just when I kind of saw you on LinkedIn doing all your
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amazing stuff, I'm like, oh, my God, you're part of the best trust.
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No, that's so exciting. it's just so wonderful to talk to
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you so focus of today's show is we're looking
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at culturally responsive teaching I'm personally
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really excited to learn more about it because hands up
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I don't know a huge amount and hopefully viewers
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we had to kind of learn lots of you today we're going to be talking about what
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it is what it looks like what it feels like kind of some of the research behind
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it we are we love the evidence-informed practice and also more importantly what
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teachers can do in their classrooms and how you can design for that kind of belonging.
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So yeah, before we kind of get started, you've had a brief introduction to Geraldine.
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If you'd like to tell us a bit more about your current role and what it is that you're doing.
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Yeah, I work at Northampton International Academy. I've actually done quite
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a few things in my time there.
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So I've been a head of house, head of year, a careers lead.
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I am still the careers lead, but now I'm an assistant head teacher with responsibility
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for careers and aspirations, which is part of personal development. Thank you.
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I really enjoy it. I've actually enjoyed every single role I've done,
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but it's given me a different perspective of the school, but also the environment.
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And I feel like culturally responsive practice is something that I've tried
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to embed in every area of my experience so far.
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In fact, it's something that I stumbled upon when I was kind of in lockdown.
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So whilst I was doing my whilst I was doing my PCG well I can't even do acronyms
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now you're all tired whilst I was doing my PGCE I actually stumbled upon this like random,
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NEU live stream and I thought there's not much else to do we're like stuck in
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our house so I'm going to watch it and it was about culturally responsive teaching
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and then after that I was hooked and because I started it whilst I was training
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it's just been embedded throughout.
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I love that, though. I don't know about you, but it sounds like you were doing something similar.
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So when I was like locked down, even when it first happened,
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and we were like, what do we do? Do we do we teach from home? What's happening?
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I did exactly the same thing. I'm like, my brain's gonna die.
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I'm gonna get bored. I need to be watching something or learning something.
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But yeah, okay, fab. So we're gonna kind of head straight into it,
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just so viewers know exactly what it is.
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Please, can you kind of give us a background or kind of a definition of what
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culturally responsive teaching is? And yeah, what it looks and what it feels
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like? Yeah, definitely.
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So culturally responsive teaching is basically teaching that's culturally relevant.
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By that, it's different to everyone because it's relevant to the needs of the
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pupils that are in front of you.
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So it's including your specific students' cultural references,
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whether that's in like their social culture, their subcultures,
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or their actual background and heritage.
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Ultimately, there's quite a few different principles, but it's leveraging students' assets.
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The emphasis isn't on teacher-student relationship like a lecture style,
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but it's on creating a sense of belonging in the classroom to boost motivation.
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Nice. That sounds really interesting. And we were having a conversation just
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before the show went live.
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We were talking about what's so different about this style of teaching with
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regards to kind of focus on inclusion.
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Did you want to tell us a bit about that?
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Yeah, we were kind of talking a little bit about how at
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the minute there's a lot of discussion about how young
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people or the students in front of us are often
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on social media glued to their phones and they
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say this phrase that they lack cultural capital I've
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heard that said quite a lot but actually having a culturally
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responsive pedagogy is all about emphasizing the
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specific cultural capital that each student has that's different based on their
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life or their lived experiences because they all have cultural capital it's
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just potentially different to the maybe middle class or one specific race that
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we were expecting to be the norm of cultural capital So.
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And it's interesting because I think, I mean, I posted it on LinkedIn the other
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day and we were discussing that, actually kind of the focus on deprivation.
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And we've been talking about the impact on cognitive ability or kind of the
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level of subject knowledge that students come in with because of their social
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and personal kind of situations and backgrounds and demographics.
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But I think for quite a long time, you know, in the past few years,
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there has been this focus on deprivation.
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And I feel like I mean stop me if I'm wrong
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you've got thoughts on this it's because when we're talking about people premium
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and free school meals it's always something they're lacking and obviously
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it links back to wealth and it is it comes
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that deprivation model but it's interesting because this
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culturally responsive teaching which you're about to educate us
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on is the complete opposite it's like that's not built on deprivation
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let's not say the student is lacking something every student
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has something to give and let's actually turn the tables on
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their demographics and be like what can you add because
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everyone's got life experience they can yeah
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it's exactly that it's building on what they
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do have the competencies that they do have then
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focusing on what they're lacking obviously part of
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that is learning you do need to learn what they
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are lacking but you prioritize learning what they do have
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so in one of my like in first lessons
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it's getting to know your learners so that
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you can then build on what you know about them so it's activating
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prior knowledge everyone can agree activating prior
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knowledge is one of the key teaching principles it's it's a pedagogy which most
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of us use regularly in each of our lessons so we're just simply doing that we're
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unlocking learning by activating their prior knowledge we're trying to make
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something tick in their brain that they like that you know they enjoy that you
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know they watch a reference to something that.
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Is relevant to them to unlock the learning that you need to teach for your curriculum.
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And do you know what's interesting? You just mentioned that actually you spend
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a lesson getting to know them.
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And whenever I think of that, I always just think, oh God, cringe, icebreakers.
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But I imagine it's so much more than that. What kind of things do you do?
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I would say the main thing that I do, I always lead by like modeling.
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It keeps coming down to like Rosenstein's principles but ultimately
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I model yeah I model first I do
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what I want to see them do so I create like
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a powerpoint and actually I don't spend the whole lesson
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getting to know them because often in English and I have a lot of key stage
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four classes I don't have a whole lesson to get to know them but we will at
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the very least spend half an hour of the lesson the first lesson getting to
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know each other because it also helps inform my seating plan because it isn't just looking at PP,
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free school meals, EAL, SEN, that should motivate your seating plan.
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It should be linked to their behaviors, but also learners that you think might
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gel together, might be able to support each other.
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So I do definitely feel like time is worth investing into getting to know the learners.
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And I model it first. I've got a PowerPoint that I just edit every year, every.
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I don't know I develop a whole new personality within the year so I'm
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like this doesn't reflect me anymore but it's got things on
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there that are important to me so for example it has
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a Ghanaian flag because I'm Ghanaian but also has a British flag because
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I'm British and it has so many different things on there like
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foods I like it talks about music I like
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it's got a picture of my favorite shoes like it's all
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different things that I want them to know about me like it talks about
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I went to university in Liverpool I'm like so passionate about I could
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do a whole podcast on Liverpool but it's
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got come back now I'm gonna put you up on that one no genuinely
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it's got things on there that you know
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I tell the kids you can ask me about this any day of the week
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I am over the moon I'd love to talk to you about this I'm so passionate about
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it like these are things that important to me I also mentioned things important
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to me like respect mutual respect a sense of justice and then from that so I
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actually introduce myself before I then explain these are my expectations for you,
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because ultimately it's our first lesson. So we must go for expectations.
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My classroom expectations, the school expectations, and then I explain their
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expectations of me. So what they should expect from me.
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I feel a little bit guilty because I'm like, I think I've just fallen into that
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trap of whenever I get new classes every year.
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I mean, I tend to get GCSE and A level. And so I just kind of talk at them.
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And I'm like, these are my expectations. But I do say this is what you can expect
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of me. It is neutral. Like you'll arrive on time.
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You'll apologize if you're late. I'll also do the same. Life happens.
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But I feel I actually feel a
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bit guilty because I haven't. I do invest in relationships with students.
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That's something I'm actually quite strong at. but I've never if I'm honest
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dedicated enough time in that
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in those first few moments when they walk into my room to be like tell me
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about you I wait until later on until it's like break times or
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lunch times and I'm kind of out and about or they come and talk to me so
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I'm actually thinking I'm going to chase that because that is the
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heart of culturally responsive teaching isn't it it's the relationship
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between knowing your learners yeah so after
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I've modeled it they've all like again depending
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on the age so key stage three it's super fun easy to
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do I actually we've got like little sheets and
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it has like something about me again it's I teach English so
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there's bits that are relevant you're making notes there's bits
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that are relevant to like so what's your favorite book tell me something that
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you're passionate about tell me something you wish you could change about the
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world or you know things like that what's your favorite part of your school
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day certain questions where you can get to know them but then equally with year 11 or key stage four,
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that's not always going to be as well received.
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So we then go through the register. In the register, it's a chance for you to
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tell me something that's important to you. Tell me something you want me to
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learn about your culture.
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Tell me something you want me to know about your history or your family's history.
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And it can just be as simple as a register response. And that doesn't take too much time.
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Yeah, and actually, if it's okay, I'd like to draw on this. I think I mentioned
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this on our previous shows when I was talking about diversity and representation
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and inclusion, how important it is to get people's names right.
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Yeah, that's incredibly important.
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I was literally about to say, I actually really appreciated that before we came
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on, you asked me how to pronounce my name because it's really powerful.
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And names hold a lot of history and significance for people all over the world.
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So I feel like that is a really big one. So thank you.
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But I think it's one of those things that like, actually, if we're not getting
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names right, they're microaggressions.
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And if you're having those every day, people just mispronouncing your name or
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shortening it without consent, that must get really grating.
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And actually, it starts to affect how you feel about yourself.
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And that's obviously at odds with what inclusion is. So I think that's really important.
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But I do love the idea, you said, just go down the register and ask,
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tell me one thing you love, one thing that kind of you're passionate about.
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Okay, nice. So we've got a clear definition of what culturally responsive
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teaching is this is something I'm quite
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ignorant so please educate me the research behind
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it is there any you obviously mentioned in lockdown you're
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kind of like watching things and listening yeah what piece
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of research do I do so I'd say it's underpinned by
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the Geneva gay research from 2000 that's where
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the term culturally responsive and culturally reflective teaching originally
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was coined and it was all about integrating student identities into curriculum
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and instruction so that you can empower students by seeing themselves in what
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they were learning rather than seeing potentially stereotypes.
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I would say the second thing, and that's the thing I kind of alluded to earlier.
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So once I finished watching this stream during the lockdown,
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I then found this amazing piece of research.
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It's an NEU piece of research and it's
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called thinking beyond the box and it was
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a group of black researchers and practitioners that came
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together and tried to be really creative of
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ways that you can think about outside of the box in terms of addressing the
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the gap sometimes in education and trying to give equity to all learners in
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your classroom it wasn't specific to black children, although it was written by black researchers,
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but it really focused on trying to elicit joy and motivation out of classroom
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experiences, rather than trying to trigger trauma by exclusion.
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That's really interesting. I love the fact we're talking about joy at this point.
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We don't talk about it much in teaching, do we? We're like, oh, there's pedagogy.
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And then we occasionally, we're starting to talk more about like teacher flourishing,
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but it's really actually quite rare to talk about student joy in the classroom.
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So I think that's really lovely. Yeah, definitely. I think it's that cultural
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competence, just trying to make them feel valued, make them feel seen,
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because at the end of the day, if they feel that way, they are going to be more
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motivated to succeed in your subject.
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I think I think as any teacher can say you
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mentioned earlier relationships are so important and the learners that you have
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positive relationships with tend to want to work harder in your lessons so therefore
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we can all agree that making the conscious effort to make every learner where
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possible feel valued and seen in your classroom is only going to improve the
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outcomes of your whole classroom.
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Yeah, interesting. I think it's a really good point. So we've touched upon kind
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of when you kind of the students come in and you first meet them and going down the register.
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Is there anything else you do to kind of build that relationship?
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Are there particular strategies and lessons or in certain kinds of lessons,
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do you dedicate parts of whole lessons or do you interweave it?
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What do you do? No, I would actually say it's just general practice. It's lived practice.
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I would say the classroom environment is one of the things that you can work on.
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I mean, as an assistant headteacher, I feel even more lucky that I get to work
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on the whole school environment.
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So across the whole school there really
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is this element of inclusivity of
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a culturally responsive school and that was
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in the fiber of the school before I even got there because I
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remember one of the things that made me want to work there is the fact that when
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you enter the school there's the flags of
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there's literally over a hundred flags and these aren't
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little triangle token flags these are
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full-sized flags hanging from the banister that represent
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the nationalities of the staff and student body and they
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add to it and they attempt to order more when new learners join this country
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isn't currently recognized to add to this collection and that was one of the
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things that I mean I walked in and the first thing I did I was like oh there's
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my flag that's like that's where I'm from there's my flags and it is that like
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it just gives you that sense of.
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I mean inclusion is that cliche word but it gives you
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that sense of belonging and pride and it definitely
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was something that was already there but I get to add
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displays things like displays on Ramadan which is coming up and we've got displays
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we've actually got committees which my colleague Amy King leads and those committees
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reflect values as well so there's a religious inclusion and cultural inclusion
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committee and there it's student-led and they meet or we meet.
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And we plan assemblies we try and lead on discussions that can help make the
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environment more culturally responsive, but they also bring to the table anything
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that might concern them.
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Love that. Like, I love that because I know some schools are kind of making
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headway into this area and they have got, you know,
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schools that are, sorry, schools, they have got groups going for students for
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safe spaces like, you know, students LGBTQIA plus students where they need a
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safe space and they start to build something from that safe space.
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And there are obviously different elements of inclusion.
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But actually, if you're thinking about it, if you're saying that culturally
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responsive teaching is putting students first,
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It's really poignant that we're not just talking about what staff do in classrooms
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and what heads of diplomas and things do in designing curricula.
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Actually, what power are we giving students?
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And I love the fact you've got then student councils or student groups that
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are then kind of being like, what do we want? What can we do? Absolutely.
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So literally, I feel like now I'm giving Amy a shout out because it is such
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a good thing that we've got going.
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It's all of these different committees and staff can lead
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committees if on an area that they're passionate about as well
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I also do the reading pioneers committee and
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that's a committee that's passionate about all things literacy and
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promoting literacy but that doesn't just mean they're a club
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they lead on assemblies they're going out on
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a road show to all the different trust primaries like
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castle like it's a whole thing yeah
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it's so fun but it's just literally trying to
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pioneer to promote to drive whatever
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it is that they're passionate about but one of
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our committees is this cultural and religious inclusion committee
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that do deliver assemblies to other schools but
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also they went to a really cool event that was done at prince william
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the diversity inclusion conference it was incredible it
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was really good but it was a chance to meet with other learners from
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other schools and have a safe space to discuss
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and reflect on issues that are relevant to them right
18:16
now and they all were able to share concerns that they had
18:19
within their local community but also in the
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wider community of the internet and things like that and actually have a forum
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but also be directed to places where they could get support and things like
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that so I think your school environment is really important in having a culturally
18:35
responsive pedagogy in your practice because the students are at school for a lot of time.
18:41
This show is brought to you in partnership with Hashit Learning,
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Hey teachers, it's Tom here from Teachers Talk Radio just dropping in to tell
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today. We can't wait to see you there.
19:24
Another fact, like we say, it doesn't stop at the classroom.
19:26
They need to be able to then take that into real life. So it's not just happening
19:29
in Miss Tando's classroom or Miss Pickering's, it's happening in school.
19:32
And then when it's happening all the time in school and social time,
19:36
or they're going to clubs, they're going to parliaments and councils,
19:38
and they're then able, like you say, to take it out trust-wide or even go and inspire other locals.
19:43
I mean, have you, I know you've talked about it trust-wide, how you've gone to like Prince William.
19:47
Have you then had a chance to then take it out to other schools not in the trust
19:50
and kind of show them what you do with stupid? Yeah, we had a brilliant opportunity
19:54
to take some students to Vernon Terrace.
19:57
It was incredible. And they got to lead assemblies there.
20:00
I mean, if anyone wants to take our students for assemblies,
20:05
if it's an opportunity to support the school, an opportunity to develop their
20:09
public speaking, their literacy skills, I mean, why not? They're building their CVs.
20:14
I mean, I'm also the careers lead, so any opportunity to build their CVs is one I'll take.
20:19
I'm just waiting for you to drop in some Gatsby benchmarks and see what works.
20:23
I'm working on it. Okay. Well, now is a good time to remind viewers that this
20:28
show is generously brought to you in partnership with Hashtag Learning,
20:30
publishers of PD books and resources that support great teaching and learning
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in schools around the world.
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So please do pop on and have a look. I know there's a lot of things coming out
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the website. So do have a look at Teachers Talk Radio to see what you can have.
20:48
Okay, Fab. So Geraldine, getting out my notes.
20:51
The list of notes where should we
20:53
go next so I wanted to ask actually thinking about it we've
20:56
talked about what you expect to see kind of outside the
20:59
classroom you've touched on some strategies when it comes to kind of meeting
21:03
students going through registers and kind of asking them to talk about themselves
21:07
are there any particular elements of lessons where you've maybe dipped in and
21:11
done learning walks with colleagues and you thought oh my gosh that literally
21:15
is a great demonstration of what culturally responsive teaching should look like.
21:20
And like what were they doing yeah actually I would
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say there's a couple examples I can
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think of to be honest in English I think it's
21:29
an excellent opportunity to do it all the time whenever
21:32
you're teaching a new text or so today we were
21:35
doing war photographer and that's one of the yeah walls
21:40
of suffering exactly in ordered rose yeah
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no genuinely it was good so it's
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so much fun they still do it and doesn't that make you
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feel young oh my god I love that my sister's
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an English teacher and she still teaches it and I'm like spools of
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suffering no it's actually such a good one
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I really enjoy teaching it because again it is an excellent opportunity
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to be culturally responsive so when we're talking about you know war photographer
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the role of a war photographer what they originally thought it was activating
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their prior knowledge and then we were building on that and we looked at so
22:14
many different images and obviously again part of having a culturally responsive pedagogy you.
22:21
You have to be sensitive and you warn your learners that, you know,
22:24
we are looking at war, we are looking at conflict.
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You know, we are learning about a poem called War Photographer about the life of a war photographer.
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So we need to be very sensible and sensitive with the images that we're about to see.
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But if you want a safe space to discuss anything that you've seen or anything
22:40
like that, you can stay, you can chat to me after the lesson.
22:43
And then, but you know, this is reality.
22:46
And then we looked at some different images, but these images were
22:49
from conflicts in different places so
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again being responsive to the cultures that I
22:56
think might be represented but also being sensitive
22:59
to the fact that I'm not going to include a picture from a conflict of
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a learner in the classroom because being responsive isn't
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always about just what you do it's sometimes
23:08
about what you avoid because you know that certain learners that might
23:11
be a trigger because you know your students so we
23:15
were adding or I had added certain images to develop the lesson to make it a
23:19
little bit more relevant to my class things I knew they were talking about and
23:23
at one point in the lesson we were talking about a simile and I said as crunchy
23:26
as a tacky have you seen those horrible blue crisps that they all eat now no what are they,
23:33
yeah they're horrible well actually I don't want anyone to see me so they might be lovely.
23:40
Form your own opinion on tackies please but they're this crisp tackies yeah
23:46
it's this crisp with like purple packaging they're like blue and purple the
23:50
crisp itself is like bright blue it's like a rolled up,
23:55
And I actually believe it's an Eastern European crisp or like,
23:58
you know, a crisp you find on holiday, but they're in a lot of supermarkets.
24:02
You just know that I'm Googling this right now. Absolutely, I can see it, tackies.
24:06
So yeah, the kids eat them all the time. I said, as crunchy as a tacky,
24:10
as a simile, they all started laughing.
24:12
They were like, oh, and then it infused them, got them going. Can you see them? Yeah.
24:17
I have seen these in the shop. Sorry, everyone, I'm looking at my own screen.
24:20
I've seen these in the shop, but I didn't see the blue ones. Like, what are they?
24:24
Why do you have a blue crisp? I don't know. I don't know. The kids are like,
24:27
do you want to try a tacky? I said, go on then.
24:31
It was quite limey. Very citric. Limey? Yeah, very citric. Like, it tastes like lime.
24:38
Oh. I don't know how I feel about that. It wasn't what I expected.
24:43
And it gives me a blue tongue after as well. Oh, that's what they're after, isn't it?
24:47
Yeah, but I don't know how I feel about a crisp giving you a blue tongue.
24:49
It just doesn't feel healthy.
24:52
I just feel like blue, if anything. It's like one of those foods,
24:55
isn't it? You don't really get
24:56
very many foods that are blue because they tend to be like dark purple.
24:58
That's why they put like blue plasters, don't they, in the kitchen because you
25:01
can quickly see if the plaster has fallen off somewhere like a Monica making lasagna situation.
25:07
It was quiche, wasn't it? It was Monica and quiche. Okay, so is there anything
25:12
that you've seen where you just think, oh, you know, not maybe in your school,
25:16
but any kind of situation that you think that's definitely not what it should look like?
25:19
Like you've tried this and it hasn't gone well.
25:23
I think in general I'd say
25:26
tokenism where you've seen someone's tried
25:29
it but half-heartedly and then it
25:32
kind of rather than empowering the
25:35
student it it adds to alienating the student
25:38
because they're like they get a sense that
25:41
you care but then it's short-lived it's not
25:44
in your everyday practice it was a one-off lesson or a
25:46
one-off workshop rather than being embedded in the
25:49
culture and I feel like when it's tokenistic it
25:53
can then kind of it does eventually
25:56
make some people feel offended rather than empowered because I guess the aim
25:59
of it was originally to empower them but when it's a one-off gesture it often
26:05
loses that effect so I feel like yeah when it's done consistently and when it's
26:10
embedded into practice is when the practice when it's most effective yeah.
26:16
Do you know what? My mind's flitting between things. My brain does this.
26:19
And I kind of want to say I'm so sorry for everyone trying to keep up here and
26:22
thinking, why is she going back to that point?
26:24
You were just talking about like Caroline Duffy's war photographer poem.
26:30
And I think that kind of links into how do you go about teaching culturally sensitive topics?
26:35
I know you mentioned like trying to avoid things that were triggering.
26:39
And sometimes we don't have access to like what is triggering because we don't
26:42
all have access to CPOMs because obviously it's a need to know basis.
26:45
So we don't necessarily know what would trigger I mean there
26:48
are some things be blindingly obvious like if you're teaching topics that
26:51
you know have a have a history of alienating or
26:54
marginalizing or discriminating against the group you can kind of predict yeah
26:57
how do you go about teaching those culturally sensitive topics I
27:01
would say always where possible if
27:05
you do know that something's coming up give warnings but then
27:08
the other thing is that familiarity with your curriculum as well
27:10
so knowing what is coming up so that you can
27:13
then give some learners adequate time so before you
27:17
start or before we started teaching the power
27:19
and conflict cluster of poems the first lesson
27:22
was on power and conflict and what it is but also
27:25
you know discussing the sensitivities that the
27:29
poems are about you know they are about war
27:32
they are about a refugee they might be about a refugee journey they
27:35
might be about conflict in another country and
27:38
there will there will be themes of violent imagery and that
27:41
is part of the English curriculum but then
27:45
you give them a safe space to kind of voice before
27:48
or after the lesson if there is any concerns I haven't personally
27:51
had any concerns however the thing that
27:53
is important that you do is that if any learners what
27:57
following on from that reminder or advice do sometimes let's say laugh at these
28:03
images of war I think it's really important that you instantly address and sanction
28:09
the learner to enforce that environment for everybody else of it being a safe place.
28:14
Because, again, that's one of the things that can sometimes get negative learner
28:20
feedback is when they feel like that sense of injustice, that it wasn't a safe space.
28:27
Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off there. No, no, it's fine. I took a big pause.
28:32
And do you know what was really interesting, actually? I think,
28:34
again, I think I've touched upon this before.
28:36
When we're thinking about, we do fall in the trap, many schools do,
28:40
of having an ethnocentric curriculum, particularly, you know,
28:43
with some of our subjects.
28:44
And it is when you watch kind
28:47
of like the faces of students you know we're kind of
28:50
like faces of Indian students and you're like okay World War II then
28:53
this sounds all they're not expecting to hear about Indian
28:56
involvement and it was huge it was huge
28:59
and why are you not talking about it so if we're talking about culturally
29:02
responsive teaching it's about recognizing it
29:05
wasn't just British people there you know
29:09
it wasn't it wasn't Europeans and it
29:12
is wonderful to be like yeah my ancestors were involved in
29:15
that war and you're like oh my gosh let's do it let's do some homework activity
29:18
where it's like go and find out how your ancestors were involved in that like
29:23
what did they do you know what was the impact on your family and then you bring
29:27
it back and before you know it
29:28
you've got a personalized lesson which they actually want to come to you
29:32
Yeah, yeah, which they actually enjoy. And again, it's going to improve those student outcomes.
29:37
But I feel like it's important to mention that it isn't actually just about ethnic minorities.
29:42
It's actually about every single individual learner having their own culture.
29:46
So this is recognizing that everyone has a culture and you're being reflective
29:50
of the specific cultures in your classroom.
29:52
So if your class is 100% white, then the cultural references that you should
29:57
make to engage them should align with what you know to be their culture.
30:02
Because again, every white person has a different culture.
30:05
So it's getting to know the individuals. This isn't like the word cultural sometimes
30:09
makes people think it's ethnic,
30:11
but it's really important that I emphasize actually a culturally responsive
30:15
pedagogy is recognizing that everybody has culture and then get the emphasis
30:21
on is on you as a teacher, getting to know the culture,
30:25
the lived experiences of your students, and then using those to activate the
30:30
prior knowledge or to engage with them, to build relationships,
30:33
to focus on their assets.
30:34
Or just, you know, weave it into you're doing a lesson and instead of,
30:40
you know, it's maths and instead of using a certain thing to represent numbers
30:44
or, you know, to represent the shop, how many things reference a shop.
30:49
If you know a student in your class, their parent has this shop,
30:52
you write in the name of that shop, embed that in the maths question.
30:56
They weren't expecting that. They're going to be like, that's my dad's shop.
30:59
So how'd you get that, miss? How'd you get that? Just something little,
31:02
something, Literally, you're just trying to get that moment of engagement that
31:05
really then brings them back into the lesson, the sense of belonging,
31:08
the sense of community in your classroom.
31:10
How have I never thought of that? I love that. You should say just bringing
31:13
and changing your examples and not just being like, oh, okay,
31:15
my examples need to look more diverse.
31:17
It's actually like my students' actual lived experiences.
31:20
Like you say, my dad's shop or like my mum's business.
31:24
You can literally put students, in your maths problems, you can put the names
31:27
of the students in your classroom.
31:28
If they weren't paying attention, they're going to pay attention when it's Geraldine has five birds. What?
31:35
Okay, so I would love that though. are like, I can't believe I haven't thought about it.
31:40
It's just so easy, but it's so poignant to the students that you're doing it
31:46
for and you're doing it with. Okay, so...
31:49
As viewers kind of know from this point, I'm primarily secondary.
31:52
I'm a secondary teacher. You're a secondary teacher currently.
31:55
How is this different culturally responsive teaching in primary and younger years?
32:00
So I'm quite lucky that I actually work in an all three school.
32:03
So I do get to see primaries quite frequently.
32:06
And the one thing that I love about primary is that they do it already.
32:10
Sometimes they just do it already. It's natural because when they spend all
32:14
day with the same group of learners every day, they get to know them.
32:19
So in their greetings every morning, they're asking personal questions about
32:23
each specific learner's day, each specific learner's week.
32:26
They actually know what the students get up to at the weekend.
32:28
Even the practice of, you know, when you were in primary school,
32:33
I mean, you'd bring this bear home and you'd like take pictures of this bear in different places.
32:37
And you'd write a little journal entry and you'd read them all.
32:40
And you'd be like, oh, my gosh, that's so cool that this person does this in their house.
32:44
And they went on this trip and they went to this mosque or they went to church
32:47
or they went to visit so-and-so's gran.
32:49
And there's a picture of them with so-and-so's gran and they really get
32:52
that sense of belonging as a class I think primary
32:55
schools are somewhere where having a culturally responsive pedagogy
32:58
is somewhat woven into practice
33:01
the classroom displays often reflect you
33:05
know the nationalities of the learners in the classroom my first
33:08
time seeing those displays that
33:11
would have like welcome in so many languages was in primary
33:13
school in fact in primary school I remember drinking Aztec
33:17
hot chocolate you know learning about music
33:21
from this part of Africa and eating foods from
33:24
this part of Asia I really do feel like in primary
33:27
school you had a lot of those experiences that we sometimes lose in secondary
33:31
school because we emphasize so emphasize so much teaching the curriculum teaching
33:36
to assessments that we lose some of the joy in the things that they already
33:39
do in primary school that actually engage the learners in the classroom before
33:43
then teaching them the knowledge.
33:46
This is a, this is a random question I've not planned for. So,
33:48
but you'll, you'll have thoughts on this. I think we all would.
33:51
I just stimulated by what you said about primary school and how they kind of
33:54
do it, because like you say, they're with, they use that one cohort of learners
33:58
throughout the whole day, just doing different subjects.
34:00
I said just doing, like doing lots of different subjects and that's huge.
34:03
And therefore that kind of relationship naturally builds. Is there the fact
34:07
or the idea that maybe sharing happens more in primary school?
34:12
There's more of a, what did you get up to at the weekend? What did you do?
34:15
You know, let's, I had a book in primary school called Start the Day.
34:19
And every Monday, we'd come in after the weekend and we'd write in it.
34:21
It's obviously primarily literacy skills building.
34:24
But then as a result, my teachers would know, oh, you know, this is what I did
34:26
with my dad. This is what I did with my mom. And it's all about this sharing.
34:30
And then children are just so, you know, younger ages, most children are quite innocent and so free.
34:35
And it's like, I did this. And I went out with mommy and daddy and I did this, my big brother.
34:39
Does that kind of change, do you think, in secondary? and it's less,
34:43
students feel less comfortable sharing and therefore it becomes harder to do
34:46
culturally responsive teaching?
34:48
I think that's a really interesting question. I have definitely seen environments.
34:53
Where it would seem like that was the case, but I do feel like it's quite personal.
34:58
It depends on the classroom environment that you make because I feel like with
35:03
my experience of making a safe and stimulating environment, I feel like in the
35:06
first couple of lessons, it
35:08
is quite, you know, sometimes hard to get things out of them. Thank you.
35:12
But as you start to build that positive relationship, as you build trust,
35:17
as you kind of get to know your learners, they get to know you,
35:20
they realize that you stay true to your word, you're fair, and you have followed
35:25
up on all the things you've gotten to know them.
35:27
So if a student's invited me to watch a school show, I'll go.
35:29
If they invited me to see basketball and I'm not busy, I'm there.
35:33
If I said I'm there, I'm there. And if I said I'm not there, I'm not there.
35:37
And they've got to know that there's potentially this, I'm someone they can trust.
35:42
This is a safe environment I feel like the sharing just flows far
35:45
more fluently there's learners whose passport might
35:48
say you know don't ask me don't cold
35:52
call me don't ask me questions but they said actually miss
35:55
I don't mind if you ask me questions and I feel like that's kind of that's kind
36:01
of the environment that I really thrive to have and continue to have and I do
36:06
think it is down to that environment but it does take effort to build it so
36:10
it's about investing time That's really interesting.
36:14
Being consistent is so important, like you say, just relationships with students
36:17
in general, whether you're doing culturally responsive teaching or not.
36:20
If you do what you say you're going to do, if you say this is going to be a
36:24
sanction or this is going to be praise, deliver.
36:27
If someone says you're going to be there, be there.
36:30
And if you don't, for whatever reason, apologize.
36:33
I'm sorry I wasn't there for you and this is why, but next time I will.
36:37
And that kind of leads us into the next bit, really. We were talking about consistency.
36:42
It's a bit of a tenuous link, but it's going to take us in that direction.
36:45
Is there anything, we've talked about particular things you do,
36:48
like strategies inside the classroom.
36:50
Are there any particular routines that help kind of, I don't know,
36:55
or underpin culturally responsive teaching?
36:58
That's quite a hard one, actually. Routines. I would say, yeah,
37:04
I would say probably just always remembering that students, you know,
37:09
they kind of all come with different things I can get to know about them.
37:13
So I embed that all the time.
37:15
But my mind's gone a bit blank. It's a different one. We have this thing.
37:20
I think most schools have this thing where you have like sharp starts when they
37:23
come in and you kind of greet them by the door. Oh yeah, definitely Is that what you do?
37:30
Yeah, I do a bit of Romanian I don't, so it's You know when it's so woven into
37:35
the practice I don't even realise I do it Yeah,
37:38
Privyet, that's Russian And I do Repede, Repede That means hurry up in Romanian
37:43
Because I do, come on guys You're going to be late, so I'm like Repede, Repede Vamos, vamos,
37:50
I'm always like, I hope I'm pronouncing it Right guys, and they laugh,
37:54
But yeah, interesting though, because I love it. It's like you're doing different languages.
37:59
Like, again, I have not thought, but I occasionally try, I occasionally try
38:02
and make things French and kids love it when I do that. I'm like, menagerie.
38:05
I'm like, that's French manager. And they're like, oh my God,
38:08
she speaks French. And I'm like, that's not actually the word, just so you know.
38:13
I said, all right. Jesus, I see French though, kids.
38:16
Okay so we've talked about kind of what to do what it is what it is and how you would see it,
38:20
how do you know it's having an impact like how would you measure that
38:23
if you were to try and measure it yeah I would
38:26
say because it's because it's really it's ultimately student focused it's all
38:31
about the students so I feel like student voice would be the first thing trying
38:34
to get the voice of your learners taking out you know groups of students asking
38:38
them how they feel in their lessons whether they feel safe that is a question
38:42
that we ask our students see they feel safe,
38:45
you know then using that data to inform practice to
38:49
try and consistently create a
38:52
safe environment I think you could also do
38:54
surveys and you can also look at
38:57
behavior data because ultimately it is behavior and culture isn't it and when
39:02
students start to feel more of a sense of belonging and a sense of pride and
39:06
that this is their school it should in turn lead to more positive behaviors
39:10
they're less likely to vandalize a school that they feel a sense of belonging
39:14
to, they're more likely to adhere to the uniform policy,
39:17
they're more likely to complete homework if they feel a sense of belonging and
39:20
a sense of, I want to make my teacher proud, I really want my teacher to see this actually.
39:25
Yeah. Do you know what I'm just thinking about that amazing group that you have
39:29
going on? What is it you call it? Is it your?
39:32
Cultural and Religious Inclusion Committee. God, that's a mouthful,
39:36
isn't it? I love it. Yeah.
39:37
I feel like they'd be like best placed to literally then design how they would want to do.
39:42
I mean, is that something you'd consider or they already do?
39:44
Yeah, definitely. They already do.
39:47
They currently lead on lessons and workshops or assemblies.
39:52
We have culture week which is where
39:55
different years on each day get a chance to take part
39:58
in the lessons that the learners have made but the students also deliver assemblies
40:02
they go in so they've created some assemblies and
40:05
lessons that will be led by staff and
40:08
then they go in and do their own learning walks of the staff delivering
40:11
their resources literally about us this is
40:14
like students as what is it learning at different schools kind
40:17
of name it different like like study buddies or like learning walk assistants
40:20
and it's yeah I love the fact that you've got that going because that's actually
40:24
if it's student-led let's make the whole analysis of the impact student-led
40:29
let's let them design it and go in and obviously we just kind of supervise and
40:33
facilitate how does that work in your school how do they do it when they're
40:36
doing the learning walks?
40:38
Yeah. So during the culture day or the culture week rather, the learners will
40:43
have created the lessons.
40:44
So they'll be going in expecting, I mean, the lessons will have like some notes
40:49
and they'll be expecting the staff member to be delivering the lesson.
40:52
So they'll go in as well with school phone to take some pictures of the lesson
40:56
with consent from learners.
40:59
And learners are often in their own cultural clothing.
41:02
So they'll be taking images of learners in their clothing, cultural clothing.
41:06
And then at the end of the day, we debrief. So we feed back again with staff.
41:11
They're not completely alone.
41:15
So though it is student led, it is staff supported. So they feed back to myself and Amy.
41:21
And then we use that information to inform how we would plan the next culture
41:26
week, but also whether, for example, students.
41:30
So they actually also focus on student responses in
41:33
the lessons so whether students were engaged with the
41:35
lesson and they also do some student collect some
41:38
student voice they find speak to some learners and find out whether
41:41
they're enjoying the day their highlights of the
41:44
day things that they think could be improved and we use that to
41:47
feed back and inform the next culture week
41:50
for the following year but also if we need to respond to any other issues they
41:55
might feel like actually students have said they really liked it but they wish
41:58
we spoke about hijabs or something and then we'll say okay that's something
42:02
we can do in the next couple of months or it could be that's something we'll
42:06
incorporate into the next culture there that's a brilliant idea.
42:09
I love this concept of own culture week, and I know so many schools do this.
42:14
How do you kind of plan for a culture week that isn't tokenistic?
42:19
Because I think when we say culture week, it kind of automatically,
42:21
for some people who don't really understand it, think, oh, it's a one-off week
42:24
where we celebrate culture, and then that is it, and we tick the box,
42:28
and off-stay we can be like, look how cultured we are, and how respecting our
42:31
students' backgrounds we are.
42:32
How do you design it and market
42:35
it so that it doesn't feel like a one-off event but
42:38
it ties in with everything else that the school is doing I feel
42:41
like again the fact that it is student-led really helps with that
42:44
because there are students representing the whole student body
42:47
so from each year group there's a
42:50
group of students who are part of this committee and the
42:53
committee is a range of ethnicities religions
42:56
all coming together and discussing what they think or what they know from doing
43:02
research in their form groups or research in their year groups the learners
43:07
would like and enjoy for events like this and then ultimately they drive the
43:12
agenda so if they say you know.
43:15
The students have said they want to learn about xyz we
43:19
ask the committee is this what students would like to learn about
43:22
is this what they want to talk about and then we can
43:24
then go away as a committee and we do research on
43:27
the project we make group powerpoints together and
43:31
then we practice together we go through it we check the validity of our sources
43:35
and where we're finding this information and we try and make some workshops
43:40
as well if there's issues that we think we're really passionate about or we
43:43
can address so an example would be we've done some racism workshops,
43:48
then we work on those but it can be but
43:51
I guess again the focus is always on that reflectiveness it can
43:54
and should be reflective of things that are current and important
43:57
to the children so that's why our culture week program
44:00
our lessons they change every year because what the
44:03
children want to talk about each year and the community in
44:06
order to not be tokenistic it does need to be reflective of
44:09
the specific communities and they change every year so
44:13
it can't be the same activities and lessons recycled each year there needs to
44:17
be an element of well this year it's these lessons and these cultures because
44:22
they actually haven't been represented yet or we don't have anyone from our
44:26
school who is part of this community but we want to learn about it because there are people in the.
44:33
But it's driven by students so like
44:36
the fact you were kind of like talking about workshops and stuff do you
44:39
do you kind of get external speakers in or does staff
44:42
kind of plan assemblies and lessons around kind
44:45
of a topic that you give them based on what students want how do you
44:47
do it so there is external speakers we do
44:51
sometimes get external speakers in for these days
44:54
and we get local speakers as well because I think
44:57
that's often quite empowering when students can see people from
45:00
different cultures and talk about their journeys their career
45:03
journey their life journey but it's relevant to their
45:06
community that's so much more empowering but also
45:09
the students work with myself and
45:12
Miss King to create the lessons and the
45:15
like lesson plans and then we share them
45:18
with staff with enough time for them to adapt it because
45:21
it's always adaptive teaching to adapt it to their groups and
45:25
then they deliver yeah lovely thank
45:28
you so it's just interesting because I know schools do things differently and
45:31
sometimes you know schools will have a day where they kind of dress up and try all
45:34
foods and stuff but it sounds like you've really embedded it and it's not just
45:38
this one-off week it sounds like it's then tying yeah no it's not yeah it's
45:42
not a tutor time activity it's not a one-off assembly we all know those shove
45:49
it in 20 minutes go go go Yeah, it's not one of those.
45:53
It's, yeah, it's through and through.
45:56
Okay, the next thing I kind of want to take us in a direction is kind of like
45:59
the moving forward bit, is we've talked about what students do and how they're
46:03
at the heart of everything and kind of how classroom teachers and support staff
46:07
also kind of build into that picture.
46:09
When we're thinking about training staff because obviously you've been training
46:12
me today and and viewers obviously kind of learning from you too so kind of
46:16
like pd leads when they're thinking about.
46:21
This and how they're going to introduce it to staff what would
46:24
you expect to see on a pd program for staff when it comes to
46:27
culturally responsive teaching does it would you prefer to see
46:29
a block like a whole insect day do you
46:32
think it needs to be interwoven tell me i feel
46:36
like it's most i feel like it is most effective if
46:39
it's interwoven and if you try and
46:42
give it as much time as you could but frequently
46:45
rather than giving it a one big like a
46:48
big block workshop only touching it once a
46:51
year maybe weaving it into everything you do
46:54
kind of expecting it or showcasing it
46:56
as normal practice I feel like a good
47:00
starting point is sometimes a focus group so maybe
47:03
creating a safe space for the teachers in your specific
47:06
setting to talk about what their specific needs
47:10
were or to share good practice so it's
47:14
just kind of getting and that is something that happens quite
47:17
a lot I trust we have opportunities to you know speak to the trust to share
47:21
with the head teacher about things that we think would empower our students
47:26
and it's that safe environment or safe space for staff to say well this might
47:31
be a need or you know can we address,
47:36
unconscious bias or I think we should address unconscious bias or.
47:42
I've seen this great resource. I think this should be shared with everyone.
47:45
Like maybe this is something everyone can put up in their classrooms to make
47:49
this certain community feel welcome.
47:52
Yeah, that's really interesting. I agree with you when you're talking about everything.
47:55
I think most of the research recently suggests that actually the most effective
47:58
PD programs kind of do build on values and they are interwoven and they are repeatedly,
48:04
just like we do as students in retrieval, you know, space retrieval,
48:07
we do come back and we are modelling it and it is kind of deeply embedded.
48:11
It's not something we do for one year and then think oh we've done
48:13
culturally responsive teaching now we did it last year cool cool see you
48:16
later let's do the next initiative and i also i
48:19
kind of been toying with the idea recently i spoke to a couple of colleagues about
48:23
i think you know some schools fall into the trap
48:26
of saying we're the pd leads so we're going to deliver the pd
48:28
and it's like what about including the staff
48:32
that actually maybe have expertise or even bringing the students in and saying
48:36
this is what we love when you do this yeah miss bando does this in her lessons
48:40
this is what she does can we teach you how to do it for the next hour what are
48:45
your thoughts i think that's a brilliant approach to it actually i wish i thought of that again.
48:51
That's that's a really good one no it's that day though it's hard yeah,
48:55
it's your holiday day do you want to come in for an extra day i mean
48:59
to be fair we have had students delivering sessions to staff yeah we have students
49:04
in the inclusion committee but yeah no that's an excellent idea of you know
49:09
getting them to kind of deliver of because it was that was just a staff briefing
49:13
so 50 they got a 15 minute but that's still a brilliant start but I think.
49:21
That's a brilliant idea why didn't I think of it oh wait we did I'm just kidding,
49:27
No, I actually think it'd be really empowering to, you know,
49:31
have a student-led insert.
49:33
To have students, I'm not saying necessarily students teaching all the sessions,
49:37
but to have students driving the agenda of what exactly we need to work on,
49:42
what they want to see in the classroom. I think that's a really cool idea.
49:46
There's more buying, I guess, isn't there? Yeah, definitely.
49:50
But I think, you know, what I love about NIA is that we've got space to kind
49:55
of work on and co-design curriculum lessons.
49:57
And I'm sure, again, depending on your school setting, some schools have specific
50:02
resources that you might have to deliver or specific, it has to stick to it.
50:07
But we get quite a lot of independence to adapt the resources and make them
50:11
really tailored to meet the individual needs of our learners.
50:14
And I feel like that's something that, you know, you can also co-design and
50:18
share with others to kind of decrease the workload.
50:22
But yeah, I think that's a really easy way in.
50:26
Lovely. And that kind of leads us into, I say my last question,
50:29
but you all know I'll probably think of something else.
50:30
So this normally happens. I'm like, it's my last question. There's some more
50:33
juice that I can squeeze.
50:34
Is thinking about something from a PD angle, we've said what we'd expect schools to see.
50:38
They'd be woven in, underpinning values, maybe bringing in students and staff
50:41
and not just doing it top down from PD leads.
50:44
What advice would you give to
50:46
individual teachers and staff who want to deepen
50:50
their knowledge around culturally responsive teaching
50:53
whether that's areas of research you would suggest they
50:55
read or kind of areas can they
50:58
kind of look into I feel like
51:01
it would be to emphasize the teacher role that
51:04
we're kind of facilitators and that we
51:07
should always be intentionally trying to learn
51:10
something new about our learners at any given opportunity so
51:13
like you said you do it when you're on duty do it
51:16
when you're out in the corridor we do it when we greet our learners
51:19
in the morning you know if if I hear a learner speaking another
51:22
language I'll say teach me something in that language if I see a
51:25
learner eating a packet of crisps what are those crisps I've
51:27
never seen them before tell me about those they're blue tackies yeah
51:31
that's what they are crazy blue crisps yeah that's
51:34
how I know and it's just something like that oh what like
51:37
you went to a certain match at the weekend oh I
51:40
didn't know you supported that team I support this team I always talk to
51:43
the learners about like anime or things like
51:46
that things that I think you know this is a shared interest or sometimes it
51:49
doesn't interest me but if it interests you then you know we can do that and
51:53
I feel like my advice would be to act as a facilitator and to make some effort
51:59
to try and intentionally learn a little bit about your students backgrounds
52:03
because that will help you challenge your own biases.
52:06
But more importantly, you can then, you know, collaborate activities that build
52:12
on their prior knowledge and you can have student references throughout your lessons.
52:17
It's really interesting. You were just talking about kind of like students sharing
52:20
culture. And I was just thinking I don't do this enough.
52:23
Actually, I have a lot of students that are like beautiful human beings.
52:27
They cook for me regularly. Oh, no.
52:31
So I think it was last week, one of my year 12 sociologists, he was like, miss.
52:37
That was it. We started talking about Italy. I was like, it's one of my favorite countries.
52:40
Like I said, don't be offensive, but I was like, when you go to Italy and you
52:43
come back, you're a little bit like, wow, what is our food?
52:47
What is our art? What is our architecture? Like, what are our sculptures?
52:51
Because you go there and you're like, wow, you've got the Sistine Chapel.
52:54
It's amazing. I was like, you sat down. I was like, I sat down and I had like
52:57
proper pizza. And it was a knife and fork job. It's so good.
53:01
Yes. And the ice cream, the gelato, you come back and you're like, what is this walls crap?
53:06
I've been eating for years.
53:08
And one of my students then came and was like, miss, I'm going to bring you in pasta sauce.
53:13
And he's like what my my nan does he's
53:15
italian she was like he cooks it she cooks it
53:18
for eight hours oh wow she cooks in
53:21
pork chops like meatballs oh wow i'm
53:26
like oh my god so he brought in this tub and the other day he came to find it
53:28
so i'm going to make you some more and i've had other things i've got one of
53:31
my my indian students in year 13 whenever she goes to india she brings me about
53:35
proper chai oh she's made her own blend and then it was really funny on my birthday,
53:41
she brought in this chai.
53:42
One of my year 11 students found out that I'd been given chai and she's like,
53:45
oh, I've got a better blend for you.
53:48
And before you know it, there's like chai wars. I've got my birthday and it's
53:52
chai wars. But I love that. And so actually I do think,
53:55
you know that kind of interaction they feel like they're giving you part of
54:00
themselves yeah and it's not just like oh what's this and the stuff they give
54:05
you is wonderful I mean don't get me wrong in primary school it might be slightly
54:08
different like do they wash their hands.
54:13
It's one of the best they make you a scone and it comes back and it's gray and
54:16
you're like okay that's wonderful I'm gonna pop that over there I'll save that
54:21
for later that's yeah that's That's the one I always do.
54:24
I say, oh, I'm actually going to take this home and give it to my family. It looks so good.
54:30
Too good I must share. I'm going to make this dessert.
54:35
I'm going to wash it down. I need a cup of tea for this. I'm going to save it for later.
54:40
They always buy that one. But it's rock solid and you're like,
54:43
I'm going to have to lube up the situation with wine.
54:47
They do. They do want to share. It is really nice. Yeah.
54:50
And you can also share when you know about what you know what values the students
54:54
have or what's exciting then you can celebrate when you know their favorite
54:57
teams won or you know when you know for example a certain learners of a certain
55:02
faith oh you're doing anything nice for Diwali you know you're doing anything
55:05
nice for Eid you know the country that they're from might be,
55:10
celebrating something hosting the World Cup there's like it just adds a layer
55:14
of things that you can celebrate or talk to a kid might love Taylor Swift and
55:18
you know Taylor Swift is touring Did you hear Taylor Swift is touring?
55:21
It's just something to engage them.
55:23
I had that the other day, actually, one of my year 10 students.
55:26
I think I said to her, I was like, oh, I was listening to one of the Bastille songs.
55:29
And it reminded me of you because she told me she'd gone to a Bastille concert.
55:33
And she stayed behind at the end of the lesson. She was like,
55:36
what was this song, Miss?
55:37
And I was like, it's the one that's like, it's the rhythm of the night one.
55:41
It's like, it's sampled. And she was like, oh, yeah, it's this.
55:43
And then she started telling me in her break time how at this recent gig she'd
55:47
been to, they were videoing like their new official video for their next song.
55:52
And she was in the garage.
55:53
Oh, that's incredible. I love this. Like, I love the fact you stay behind to
55:57
tell me about this. And this is what it's for. It's forged the relationship.
56:01
It's literally building. It's relationship building.
56:04
And I think it's so rewarding. Isn't that feeling so rewarding?
56:07
You're like, she wants the property.
56:10
But the thing is, sometimes they don't know that, right? And they think that
56:14
what you love is their results.
56:16
You're waiting in August or the PPE results, whatever it is.
56:19
And they think that's what you love. And you're like, no, no. I love you people.
56:23
Like I genuinely love I love coming to teach
56:26
you and I love the jokes I even love you when you're in a
56:29
bad mood I love it when you share stuff I had a student
56:32
last year on my year 13 boys he bought me like a
56:34
pack of like I don't know Cadbury's like miniature heroes
56:38
or something in a card and he goes oh I've also loved some other sweets
56:41
in there you probably won't like them they're Polish right oh my god I love
56:44
them yeah these little jelly sweets and like chocolate and I'm like do you know
56:48
why I love them because they're part of you and you have literally gone on a
56:52
way and thought I want to give Miss I want Miss to try exactly something that's part of my,
56:59
lived experience something that's part of my culture it's so
57:02
lovely oh do you know what that's just inspired me do you know
57:05
what I'm going to do I'm thinking actually for one of my glasses I'm going to
57:08
try out when we're doing like so we obviously have like parties and celebrations
57:12
and stuff of things actually thinking about making that more inclusive and saying
57:18
everyone brings something from their culture and we'll all sample it and share
57:22
it together. Yeah, absolutely.
57:24
I love that. Sorry, I'm so into my phone. It sounds like you're just like eating at school.
57:30
Well, it's funny, actually, I barely do eat at school, but if the kids are feeding me, I'm like, yay.
57:34
I love when they're like, you don't have to cook tonight. And I'm like,
57:39
oh, you know, the adult life is so tough for me.
57:42
It is a lot. I'm glad there's a chicken shop on the way home.
57:47
Right. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Geraldine. I have learned so much.
57:51
And like you say, it's really reassuring, actually. Like you say,
57:55
most of us are kind of doing elements of culturally responsive teaching,
58:00
And I think it's nice. It's reassuring, isn't it, to be like,
58:02
no, I do have those relationships. I am building them, but there's just a little
58:06
bit more that I could be doing.
58:07
Like, I'm definitely going to go and think about, like, words and languages.
58:11
Like, a lot of our students at EAL, I could be greeting them in their language
58:15
at the door when I'm doing my sharp start.
58:18
You know, I could be bringing in different foods from my culture and then kind
58:21
of saying, should we try these as part of our celebration?
58:24
I definitely love the idea of your culture week. I love that.
58:28
It's really fun. Thank you so much for having me. I've had a great time. Well, thank you so much.
58:32
If anyone wants to kind of get in contact with you, Geraldine,
58:35
to kind of talk about anything culturally responsive or even careers,
58:38
maybe, that's another show for you to come back on.
58:40
Oh, yeah, that's a good one. Where can they find you?
58:43
Just type in Geraldine Tando on LinkedIn. You can DM me. I'm open to any messages.
58:49
Or if you go on the NIA website, my email address is there. I wouldn't say it
58:53
out now because it's kind of long.
58:56
Well, that's lovely. Thank you so much for your time, Geraldine.
58:58
I'm so pleased that I met you.
59:00
Finally hopefully i can pop over to nia at some point
59:03
and yeah that'd be brilliant we'd love to have you and i
59:05
want to meet your student squad
59:08
i still can't remember the name because it's so long the religious and
59:11
inclusion yeah cultural and religious inclusion committee
59:15
i love it maybe we'll show on its inclusion committee
59:18
who knows but i love that well thank you
59:20
so much and thank you so much to viewers for tuning in as
59:23
i said whether you're listening live or playing back please do get in contact with
59:26
geraldine asking about specific things whether it's research
59:29
things you should be doing or considering even when you're like
59:32
planning things like lessons or designing curricula get in contact and she will
59:36
support you you've been listening to teachers talk radio tune in live and listen
59:43
back at ttradio.org we look forward to hearing from you next time on teachers talk radio.