Preparing for Visitors: A few tips
The following blog post is an excerpt from “Appreciation & Reciprocity,” part of our 3-part series, “Cultural Appreciation: Interrupting and Transforming Cultural Appropriation.” To download a pdf of this resource, scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Sometimes, engaging in appreciation means inviting individuals or groups into your classroom or school to share from lived cultural experiences and knowledge. Willingness to share from a personal perspective and come into a new environment is a generous gift and warrants the acknowledgement of potential vulnerability. If your guests are not professional educators, they may benefit from the care created by your guidance. In order to prepare for the best possible outcomes, consider the following:
Engage the students/school in ways to reciprocate/exchange something with the visitor. Mutual relationships also mean mutual sharing. In addition to written thank-you notes, this could be a song shared, a meal prepared, or an artistic creation offered from the class. If the visitor is a part of a group or community, demonstrate investment through resource sharing.
Teach active listening and reflection. Prepare with the students by previewing why the visitor is coming, discussing appropriate questions to ask, and reviewing qualities of active listening. To increase empathy and understanding for the gift of another’s perspective, practice storytelling and listening exercises among classmates, in age-appropriate ways. After the visitor’s presentation, follow up with students to engage in a reflective activity that will be integrated into the larger picture of the year’s content to deepen the connection to the activity itself. (For example, write a page in the main lesson book, draw a picture, or create a display for the rest of the school to view.)
To support the visitor, give them a picture of what to expect from the children as a group and help to frame the time. Center what is meaningful for the visitor and seek to build connections between what they are preparing and what, and how, the children are learning. Preview the developmental stage and age of the children as well as themes and characteristics of the school year with the presenter. This preparation will help put the visitor at ease and increase their sense of belonging. Making connections with the curriculum or approach to learning increases the likelihood that the children will approach differences not as unique or novel, but as diversity that is ever-present and continual.
Resist entertainment or goodie bags. Ask: Do I understand the significance of this item/activity? Will it be cared for outside of the classroom? Often, adults who are not educators feel the need to make it “fun” for the students and will offer an item for them to take away with them or keep. While hands-on activities can sometimes enrich connection and learning, consider the purpose of the items/crafts shared. Remember that the children will take things OUT of the classroom and OUT of the context of the learning space.
Investigate “below the surface” knowledge. Use the iceberg concept of culture graphic as a guide as you consider how you are approaching the visitor. What assumptions could you be making? Seek to integrate diverse perspectives throughout the years and for non-festival reasons. (For example, learning about community systems, important inventions and people, calendars, food, family structures, or relationship to land.) Global perspectives can be offered in tandem with all aspects of your curriculum throughout the years, and not only at an “opportune time.” (For example, Diwali during Ancient Civilizations or Indigenous History in Local Geography.)
Iceberg of Concept Culture JPEG - With Words downloaded from PBS LearningMedia, https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/
