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Culturally Appropriate Education: Insights From Educational Neuroscience
Author(s) -
Zhou Jiaxian,
Fischer Kurt W.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
mind, brain, and education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.624
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1751-228X
pISSN - 1751-2271
DOI - 10.1111/mbe.12030
Subject(s) - cultural diversity , indigenous , psychology , cultural competence , function (biology) , inclusion (mineral) , diversity (politics) , pedagogy , sociology , social psychology , anthropology , ecology , evolutionary biology , biology
Culturally appropriate education focuses on educational competence needed in a global world and respect for different world views of learners and teachers from different cultural contexts. The relationship between gene, brain, and culture is complex and dynamical. Cultural experience and learning sculpts the anatomy and function of the human brain and shapes human behavior. This neuroplasticity is the basis of educability in human beings. Education reform should reflect cultural diversity and embed teaching practices into the cultural history of a nation and should promote positive inclusion of minority and indigenous history so as to maximize successful adoption by teachers and parents. This tenet is at the core of the concept of “culturally appropriate education.” Successful educational reform and pedagogy require that teachers become culturally and neuroscientifically literate.