Culture is the most important force for creating and maintaining equity- centered schools.
By definition, culture is the aggregation of beliefs, attitudes, habits, values, and practices that form a reality. These patterns serve as a filter through which a person/group views/responds to the environment. (Ford & Harris, 1999)
An equity-centered school focuses on an environmental culture where belonging, learning, and the belief in achievement exists. Culture is not typically something we learn from a book, but it is something we internalize from experience. With that said, it has the potential to be positive or negative. Culture is created by people and once established has the potential to maintain itself even when those people are no longer present. The key to equity is creating the culture the right way.
These are some important elements to consider in the development of an equity centered school culture.
Culture must be symbolic. It’s what we see and display to demonstrate inclusivity.
It’s interactive. It’s what we say, how we engage, and the awareness and ability to recognize that differences in these patterns are not deficits.
Most importantly, it’s what we believe. Its living up to our schools mission and vision through our values and beliefs in a common humanity.
Sometimes we confuse culture and climate.
Culture is the school’s personality, Climate is its attitude.
Culture is a way of doing things, Climate is how we feel while doing it.
Culture is a curated sense of inclusion. Climate is feeling safe and welcomed.
We must be careful to incorporate the two and not allow an individual (sometimes temporary and surface) feeling around climate distract us from pursuing a collective (more permanent) norm of culture.
So, when we talk about culture, we are speaking to something that is dynamic. It has to be envisioned, developed, and then actively maintained. When the culture is threatened or challenged, the threat must be interrupted. This interruption is key for protecting the culture. This is why we don’t only speak to competency or proficiency, but we speak to being responsive.
Cultural responsiveness is not just for teachers and classrooms, but every area of a school requires this level of attention. When we are culturally responsive, we are not just curating and protecting the environment, but we are curating and protecting our most important asset: Our students, and the pursuit of a better tomorrow.
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