Responsive Teaching: An Ecological Approach to Classroom Patterns of Culture, Language and Thought

Responsive Teaching: An Ecological Approach to Classroom Patterns of Language, Culture, and Thought, the fourth title in this series, provides a conceptual basis for recognizing the classroom as an ecology of lingistic and cultural patterns that should be taken into account as part of the teacher's professional decision making. It argues that the orchestration of classroom behavior cannot be separated from the students primary culture. Chapters discuss the metaphorical nature of language and thought, primary socialization, non-verbal communication, framing and social control, the classroom as an ecology of power, culturally responsive supervision, and educating teachers for the 21st century - all from a cultural and linguistic point of view.

The authors challenge the Cartesian tradition of viewing the student as a culture-free individual, and the classroom as a problem in management. They draw on Gregory Bateson's ideas help to illuminate student behavior as a form of communication about social relationships - one that relies heavily on culturally embedded patterns - and to reveal the classroom as a mental ecology where thought processes of others are encoded in the metaphorical language used to introduce new concepts. The book emphasizes that responsive teaching involves being sensitive to how the ecology of patterns (behavior and thought) reflects cultural differences and may be a source of miscommunication and alienation. (From the Publisher)