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Cultural And Linguistic Disconnect Between Teachers And Students

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Cultural and Linguistic Disconnect in Classrooms

Students are often the first people to call teachers out for being disconnected. A prime example is displayed in chapter two of Milner. Mr. Hall, a science teacher working in an urban school believed that he just needed to know his content area to be a successful educator (49). However, he discovered that he also need to know his students deeply to get his students to respond to him in meaningful ways. Disconnect can be defined as a lack of personal connection between teachers and students. Disconnect can come at any stage of the school year. It can happen at the fault of the teacher or at a cultural level. The two types of disconnect that I will discuss in this paper are cultural and linguistic disconnect. Cultural disconnect refers to the customs, music, and pop culture of the students and ways that teachers do not understand their students’ culture or depreciate it. Linguistic disconnect refers to the phrases, words, sayings that are used amongst students and can include Ebonics and other cultural languages. This paper will attempt to expose the impacts of disconnect and discuss what measures first year teachers can take in order to be a culturally and linguistically responsive.
Growing up in Calvert County, MD, I only had two teachers who were people of color in thirteen years. That is a major problem for a student coming of age, whether white or a person of color. While many political figures do not believe

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