EPI 1

Jack Reich (007711533)

At the beginning of the year upon taking the philosophical orientation test by Parkay

(2013), I found that I mostly relied on the teaching philosophy of Existentialism, with

Progressivism coming in as a close second. According to Parkay (2013), Existentialism is a

teaching approach that focuses on the choices of an individual, allowing them to commit to

living their most authentic self. Parkay (2013) then explains Progressivism, as a child focus

approach, where the interests of the individual are important, and the students should learn to

solve problems based on their experiences. (Reich 2020) The combination of the two teaching

approaches, still hold very true, and are still the foundation of my philosophical teaching

orientation. While the basis of my philosophical orientation is still the same, the ways I will go

about implementing these ideas have greatly changed.

When I first thought about what using a Progressivism approach in my classroom, I knew

it meant I needed to reach out and understand my students interests to better teach them.

However, I was never clear on exactly how I would go about doing this. Through my learnings

in the class, I now understand that students’ funds of knowledge differ greatly amongst one

another, so how to tackle this situation will be different per student. Our challenge as educators,

is to figure out how to provide equity among all students regardless of their race, ethnicity,

gender, economic status, language, or religions; and this is the source to implement successful

culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). (Gollnick & Chinn 2017) According to Gay (2018),

creating this knowledge of our students starts with understanding ourselves, we need to become

the student of our students. By better understanding ourselves, we then have the proper framing

needed to understand our students’ ecological factors, such as prior experiences, community
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settings, cultural backgrounds, and ethnic identities and how it may differ from our own.

Including Existentialism within my classes, the study by Irizzary (2017), has greatly

changed my view on what it means to let individuals shape their learning curriculum. Giving

students choices, and allowing them to participate in creating what they would like to do during

their classes, helps in making sure the students find interest in the topics being taught. While I

was observing Chris Shay for my Clinical Practice Module, he allowed his students to pick and

choose out of different activities that focused on the objectives being taught. This is similar to

what was done in Irizzary’s (2017) Project FUERTE. The major difference is that through

Project FUERTE, the students got to build their curriculum from the ground up. Chris Shay still

had a daily curriculum, but would give his students options based on that. In my future classes I

will embrace the successful ideas of Project FUERTE even further. If I give my students the

power to critique and choose from my selection of standard based lessons. I will learn some

critical information that I will be able to use to create lessons based on my knowledge of my

student’s funds of knowledge.

As an Adapted Physical Education (APE) teacher, the combination of the two

philosophies, along with the smaller class sizes, will truly allow me to produce content that will

fully embrace CRP within my classes. This of course will never happen right away, but as I

further my understanding of my students, I will be able to create lessons and choices that will

help draw appeal from everyone in my classes. Within Special Education, every student has

access to an Individualized Education Program’s (IEP), this will also truly allow me to create

success criteria that will help tailor a program that will work for each of my student based on

their funds of knowledge and disability.

Professional Teaching Identity

Professional Identity

Throughout this semester, and through my observations of Chris Shay’s mainstream

classes. I can definitely say my personal professional identity has changed. While Mr. Shay has

done a lot for employing CRP in his school, such as creating the reverse mainstreaming program.

I saw several missed opportunities I could implement that could further enact Ethnic Studies into

the critical pedagogy of mainstream classes within an APE setting. “Ethnic Studies, as a field, is

very broad and critical in that it seeks to deconstruct the forces that contribute to the normalizing

of racialized inequity and in that it also seeks to affirm and include multiple voices, perspectives,

and artifacts within the corpus of sanctioned knowledge.” (De Lose Rios, Lopez, & Morrell,

2014) Because all sports have a rich history of culture, physical education (PE) is a great

platform to encompass the teachings of proud ethnic identities. In the lesson I observed from

Chris Shay, the activity was Pillow Polo, which is essentially a simplified game of Polo, where

students run and use soft balls and bats, instead of riding horses and using wooden mallets.

During this lesson, Chris could have started by contextualizing in the cultural and historical roots

of Polo. Every sport is backgrounded with several different cultures, and has a deep history

within the countries in which they originated. This means, sports are a great learning opportunity

to show the students about different ethnic identities and cultural backgrounds. (Reich 2020)

Professional Dispositions

My professional disposition starts with building a mutual respect between my students.

Marsh (2012) was involved in SUPER a pupil engagement project through the University of

Cambridge. The study “revealed that teacher–pupil relationships played a key factor in pupils’

sense of belonging.” (p. 162) Without building a relationship with my students, the mutual
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respect will be absent, so attempts of modeling integrity and ethical conduct will not be valued.

There are several ways teachers can build relationships with their pupil’s. In Marsh’s

(2012) article he talks about five key teacher behaviors, that students have documented in

building a positive teacher-pupil relationship. I will go over three of the concepts talked about in

Marsh’s (2012) article that I intend to use to build relationships with my students, that will also

help myself and my students model positive ethical conduct. The first approach is being friendly

and flexible, this means speaking to my students in such a way that makes them feel respected,

doing simple things like waving hello to them outside of class, and speaking to them in a mature

manor. Being friendly means having a laugh with my students, and creating a more relaxed

atmosphere. While allowing flexibility can be allowing the students to have input and choices

within the lessons being taught. The second concept I will go over is noticing talent, this is when

the teacher puts in the time to notice good work being done by their students. However, it’s more

than just noticing good work, it’s also rewarding the students for their efforts, giving them

personal notes and making them feel confident about what they have done. This further

motivates the students, to work hard and diligent. The third way to build a teacher, pupil

relationship is through effective classroom management. This means that the guidelines set by

the teacher are manageable, and are set up in a way that makes discipline within the classroom

feel natural. The teacher speaks to the students equally, and handles situations in a calm and

quite manor. This builds a mutual respect in the classroom between the students and teacher, that

allows the students to flourish and not be bogged down.

Fostering a Productive Learning Environment

Being able to foster a productive and safe learning space for ourselves and our students

starts with knowing and understanding everyone’s funds of knowledge. “Speak Up” is a teaching
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tolerance publication that talks about how to go about handling situations that can cause biases

within our classes. According to the publication, pursuing a productive learning environment

starts with our personal mentality, we need to tell ourselves that we are the type of person that

will speak up against bigotry. The importance of understanding our students’ funds of knowledge

when going about speaking up and putting a halt to in-class bigotry, is so we can recognize how

our students will perceive our reactions. (Speak Up, 2019) If I have done my job at setting up

feasible codes of conduct using my students input, there should be no fear, when corrections

need to be made. I must also understand that students will not be able to instantly change their

actions, but by building a positive student–teacher reputation I will be able to tell my students

what is offensive towards the class and over time hopefully see honest change.

Within my class, I will also not be afraid to address hot topics and will spread awareness

about the realities of controversial issues. According to Gollnick and Chinn (2017), “Teachers

may be uncomfortable in addressing these serious but sometimes controversial issues… they

may worry that a discussion of the topic might get them in trouble with parents, the principal, or

other colleagues.” (p. 273) However, talking about and addressing these controversial issues,

such as social, racial, and LGBTQ inequalities is part of critically thinking and being a culturally

responsive teacher. Multicultural teaching requires students to investigate racism, classism, and

sexism along with how societal institutions have served different populations in discriminatory

ways. (Gollnick & Chinn 2017) These topics maybe hard to talk about, but by doing so we can

break down the barriers that are causing issues with creating an ideal professional, safe,

supportive, and inclusive learning environment.

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

CRP Learning

I can’t specifically say just one characteristic of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

resonates with me the most. I intend to use several different CRP principles, because it feels that

by prioritizing a singular characteristic you are no longer successfully implementing

multicultural education. However, comprehensive CRP, does seem to be one of the most useful

CRP principles I can use within my future Adapted Physical Education classes, as it puts the

most emphasis on breaking down the stereotypes the general education (GE) students might have

in my APE classes.

According to Ladson-Billings (2004) culturally responsive teachers should be

developing, emotional, intellectual, social, and political learning by using cultural references

based on the student’s skills and knowledge. Meaning it is our job as multicultural teachers to

teach the whole child. (Gay, 2010) If I implement mainstreaming within my classes, I will be

able to look at both APE and GE students and create content that will focus on helping teach my

students not only new athletic skills, but ways to address any negative views between the

students. Gay (2010), states culturally responsive teaching is both comprehensive and inclusive.

Mainstream classes do an excellent job at maintaining focus on the importance of academic

achievement, but also the maintaining of cultural identity and heritage all the students.

Ladson-Billings (1994), observed elementary school classes which encompass the idea of

interpersonal relations and having students working collectively together to promote academic

and cultural excellence. Within the class she noted that the students “functioned like members of

an extended family, assisting, supporting, and encouraging one another.” (p. 38) Students were

held accountable as part of a larger group, and it was everyone's task to make certain that each
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individual member of the group was successful. In a mainstream class, I will have the

opportunity to build a community of inclusive learners, where I as the teacher will be able to

respond and cater towards the variety of my students' individual needs, and their sense of

belonging (Gay, 2018).

CRP Readiness

For our classroom climate, it is our job as multicultural educators to provide an

environment where individuals from different cultural backgrounds have the ability to share in a

constructive place of learning. This should be a safe space, where us as teachers not only rejoice,

but embrace everyone’s differences, while providing meaningful and relevant learning

experiences that play on the strengths of the students. Culturally Responsive Pedagogy is more

than just the acceptance of people’s different cultures, it is a celebration of it.

According to Gay (2018) successful Culturally Responsive Teaching is based on a deeper

understanding of culture, its impact on schools, and the increasingly diverse student population

we are asked to teach. Gay (2018) also makes a point that we as teachers need to constantly be

evolving our own funds of knowledge, so that we can start to better comprehend our students’.

Understanding the effects of school culture and the complexity of individuals cultural diversity,

in relationship to their education, is the first step towards creating the proper framing needed to

produce a culturally responsive curriculum within my classes. Diaz-Rico & Weed (2010), deepen

this idea of how to better accomplish CRP within a class. Emphasizing the importance of also

recognizing cultural elements such as values and beliefs, family structures, nonverbal and verbal

communication, and the expectations of individuals. Being a Culturally Responsive Teacher,

really comes down to our ability to relate and understand the many different positionalities that

bias each one of our student’s epistemologies.

CRP Application

Within APE, there are exclusive openings to practice cultural responsiveness. Because

APE focuses heavily in the psychomotor domain, issues such as body language, personal space,

physical contact, and dress become particularly important factors to consider within the class.

(Harrow, 1972) APE is also a great platform to encompass the teachings of proud ethnic

identities. Almost every country has either a National Sport, or a sport they have originated. For

example, Sri Lanka’s National Sport is Volleyball, so during my lesson on Volleyball, I can

include contextualizing the cultural and historical roots of the sport. This can be done with

literally every sport, and the majority of sports have history in several different cultures. This

gives me a very broad and excellent foundation for exploring and teaching about different

cultures from around the world, while still staying within the classes required curriculum. (Reich

2020)
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References

De los Rios, C. Lopez, J. Morrell, E. (2014). Toward a critical pedagogy of race: Ethnic

Studies and literacies of power in high school classrooms. Springer Science+Business

Media, New York.

Diaz-Rico, L. Weed, K. (2010). Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Development

Handbook. Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing

Gay, G. (2018). Culturally Responsive Teaching. New York, NY: Teachers College Press

Gollnick, M. Chinn, P. (2017). Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society. Boston, MA:

Pearson Publishing, 273.

Harrow, A.J. (1972) A Taxonomy of the Psychomotor Domain: A Guide for Developing

Behavioral Objectives. McKay, New York.

Irizzary, J. (2017). For us, by us: A vision of culturally-sustaining pedagogies forwarded by

Latinx youth. University of Connecticut

Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). It’s Not the Culture of Poverty, It’s the Poverty of Culture: The

Problem with Teacher Education. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 38.

Marsh, H. (2012). Using Pupil Voice to Define Teacher. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishing,

162.

Parkay, F. (2013). Becoming a Teacher. Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing

Reich, J. (2020) Reflexive Reflection on Positionality. CSULB, California.

Speak Up at School. (n.d.). How to Respond to Everyday Prejudice, Bias and Stereotypes.

https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/TT-Speak-Up-Guide_0.pdf