Implementing a Culturally Responsive Curriculum in a Faith-Based School by Jennifer Schmidt A ...

162 Pages·2016·1.43 MB·English

Making Culture Relevant: Implementing a Culturally Responsive
Curriculum in a Faith-Based School
by
Jennifer Schmidt
A curricular project submitted to
Sonoma State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts
in
Education

Committee Members:

Dr. Perry Marker, Chair
Dr. Karen Grady
Lyle Bennett, M.Div.

May 12, 2016
Copyright 2016
By Jennifer Schmidt

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Authorization for Reproduction of Master’s Thesis
Permission to reproduce this thesis in its entirety must be obtained from me.

DATE: May 12, 2016 Jennifer Schmidt

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Making Culture Relevant: Implementing a Culturally Responsive Curriculum in
a Faith-Based School
Thesis by
Jennifer Schmidt
Abstract
Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study is to develop and implement a unit
of culturally responsive curriculum in a faith-based setting and identify the problems
and issues that might arise with the intersection of faith-based directives and
culturally responsive curriculum.

Procedure: Student feedback was an important element to the success of this
project. Before the unit design began, demographic information in the form of a
survey was collected from the students. The unit itself was designed with tenets of
culturally responsive pedagogy as a guide. Throughout the teaching of the unit, data
was collected through formative assessments, summative assessment, text
engagement strategies, and both small and large group discussions. At the
culmination of the unit, a student focus group was formed and using a question and
discussion format; students responded to the ideas presented in the literature and their
thinking about those ideas.

Findings: Choosing content that reflected the ethnic and cultural diversity of the
class was important not only because students saw themselves in the curriculum but
because it provided students with knowledge of people and cultures different than
themselves. Combining that content with text engagement strategies and discussions
taught students to listen, ask questions, look for evidence, and carefully choose their
words. One issue that arose was the need to deliberately connect social justice themes
of inclusion and acceptance with religion. Another issue was the need to apply a
faith-based qualified approach.

Conclusions: While a faith-based setting easily lends itself to cultural competence
and academic success, teachers in that setting might feel constrained in their approach
to sociopolitical consciousness by the religious dogma of the sponsoring church, and
even though a “qualified approach” might be necessary, culturally responsive
teaching in a faith-based setting is still important as it prepares students to function in
a diverse world because children, immersed in the religious values and morals of their
home culture and educated to question the inequities of the world, will fight for social
justice.

M.A. Program: Education
Sonoma State University

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Acknowledgement
I knew from the beginning that I needed Dr. Perry Marker to chair my
committee. In the three classes that I have taken from him, I have found him to be a
challenging master teacher who has pushed my thinking in ways that I never could
have imagined, and he has continued to push my thinking through this thesis process.
It is evident that Dr. Marker finds joy in teaching and guiding his students. I am
forever grateful for all of his time, patience, and wisdom.
Dr. Karen Grady and Lyle Bennett have rounded out the perfect committee.
Dr. Grady is another exceptional teacher who stretches her students intellectually and
models excellent classroom practice. I wish I could have taken more classes from
her. Lyle Bennett is not only a great friend but a trusted colleague. I have learned so
much from him in our work together, and everyday he inspires me to be a better
teacher.
My greatest joy is being the mother of Katie and Jake. They continue to enrich
my life with laughter and laundry. I have been blessed with a loving husband who
supports my desire to keep learning. He is my best friend. My journey on this earth is
also enhanced with the companionship of numerous furry and feathered friends who
keep me balanced and appreciative.
My parents, Mel and Juanita Madche, gave me the most important gifts of
love and security. They raised me in a perfect bucolic environment and immersed our
family in numerous outdoor adventures, animals, and books. Their guidance
nourished my curiosity and started me down the road to a lifelong love of reading and
learning.
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Table of Contents
Chapter Page
I. Introduction to the Study ....................................................................................... 1
Context for the Study ............................................................................................. 1
Problem Statement ................................................................................................. 3
Significance of the Project ..................................................................................... 4
Support for the Study ............................................................................................. 7
Methodology .......................................................................................................... 9
Definition of Terms ................................................................................................10
Limitations .............................................................................................................12
II. Review of Related Literature ................................................................................13
Introduction ...........................................................................................................13
Defining Culture ....................................................................................................16
Culture & School ...................................................................................................17
Culture & Religion .................................................................................................19
Multicultural Education .........................................................................................20
Multicultural Education & Religion ......................................................................25
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Theory ...............................................................26
Theory to practice ..................................................................................................34
Culturally Responsive Curriculum ........................................................................37
Challenges to Implementing Culturally Responsive Pedagogy .............................39
Opposition to Culturally Responsive Pedagogy ....................................................43
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy & Faith-Based Schools .....................................45
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Conclusion .............................................................................................................48
III. Methodology ..........................................................................................................51
Purpose of the Study ..............................................................................................51
Description of the Sample ......................................................................................51
Project Description & Rationale ...........................................................................52
Measurement ..........................................................................................................54
Procedures ..............................................................................................................54
Procedures for Data Analysis .................................................................................54
IV. Findings .................................................................................................................56
Introduction ...........................................................................................................56
Rationale for Planning the Unit ............................................................................58
Planning the Unit ..................................................................................................62
Data Collection .....................................................................................................68
Discussion of Findings from Quick Writes ..........................................................70
Discussion of Findings from Short Story Annotations .........................................75
Discussion of Findings from Classroom Thinking Strategies ..............................85
Discussion of Findings from Personal Narratives ................................................91
Discussion of Findings from the Focus Group .....................................................93
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 103
V. Major Findings and Suggestions for Further Study ............................................. 106
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 106
Major Findings ..................................................................................................... 107
Looking Back ....................................................................................................... 115
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Future Curriculum ................................................................................................ 117
Next Steps for Research ........................................................................................ 119
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 119
Appendix A ........................................................................................................... 121
Appendix B ........................................................................................................... 139
Appendix C ........................................................................................................... 143
Appendix D ........................................................................................................... 146
References ............................................................................................................. 148

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1
Chapter 1
Introduction to the Study
School must represent present life – life as real and vital to the child as that which
he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the playground.
-John Dewey, 1929
Context for the Study
My journey began with frustration. My students’ engagement with the literature I
chose was uninspiring. As I studied the room, I could categorize my students: non-
readers, reluctant readers, closeted readers, and a handful of eager readers. This played
out in vapid discussions. I didn’t know how to reach them. As a secondary teacher, I was
not exposed to reading education, and I questioned whether or not it was really my job.
There was grumbling in faculty meetings about reading scores, and while no answers
were found, blame was assigned to the teachers who taught those children before us. Still,
we continued to graduate a number of students who either could not read or felt disdain
for reading. In frustration, I determined to find the answers and decided to pursue a
Masters at Sonoma State University.
It was while enrolled in Dr. Perry Marker’s The Reflective Educator that I was
exposed to the idea of critical literacy. I spent that semester immersed in the assigned
readings of James Baldwin, Miles Horton, and Robert E. Peterson. Paulo Freire’s name
appeared again and again in many things I read, and I decided that semester to center my
research project on his idea of liberation education. It was heady stuff, but I knew at that
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time that somehow I had to figure out how to apply his theories of education to my
classroom.
At the same time that I began studying at Sonoma State University, my school
was awarded a Continuous School Improvement grant that funded a four-year plan and
the execution of that plan in school reform. Implicit in this process was the
implementation of standards based teaching using the Common Core State Standards
(Common, 2014). Working closely with consultants from the Coalition of Essential
Schools (CES), we began to carry out school reform working with the CES Common
Principles that describe the core beliefs and characteristics of Essential Schools and the
CES benchmarks that are the resulting classroom practices that strengthen student
achievement. At the top of the list of classroom practices on the CES Benchmark page is
culturally responsive pedagogy.
It was as if my two worlds had collided. While I now knew that I wanted to write
a thesis involving the ideas of a culturally responsive pedagogy, I did not have a clear
picture of how that would play out, yet I wondered if theory could transform into practice
in my classroom. In the thick of writing my literature review on the ideas of culturally
responsive pedagogy, I inadvertently stumbled across a thesis examining culturally
responsive curriculum in a faith-based school. Since I teach at a faith-based school, this
was a huge find for me. Interestingly enough, I had not questioned the feasibility of a
culturally responsive curriculum in a faith-based school, and it was while reading this
thesis that I started to wonder if a culturally responsive curriculum could actually work in
a faith-based school.