The relevance and significance of Culturally Appropriate practices

Why 'culturally appropriate' elder care matters http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/out-in-the-open/segment/15589471 - shared from the CBC Radio App

This is a very interesting podcast to listen to.  It reminded me a lot of the term "Culturally Relevant Teaching" that Gloria Ladson-Billings first coined back in 1994.  The form of elder care you will hear about takes into account the background of the residents and the communities they come from to create an environment where they see themselves and feel valued.

In the field of Education, the term "Culturally Responsive Pedagogy," or CRP, is more likely to be used instead of the one used to describe the care in this podcast.  I am going to briefly reference an article I read from the Capacity Building Series on CRP to highlight why I believe it is important and something all schools should be doing.

According to the article, there are three dimensions to CRP:

1. Institutional:  This is where school leaders consider if certain things that are happening in school reproduce forms of marginalization.  Are the majority of students being suspended Black and Male?  Are Gifted Programs overwhelmingly represented by one of 2 Ethnicities and certain socio-economic communities? 

2. Personal:  Educators need to be "self-aware...[and] have a deep knowledge of their students and how they learn best."  This dimension is two-fold, I believe.  If I am self-aware, say, of my middle-class upbringing, I can be mindful of the references I may want to comfortably default to when I am speaking with my class.  This does not mean I can't speak from my life experiences, but I need to be aware of the students in front of me and the varied experiences they have which may be different than my own.  I sometimes feel that teachers can make students feel that their lives are less than when a teacher is constantly using references from their own experiences.   

 I think the second portion is self-explanatory.  Teachers get to know their classes and will have a sense of what engages the class to and promote and encourage learning.  

3. Instructional:  Heavy consideration is placed into what classroom practices are being used.  A teacher engaged in CRP is probably one who differentiate his or her instruction.

 http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_ResponsivePedagogy.pdf

The following YouTube video takes in dimension number 2 the most.  There is not a lot of talk on the potential for the curriculum to marginalize certain groups of students nor is there a lot of talk on pedagogical approaches but it is a start.  It comes from the Halifax Regional Centre for Education.

So, now we can return to the original story on the care for the Elderly.  It would seem that the institutional dimension has been considered because there are culturally specific spaces for some racialized populations.  The instructional dimension seems to be working with the diverse programming available at the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care*.  It also sounds like the personal dimension is being met by the staff who work at the home.

*The Hellenic Home is another example of a culturally specific home for the Aged: http://www.hellenichome.org/