What is a cultural inquiry process, and how can it help me as a teacher?

“Cultural inquiry” is a process teachers can use to make their classrooms more welcoming to students from different backgrounds. This process celebrates cultural diversity and recognizes the individual strengths that students bring to the classroom. Teachers who engage in cultural inquiry have more positive relationships with students, which ultimately results in better educational outcomes.

Let’s look at the key steps in this process.

Identify any personal assumptions and biases you may have

First, conduct an honest self-assessment of any personal assumptions or biases you may have about students from other cultures or ethnicities. Consider whether you may have any preconceived notions about how you expect a student to perform academically that are based on their race, ethnicity, or some other non-scholastic factor. Some studies have shown that a teacher’s personal bias around culture or race can lead to a false expectation that a student will perform poorly in school. This type of assumption or bias overlooks the positive asset that cultural diversity brings to the classroom and does a disservice to students of diverse backgrounds by unfairly characterizing them as an underperforming “deficit” in need of remediation.

Learn about the cultural influences your students experience day-to-day

Second, develop an understanding of the influences, values, and customs that students of different cultures and ethnicities experience outside of school, and examine how these life experiences affect those students. This can help you craft teaching strategies and pedagogical methods that students of diverse backgrounds can more easily relate to.

Gather educational and family background data on your students where needed

The third step in the cultural inquiry process involves gathering information on the family and educational histories of culturally diverse students. This can be done through discussions with parents, former teachers, and the students themselves. You can also gain valuable insights by reviewing work done by the student in other classes, particularly in subject areas that demonstrate skills in writing or language acquisition. Background information of this type will help give you a better understanding of your student’s learning style as it has been shaped through childhood and adolescence by cultural and other external factors.

Incorporate cultural diversity into the curriculum

The final step in the cultural inquiry process is to make changes to your curriculum and teaching practices that celebrate multicultural diversity and recognize the strengths and potential of students of diverse backgrounds. In so doing, culturally diverse students will feel empowered to make positive contributions to their learning environment by sharing their experiences and world perspectives with their classmates. This will lead to increased student engagement and positive educational outcomes.

To learn more about the cultural inquiry process, read this article by School of Education faculty Stephanie L. Dodman, Nancy Holincheck, and Rebecca K. Fox. We also encourage you to explore the master’s degree offerings in Mason’s Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning (ASTL) program.