QUESTIONS TO GUIDE TEACHERS SELF-REFLECTION ABOUT CULTURE

Critical Questions

Reflective Purpose and Significance

How does my culture

influence my works as an
educator with my students,
especially my students of
color?

This question challenges you to reflect on the culture-based

privileges and/or the lack thereof that you experience inside
and outside of the classroom. Then consider how your
culture connects with or diverges from your students to
either hinder or enable learning opportunities.

As an educator, what is the

effect of culture on my
thinking, beliefs, actions,
and decision-making?

This question challenges you to reflect on your conceptual

and cognitive positions and positioning that may have been
hidden previously. Beliefs and ideas may become more
visible through such conscious deliberation. Then, connect
your cultural beliefs with your practices and think about how
it shapes the kinds of examples you use to elucidate
curriculum content with students.

How do I, as an educator,
situate myself in the
education of students, and
how do I negotiate the
power structure in my class
to allow students to feel a
sense of worth regardless of
their racial or cultural
background?

With these questions comes reflection about the

relationships between race, power, and actions. You are
challenged to think about whose voice matters in the
classroom and to recognize that students can feel
marginalized and insignificant when teachers do not
recognize the important contributions and assets that they
possess and bring into the classroom.

How do I situate and

negotiate students
knowledge, experiences,
expertise, and background
with my own?

This question challenges you to decide whether you are

willing to negotiate expertise and ways of knowing with your
students. Start by considering the important relationships
between knowledge, experience, expertise, and culture.
Then work to understand that you may need to learn from
your students and others how to negotiate knowledge and
expertise in the classroom and how some groups of
students have been silenced because of their background.

Milner, H.R. (2010). Start Where You Are, But Dont Stay There. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.