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Welcome to our tutoring system about the importance of fostering culturally inclusive classrooms! Our goal is to encourage teachers and education students to foster culturally inclusive classrooms and learn ways they can do so through culturally relevant pedagogy. We have split up our website into three main sections from our Educational Psychology class: Navigating Different Cultures at Home and at School, Cultural Competence, and Creating a Culturally Inclusive Classroom. Each section also includes a case study, where you can see a real example of the topic in practice. Additionally, we have incorporated a section with practical tips from journal articles to use in your own classroom. Our project is based on the research we have done as sophomores in our Educational Psychology class, however, we know we still have lots to learn. 

 

 

This topic is extremely important for everyone to learn about, but especially for educators to learn about. One prime example is the School to Prison Pipeline. The article, “Keeping Kids in Schools: Restorative Justice, Punitive Discipline, and the School to Prison Pipeline”, declares ,“It has been consistently documented that punitive school discipline policies not only deprive students of educational opportunities, but fail to make schools safer places.’ The presence of zero tolerance and punitive discipline policies within schools also have negative effects on the offending student, by increasing the likelihood of future disciplinary problems, and ultimately increasing contact with the juvenile justice system” (González, 2012). Additionally, this issue affects students of color disproportionately; “In the same year, according to the Legal Defense Fund, African- American students representing only 17.1 percent of public school students “accounted for 37.4 percent of total suspensions and 37.9 percent of total expulsions nationwide”” (González, 2012). The School to Prison Pipeline is just one of many reasons it is important educators are culturally competent.

After reading this Home page, please first go to the Cultural Competence page and then the Cultural Competence Case Study page (you can see the Case Study page when hovering your mouse on the Cultural Competence tab). Then, read the Creating a Culturally Inclusive Classroom Environment page and then the Creating a Culturally Inclusive Classroom Environment Case Study page. Next, go to the Navigating Different Cultures at Home and at School page and then the Navigating Different Cultures at Home and at School Case Study page. Then, read the Controversy: Colorblind Teaching page. Finally, go to the Summary and Review page.