Culturally appropriate pedagogy: is it always necessary? The case of East Asians learning math and science

Abstract

‘Culturally appropriate pedagogy’ has become an important practice since 1990 to address the increasingly diverse student population in every part of the world. For all the good intentions, however, there is an inherent danger in identifying and accommodating students’ cultural differences: we may fall into the trap of reifying superficially or even ethnocentrically understood cultural differences and pigeonholing students simply because of their assumed ‘cultural differences’. How should we decide when a ‘culturally appropriate pedagogy’ is necessary and how should a truly culturally appropriate pedagogy be designed? This study investigates a group of Chinese mathematicians/scientists/engineers’ perspectives in order to shed light on these questions.

Notes

1. It should be noted that the comparison made here is only between Asian/Asian American students and non‐Asian students in the US. It is not a racial comparison. In fact, there are very significant gaps in mathematics and science performance between US and Scandinavian students as well, as shown by PISA studies (see the OECD website). The differences in maths and science performances may only indicate some cultural factors at work.

2. Although bilingual programs are supported by many teachers and by much educational research, it is noteworthy that opponents of the program are mostly minority students’ parents. There are widespread concerns among minorities (for example, Latinos) that their children are acquiring insufficient mastery of the English language because of these programs. The parents also have STAR test scores to support their argument (Cromwell, 1998).