ICC/Cultural and/or Ethnic Identity as a Vehicle for Inclusive Education

Theme Description:

The changing demographics in U.S. classrooms creates challenges as well as opportunities for teachers in K-12. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2023), there are close to 5 million students in public schools in the U.S. and over 400 spoken languages used in schools. Interestingly, the trend shows that as students move from lower to higher grade levels, the percentage of ELs decrease due to increasing English language proficiency (NCES, 2023). While this is promising news, there are still challenges. The challenges are multifaceted and are often socio-cultural and socio-political in nature. For one, in some settings, dual-lingual students are still not allowed to speak their primary languages within schools, but are required to only speak English. The belief is that students who are immersed within an English setting will learn the language quicker and more proficiently, thereby providing a clearer career-readiness path. In other cases, teachers are either not willing or knowledgeable about how to embed students’ cultures and languages in their instruction. Additionally, there is a tendency to view students’ linguistic and cultural differences as subtractive, rather than as valuable resources. However, we believe that there can be a shift from this negative mindset to educators having a deeper understanding of how students’ languages and cultures might be viewed as assets to enrich teaching and learning. Furthermore, as teachers’ cultural competencies increase and they learn new strategies on integrating these assets, there will be a more enriching classroom that includes all learners. To this end, our theme will highlight ways teachers, school administrators, and teacher educators’ sharpened understanding on cultural and linguistic identities can help shape more inclusive classrooms.

Leader Bio:

Dr. Annmarie Jackson is an associate professor with the College of Education department at University of North Georgia (UNG). Her research interests are teacher development, preservice teachers’ literacy understanding, and culturally relevant teaching. She received her PhD. degree in Language and Literacy from Georgia State University. She has been serving as the ESOL coordinator at UNG for the past 4 years. Dr. Jackson primarily teaches literacy courses for undergraduate students and ESOL courses for graduate teachers in the ELE-SPED department. In 2019, she received a Congressional Award for her service of three years at an after school literacy program with UNG preservice teachers, within a Hispanic community in Gainesville, GA. Before working at UNG, she worked as a reading specialist at a Title 1 school with predominantly English learners for 12 years in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Dr. Jackson is passionate about improving the lives of others. In her free time, she enjoys traveling and learning new things.

Dr. Annmarie Jackson

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Further Reading:

  • Bajaj, M., Walsh, D., Bartlett, L. & Martinez, G. (2023). Humanizing education for immigrant and refugee youth: 20 strategies for the classroom a nd beyond. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
  • Espinosa, C. M. & Ascenzi-Moreno, L. (2021). Rooted in strength: Using translanguaging to grow multilingual readers and writers.  New York, N.Y: Scholastic.  With Immigrant Communities (pp. 328-349). IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-3448-9.ch017
  •  Tinker Sachs, G. Jackson, A., Sullivan-White, T. & Wynter-Hoyte, K. (2018). Developing culturally relevant literacy assessments for Bahamian children. International Journal of Progressive Education. 14(1), 130-147. DOI:10.29329/ijpe.2018.129.10              
  • Jackson, A. (2018). Girls and Boys for Others: Creating relevance and critical inquiry for English learners. GATESOL in Action Journal, 1, 1-31. ISSN #2331-6845.         
  • Tinker Sachs, G. Clark, B., Durkaya, M., Jackson, A., Johnson, C., Lake, W. and Limb, P. (2017). Disrupting Perceptions of the Other through Ethnographic Approaches in the Teacher Education Classroom.
  • In Fatima Pirbhai- Illich & Robyn Cox (Eds.), Culturally responsive pedagogy: Working towards decolonization, indigeneity, and interculturalism. Palgrave, Macmillan, London, UK. 
  • Collier, M. J. (1989). Cultural and intercultural communication competence: Current approaches and directions for future research. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 13(3), 287-302.
  • Fong, R. (Ed.). (2004). Culturally competent practice with immigrant and refuge children and families. New York, N.Y: Guildford Press.
  • Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Gonzalez, N., Moll, L.C. & Amanti, C.  (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities and classroom. New York, N.Y.: Routledge.
  • Jackson, A. (2022). Making Critical Discussions Accessible. Literacy Today, International Literacy Association.
  • Jackson, A., Johnson, H., Johnson, L., Namatovu, W., Oakley, R., Renaud-Grant, C., Solá Gracia, E., Washell,C., & Walker, W. (2021) Thriving through a teaching circle: Creating spaces for the support and cultivation of faculty women of color. In Elizabeth Hubbell (Ed.), Thriving as a woman in higher education. Denver, CO: Academic Impressions.
  • Jackson, A. P., & Washell, C. R. (2020). Pre-Program Education Students’ and Teacher Educators’ Understandings of Teaching and Learning Within a Bilingual Community. In Cardozo-Gaibisso, L., & Vazquez Dominguez, M. (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Advancing Language Equity Practices.
  • Jackson, A. (2018). Girls and Boys for Others: Creating relevance and critical inquiry for English learners. GATESOL in Action Journal, 1, 1-31. ISSN #2331-6845.
  • Kim, Y. Y. (2007). Ideology, identity, and intercultural communication: An analysis of differing academic conceptions of cultural identity. Journal of intercultural communication research, 36(3), 237-253.
  • Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, Th. K. (2018). Intercultural communication in contexts. McGraw-Hill Education.
  • Nieto, S. (2009). Language, Culture, and Teaching; Critical Perspectives. (2nd ed.) new York, N.Y: Routledge.
  • Pirbhai-Illich, F., Pete, S. & Martin, F. (2017). Culturally responsive pedagogy: Working towards decolonization, indigeneity and interculturalism.  London: Palgrave Macmillan
  • Sha, L. I. U. (2023). Teaching Intercultural Competence Using Critical Incident and Cultural Story Telling. Sino-US English Teaching, 20(3), 101-105.
  • Tinker Sachs, G. Jackson, A., Sullivan-White, T. & Wynter-Hoyte, K. (2018). Developing culturally relevant literacy assessments for Bahamian children. International Journal of Progressive Education. 14(1), 130-147. DOI:10.29329/ijpe.2018.129.10      
  • Tinker Sachs, G. Clark, B., Durkaya, M., Jackson, A., Johnson, C., Lake, W. and Limb, P. (2017). Disrupting
  • Perceptions of the Other through Ethnographic Approaches in the Teacher Education Classroom.
    Zainuddin, H., Noorchaya, Y., Morales- Jones, C. A. & Whelan Ariza, E. N. (2002). Fundamentals of teaching English to Speakers of Other Language in K-12 mainstream classrooms. (3rd ed.) Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt. (You will find some general cultural tips for students from certain cultural groups in L-12- Appendix- A Rainbow of children: A Sampler of cultural characteristics)

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