Why should we recruit culturally relevant knowledge and experience that can be connected to make tacit knowledge explicit?
There are many studies of people outside of school doing the things we learn in school, but better. I must admit, I have been intrigued by the studies of brazilin street children doing complex mathematics. As I have been reading Carol Lee’s new book, she has been using this research, as well as parallel and complementary research to build a curricular approach she calls Cultural Modeling. In cultural modeling, we need to see that actions and behaviors outside of school can be just as deep and complex as what we do in school. It is a matter of the teacher deeply understanding their content area facts, processes, and creating contexts for connecting with cultural practices outside of school. She argues for educators having cultural understanding of knowledge, and asks that we consider structures that encourage participation and connection. Lee asks, “are we giving poor kids direct instruction because we are convinced this is the only way they can catch up and learn?” Lee asserts that we
