Chapter 11 page 257
Developing effective interpersonal relationships. In multicultural classrooms, one critical
ingredient in developing effective interpersonal relationships between teachers and students and between
teachers and parents is that teachers come to understand and appreciate the cultural backgrounds of their
students and their families. It is not possible for teachers to build caring relationships that support good
classroom management if students (or parents) believe that the teachers dislike their cultures or are
disinterested in them. When teachers are organizing and decorating the physical environment, teachers
should ensure that all cultural backgrounds are represented in classroom displays such as posters and
bulletin boards. When talking with students, teachers should show a genuine interest in who they are, which
includes an interest in their cultural heritage.
In underperforming schools, it too often happens that teachers blame students’ poor performance
on families’ values that they believe to not support educational achievement (e.g., Thompson et al., 2004).
In contrast, in schools that are effective with at-risk students, teachers do not dwell on blaming families for
students’ performance. Instead, they attribute their students’ successes and failures to their own efforts as
teachers (e.g., Hall et al., 1989). If students are underperforming, the teachers in these schools search for
better ways of teaching and better ways of reaching students (Pressley et al., 2007). A good policy for
teachers and administrators to follow is never to say anything to each other about students’ families that
they would not say to the families themselves (Meier, 2008). If a teacher would not say to a parent’s face
that “Our parents just don’t care about education,” they should not say this to each other. On the other
hand, teachers can say to each other that they need to find ways to work with parents to strengthen
learning, because this is something that they would be able to say directly to the parents, as well. Students
can sense when they are not respected, and it becomes impossible to build caring relationships in which
students are willing to cooperate with teachers if students sense that the teachers disrespect their families.
Respecting students also entails maintaining high academic standards (Pressley et al., 2007).
Teachers who fail to hold students to high academic standards communicate to students that they do not
think that they can succeed. Indeed, teachers who care about students will not accept that students are
achieving at a low level.
Some studies have shown student differences in a preference for academic versus personal caring.
Teacher educator Kate Bosworth (1995) found that some students viewed caring teachers as those who
were willing to help with personal problems and willing to provide guidance on these problems. In contrast,
other students cited the teacher’s willingness to provide help with schoolwork as a sign that a teacher cared.
However, the critical point for teachers to remember is that teachers should realize that there are different
forms of caring and that different students may respond to different forms of caring. Indeed, the same
student may respond to different forms of caring at different times, depending on personal needs at that
time. It is important for teachers to be prepared to offer caring of both types to all students.
Verbal responses and directions. It is important to understand that different cultures have
different ways of giving instructions and directions. For instance, in White middle-class families, parents
often use indirect statements such as the ones below to give instructions to their children:
Ɣ “Your room is getting really messy” (intended to communicate that the child should clean up the room).
Ɣ “Could you pass the salt?” (intended as directions to pass the salt).
Ɣ “I see some hands that need washing” (intended as directions to wash hands).
In contrast, in some other cultural groups, parents may avoid using indirect statements to give
instructions and instead make direct statements such as “Clean your room before dinner,” “Pass the salt,”
“Get upstairs and wash your hands before you sit down to dinner.” When children who are accustomed to
very direct commands enter the classroom of a teacher who gives indirect commands, there is a cultural
mismatch in language use. When the teacher says, “This class is getting really noisy,” she expects that the
students will interpret her statement as a command to quiet down. However, students who are
unaccustomed to indirect commands will not interpret this statement as a command to be quiet, because in
their own families, no one ever gives commands in this way. It is important for teachers to understand that
their students may interpret their requests very differently from what they expect. Teachers should pay