With growing diversity around us, the importance of cultural education has become increasingly evident. Educators at every level—from elementary through high school classrooms, language programs, university lecture halls, and even athletic fields—are recognizing the profound impact that cultural awareness can have on students' lives. In this ongoing Educator Spotlights series, Voices from the Classroom and Beyond: Cultural Education at Every Level, we will continuously feature the insights and experiences of educators, administrators, mentors, coaches, and more. Their unique perspectives help shed light on the vital role that cultural education plays and how it equips students with the skills and understanding needed to thrive in an increasingly diverse world and shape a more inclusive future.
The offering of any opinion on the teaching and learning of culture would be remiss not to name the identities that inform and limit my understanding of people and their practices, products, and perspectives. I am a young, male teacher of color. Yes, I am young, and thanks to my age, my status as a young teacher increases the likelihood of knowing the cultural joys, pains, and knowledge relevant to my students’ generation. To my advantage, I feel students are more willing and able to engage with culture within and beyond the United States when I, too, am willing and able to engage with theirs. Yes, I am male, and thanks to my gender, this decreases the likelihood of my students’ questioning, criticizing, and challenging my pedagogical methods and materials to the same degree that my female and nonbinary colleagues experience. The patriarchal system teaches children to afford my lessons more value and grace than that of women and gender-queer educators. And, yes, I am a person of color, and this increases the likelihood of students feeling represented in, validated with, and empowered by the cultural education I offer them.
With these privileges come counterposing experiences; that is, my identities are also sources of scrutiny when offering cultural education. My gender, age, and ethnicity have been used as an excuse by colleagues and students to offer patronizing, at times hurtfully critical, feedback. Feedback, for instance, includes comments regarding my assumed lack of qualifications or on my assumed inability to manage the social, emotional, and intellectual needs of the students. But that said, thanks to these experiences, I am confident that the work of cultural education is critically important and vale la pena. Indeed, “it is worth it” because cultural education has benefits and value for both educators like me and our students.
For the sake of not repeating already meaningfully detailed descriptions of the benefits of cultural education (“Nurturing Young Minds,” Preeti Menon, 2023) or the values of cultural education (“Raising Culturally Conscious Children,” Ma’Keva Kyricks-Puri), I offer you two highlights of how culture has been integrated in my teaching and learning experience this academic year.
“La luna, el corazón, la estrella . . .” I read out the deck of 54 cards, giving a three-second gap between each so that my students can scan their tabla, a four-by-four grid that contains a random set of sixteen distinct images that correspond to their word being called out. “La muerte, el mundo, la rosa,” I continued but then was interrupted by a student who sheepishly shouted, “lotería,” in the form of a question. They did not win as they had thought, because this was not bingo. The similarity in lotería being a game of chance and having its historical connection with the “giucco del lotto” of 16th century Italy explained the confusion. A player can only win if the entire board, la tabla, is filled with beans, frijoles, which served as markers, not by completing a row, column, or diagonal. The game resumed, and I eventually pulled, “el soldado,” “el valiente,” and “el músico.” I informed my students that these cards are three of the eight only people in the Don Clemente version of the game play; the rest of the cards are of animals, plants, and objects, like a watermelon or a harp. They were intrigued to know that the other five cards were intentionally left out. By the end, when all the 49 cards have been read, some students were eager to find out who had a tabla with a space that had not been covered by a frijol. It did not take them long to realize that those “missing” cards are racial and gendered depictions of Indigenous, European, and African people in colonial Mexico.
Our playing this game, lotería, was my sneaky way of introducing the complex nature of culture, an interplay between cultural products, practices, and perspectives during and throughout time. My students in the same trimester would play two other versions of the game - la versión milenial, a Y2K inspired parody, and lotería cuarentena, a pandemic inspired theme – and, though it was a challenge and not entirely achieved by all, students would create their own personalized set of 54 cards. I have two frames hanging on the wall of my classroom, showcasing two of my students’ cards that I switch out every week. They bring me happiness.
“I cried five times when I watched Blue Beetle,” I told my students, who, in turn, were reasonably confused why a DC superhero movie would render a young man in his twenties sad. “Well, let’s look how I would see myself on TV growing up,” I elaborated before giving a presentation on Latinx representation in cinema. “From White actors performing with brown-face to casting White actors to play Latin American characters, cinema in the United States has a history of not hiring Latin American actors to play themselves.” My students are not old enough to immediately recognize the examples I include in my slideshow, so I continue, “and if they do, these Latine actors are often cast in stereotypical roles, such as a domestic worker (the cleaning lady, the nanny, the landscaper, etc.) or a criminal (the gangster, the narco, the cholo, etc.).” At this point, their eyes begin to see the pattern I am outlining with pictures, as if they are realizing how this has indeed been the case in their own cinematic experiences. “This is not even exploring how even if Latin Americans hold seemingly positive characters, like the ‘sexy Latina’ and the ‘hot Latino lover,’ these representations of Latin Americans are one-dimensional and favor Latin Americans with more Euro-centric features and fairer, often White, skin.”
Again, my students are not old enough to immediately recognize the examples, but I included the likes of Diego Luna, Eiza Gonzalez, and Michael Cimino to make a tangible point. “Now, imagine how I felt when, for the first time in my life, I saw on the big screen not just a young Latino but a young Latino whose story does not focus on his adversities as a first-generation American with undocumented family. Instead, the focus is the power of family in supporting his, albeit cliché, hero’s journey.” They take it all in as I end the presentation with examples of how there is notable progress in terms of having inclusive, multidimensional, non-stereotypical and authentically Latine stories on television.
“Blue Beetle is an example of this progress,” I preface before revealing that the students will now examine and review this movie as a class. “But why did you cry?” they asked. “The first time was the intro scene when I saw that Jaime Reyes, the main character, was wearing literally the same outfit I was wearing when watching the movie; the second when I realized that the actor playing Jaime, Xolo Madridueña, is also Mexican American, who to an extent looks like me; the third and fourth I’ll let y’all see for yourselves so that I won’t spoil the film; and the fifth was in the car parking lot outside the theater when I realized that this was the first film in which I could dream that I, too, could be the superhero with my Latino identity and all!”
In offering you my take, I close with affirming that cultural education is of value. The wealth which students gain from learning about culture will help make the world a more accessible, understanding, and welcoming place.
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