Why is it important for teachers to recognize their own cultural beliefs, biases, and assumptions and examine them?
Here’s the tricky thing about culture: it’s very much like the air we breathe. It’s invisible and, yet, it’s essential. Culture affects our beliefs and, therefore, our behaviors. So, understanding one’s own culture, particularly in a nonthreatening way, is an important first step towards recognizing that no one culture is right or wrong. Once we stop making hasty judgments about others, we can reveal new possibilities for learning and development that we otherwise couldn’t see. Q: Can you explain what you mean when you use the term “classroom management” in the book? A: We take a very broad view of classroom management. We call the approach “classroom orchestration” because there is a palpable rhythm and harmony in classrooms where the teacher is working with the culture of the students rather than against it. Classroom management was never our goal in our project; it just was one of those things that popped up almost immediately. The teachers recognized that so much of the classroom p
