Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Davis New Mexico Scholarship
Dr. Cindy Onore
Scholarship programs can relieve financial anxiety and help first generation students to feel economically secure. But what can they do about the other issues and concerns that interfere with student success in college?
Many first-gen students report feeling guilty about leaving home or unworthy of the support they receive. They report being caught between the two worlds of home and higher education, unsure of how to negotiate them. Without family or community members who have been to college, what kind of academic or social support can they rely on from home? Moreover, how does this affect their relationships with peers and family? Is it possible for these students to feel affirmed in their heritage identities and cultures and still succeed in college? How might a program help students cope with feeling like outsiders in college?
The Davis New Mexico Scholarship program distinguishes itself by paying explicit attention to these critical concerns about identity, belonging, and cultural dissonance. In the world of education, a focus on these issues is called culturally responsive and relevant teaching.
Since the 1980s, the use of culturally responsive practices has positively impacted the achievement of students from underrepresented groups. These practices support critical thinking and problem-solving, motivate and encourage learning and engagement, and promote a sense of belonging. In reviewing the literature, it is clear that culturally responsive practices have been successfully applied outside of classroom settings and incorporated into college access programs. Yet, they have rarely found their way into scholarship programs.
Since the 1980s, the use of culturally responsive practices has positively impacted the achievement of students from underrepresented groups. These practices support critical thinking and problem-solving, motivate and encourage learning and engagement, and promote a sense of belonging.
The Davis New Mexico Scholarship’s unique approach values and affirms first-gen students’ and families’ language, culture, and life experience. So often, success is conflated with the ability to assimilate to a new culture, but with the Davis New Mexico Scholarship— and with culturally responsive practices in general— students are able to remain authentically themselves and still succeed. With over 90% of scholars graduating in four years (as compared to only 27% of first-gen students nationwide) it is apparent that an essential component of college success lies in the explicit affirmation of students’ identities— of their heritage languages and cultures, of their unique and pressing social and personal issues.
Allow me to be more specific and offer three programmatic examples:
At the Davis New Mexico Scholarship, students and their families participate in all aspects of college selection, application, and financial aid together with program staff. As a result, they come to be valuable partners in the program. Students and families don’t need to leave aside all that they know and have experienced in order to collaborate. They can use their prior knowledge and apply it to the new context.
Another important culturally responsive tool used is orientation programming, which is provided for both parents and students. Prior to attending college, students participate in an overnight orientation with workshops that focus on adjusting to college culture and negotiating a new environment without feeling that their identities are in jeopardy. Parent orientation is conducted by other parents whose students are already in the program. In this way, parents are honored as assets to their students’ success.
A third unique aspect of the Davis New Mexico Scholarship is its partnership with a small group of carefully selected colleges that have demonstrated their capacities to work productively with first-gen students. Although those colleges guarantee a dedicated advisory staff to scholars, the Davis New Mexico Scholarship does not fully transfer responsibility for counseling students to them. Instead, scholarship staff continue to provide students with a team of caring, trusted adults to provide ongoing support.
In addition to an array of collaborative and participatory practices that provide information about college life, the Davis New Mexico Scholarship also recognizes that there are attitudes and dispositions that correlate with college success and it works intentionally on these. Chief among them is developing the capacity and a positive attitude about seeking and finding help when needed. If help is viewed by students as a sign of weakness or inadequacy, they will not take advantage of it. So, the Davis New Mexico Scholarship cultivates a belief in self-advocacy and self-efficacy as strengths.
Through its programs and practices the Davis New Mexico Scholarship communicates that success does not require abandoning one’s unique history and culture or assimilating to a new culture.
In all these ways, the central tenets of culturally responsive and relevant practices create an authentic experience for Davis New Mexico Scholars. Their diverse backgrounds and identities are treated as strengths. Through its programs and practices the Davis New Mexico Scholarship communicates that success does not require abandoning one’s unique history and culture or assimilating to a new culture. Instead the program demonstrates that students can construct their own, unique paths all the while affirming who they are and where they come from.
Cindy Onore is Professor Emeritus of Education at Montclair State University. There, she served as the Director of the Center of Pedagogy and Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Before joining the faculty at Montclair, she was the Founding Director of Teacher Education at The New School, Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a faculty member at The City College of New York and Syracuse University. Prior to completing her doctorate in English Education at New York University, Cindy taught junior and senior high school English in Newark, NJ in an alternative high school for dropouts and adjudicated youth. Her research focuses on teacher preparation and professional development for high-need urban schools. She is the co-author of two books, Learning Change, which won the Richard Meade for Research from the National Council of Teachers of English, and Negotiating the Curriculum. She has also published numerous articles on teacher education and teacher leadership in journals such as Teaching Education, Teacher Education Quarterly, The New Educator, Academic Exchange Quarterly, and English Education. Dr. Onore holds a PhD from NYU in English Education.
