Unit rationale, description and aim
Cultural responsiveness is a common and arguably non-negotiable feature in classrooms and schools that promotes equity for all students and seeks to challenge deficit approaches towards students that may perpetuate gaps in educational opportunities and attainment for students who experience educational disadvantage. In the context of this course, which focuses on teaching and leadership for equity and excellence, this unit provides the opportunity for participants to develop in-depth knowledge and practical expertise in pedagogical theories and approaches that empower students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using students’ cultural positions to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes. This unit is purposefully positioned towards the end of the degree, after pre-service teachers have been in schools for some time and have an appreciation of the diversity inherent within many Australian classrooms.
The unit provides a roadmap where culturally responsive pedagogy is shown to centre ‘on’, ‘around’ and ‘through’ your students. The unit emphasises the importance of being responsive and adaptive to the multiple cultural positions your students possess and the value of maintaining high academic expectations while at the same time scaffolding learning by reshaping curriculum so that it pivots off pre-service teachers’ personal ‘funds of knowledge’.
The unit builds upon conceptual and practical understandings of culturally responsive pedagogy, building pre-service teachers' knowledge and skills of the cultural complexities in contemporary classrooms and most effective approaches to respond to these. It extends these understandings to critical analysis of culturally responsive leadership in schools, enabling participants to examine these principles and practices at a systemic level and consider implications for personal development as a teacher and aspirant leader.
The unit aims to provide pre-service teachers with the tools to explicitly unpack the connection between disparate notions of culture and differentiated forms of teaching and learning.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Investigate the key features of culturally respons...
Learning Outcome 01
Critically reflect upon curriculum and teaching, d...
Learning Outcome 02
Critically evaluate culturally responsive leadersh...
Learning Outcome 03
Content
Topics will include:
- The theoretical foundations of culturally responsive pedagogy, including cultural competence and critical consciousness, and connected practical strategies.
- Core competencies and strategies that enable pre-service teachers to utilise the multiple cultural positions students bring to the classroom.
- Understandings of differentiation that privilege notions of culture as well as personal intellectual capacity and individual achievements of students.
- Approaches to facilitate cultural awareness and sensitivities while working with students, parents and the wider community in diverse contexts.
- The relationship between culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership and implications for leadership in low SES and culturally and linguistically diverse schools.
- Related but distinct elements of culturally relevant pedagogy including culturally sustaining pedagogy, equity pedagogy, and community-engaged teacher preparation.
- School-based approaches designed to advance equity for all students.
Assessment strategy and rationale
Each assessment item will require pre-service teachers to apply notions of culturally responsive pedagogy to the issue under examination and consider the implications these might have for teaching practice as a graduate teacher. The assessment strategy used allows the pre-service student to demonstrate knowledge related to literature and data analysis in a theoretical and practical manner. Each assessment task and associated weighting will allow pre-service teachers to progressively demonstrate success in terms of achieving the stated learning outcomes. The assessment tasks are designed in sequence so as to allow for feedback and progressive development across the unit. A range of assessment procedures is used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes and professional standards and criteria consistent with University assessment requirements.
Assessment Task 1 is based in pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) previous professional experience practicum experiences. It asks PSTs to critically reflect upon curriculum and teaching, by drawing upon theories and concepts grounded in culturally responsive pedagogy, as well as through an exploration of their own positionality and potential sources of personal cultural bias. The assessment thus directly addresses LO1 and LO2 by asking them to apply and evaluate their knowledge of key features of culturally responsive pedagogy, and critically analyse how this plays out in diverse contexts. In effect, the task examines their ability to explore their own positionality and contextualised teaching practice as seen in practice, and then use a culturally responsive pedagogy framework to go back and critically reflect on that practice.
Assessment Task 2 builds on assessment 1 by asking PSTs to critically evaluate culturally responsive leadership and its promotion of equity for all stakeholders through the lenses of school policy and practice. The assessment directly addresses LO3 in that it engages PSTs with practices of culturally responsive leadership and its promotion of equity for all stakeholders through an analysis of school policy and practice. Assessment 2 provides a wide lens view of how to effect cultural change in educational institutions by acknowledging that the broader school leadership and national policy domains also play a significant role in promoting equitable outcomes in diverse settings.
This approach to assessment ensures a meaningful linking of practice and theoretical frameworks, supporting PSTs to integrate broader societal-based understandings in their own thinking and practice connected to culturally responsive pedagogy. The approach also helps PSTs to develop an appreciation of the significant role of informed and ethically-bound leadership in our educational institutions and systems.
Minimum Achievement Standards
The assessment tasks and their weighting for this unit are designed to demonstrate the achievement of each learning outcome. To pass this unit, pre-service teachers must meet the learning outcomes of the unit and achieve a minimum overall passing grade of 50%.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Critical Reflective Analysis ...
Assessment Task 1: Critical Reflective Analysis
Critical Reflective analysis of a lesson or set of lessons (and/or lesson observations) taught in a previous term or professional experience practicum. Contemplate:
- The ways in which culturally responsive pedagogy provides you with a window into the cultural complexities of that particular class/ set of classes/school
- What would you now modify in your teaching and learning approach based on your current understanding of culturally appropriate pedagogy?
50%
Assessment Task 2 : Critical Evaluation Critical...
Assessment Task 2 : Critical Evaluation
Critical evaluation of culturally responsive teaching and leadership.
Critically examine and reflect upon your school’s policies, curriculum documentation, professional learning, pedagogical approaches, school priorities and leadership activities, and consider how these support equities. Identify opportunities for leadership within and beyond the school level (government, policy, etc.) that could enhance and improve equity and better reflect culturally relevant teaching and leadership.
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This is a 10-credit point unit designed to ensure that approximately 150 hours of learning are completed to meet the requisite standard across the teaching period.
The teaching and learning strategy in this unit is designed to be flexible and promote self-regulated and guided learning, underpinned by adult learning principles. This 10-credit point unit has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the teaching period comprising of directed tasks and self-study. An emphasis is placed on pre-service teachers as adult learners with responsibility for their own learning and who are capable of problem solving. The learning in this unit is enquiry-based, learner-focused and student-centred.
AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS - GRADUATE LEVEL
On successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should be able to: