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Understanding Appropriateness Versus Appropriation
Focus Purpose
Emotional self-management Ensures that we do not let our emotions lead our behavior nor infect our students with our emotions
Action plan
Ensures effective problem solving to prevent becoming emotionally unstable from fear, anger, hurt, or anxiety Sample questions include: What strategies can I use to ensure I am an equitable and social justice–driven teacher? How will I diffuse toxic or threatening situations, especially the ones I create?
Sample Questions
Sample questions include: What are my triggers (someone standing next to me while I’m sitting, discussing racial differences)? What makes me defensive? How do I respond to these triggers? What am I trying to control?
Engaging in self-reflection prompts us as teachers to question our actions. It encourages us to have honest discussions with ourselves about our intent, actions, behaviors, and biases. With honest personal reflection, teachers can begin to transform their practices away from the educational status quo and toward culturally appropriate pedagogies.
It’s important here to discuss the difference between striving for cultural appropriateness versus veering into cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is the adoption of another’s cultural norms and elements to exploit that culture’s identity for one’s own gain (Matthes, 2019). And yes, as a teacher, you can become exploitative. For example, a non-Black teacher using hip-hop music and its jargon to get Black students to believe he, she, or they are one of them is exploitative. It is exploitative for a teacher to wear a sari and a bindi to demonstrate to Indian students that he, she, or they are embracing their culture and preparing them for the next book by an Indian author. Notice the teacher’s motive in each example: it is self-focused. Culturally relevant pedagogy is concerned with empowering students. How can teachers disrupt cultural appropriation? They must commit to a continuous practice of self-reflection. They must uproot the exploitative impulse to reach their students.
This is why it is necessary to create a positive and affirming classroom environment in which students can lead discussions related to their own cultural values. Teachers can create
