Understanding Cultural Equity

Culture
-total complex of values, beliefs, practices, behavior, traditions, distinctive material
shared in
common and transmitted by a group of people from one generation to the next
- It is not static. It is dynamic.

Factors Influencing Cultural Orientation

*. religion * spiritual beliefs *gender

* age, * physical and mental abilities

Equity Equality

-aims to take extra measures by giving those - derived from the concept of fairness as
who are in need more than others who are uniform distribution where everyone is
not entitled to the same level of access and can
avail themselves if they so choose
- and making sure that everyone’s lifestyle is
equal even if it may come at the cost of
unequal distribution of access and goods

Cultural Equity
Embodies the values, beliefs, and practices that all people-including but not
limited to those who have been historically underrepresented based on race/ethnicity,
age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic status, citizenship status or
religion.- are represented in the development of arts policy, the support of artists, the
nurturing of accessible, thriving venues for expression, and the fair distribution of
programmatic, financial and informational resources.

Equity in Education
Personal or social circumstances such as gender, ethnic origin or family
background are not obstacles to achieving educational potential(fairness) and that all
individuals reach at least a basic minimum level of skills (inclusion)

How to Promote Equity in Multicultural Classroom

1. Setting Class Norms
- set norms in classrooms that promote inclusion and openness. teach students how to
disagree respectfully as well as how to be respectful to each other.
2. Using Culturally Relevant Teaching
- this pedagogy provides a framework for exposing students to diverse cultures in
deep, meaningful ways and prioritizes according excellence for all students.
3. Have a Purposeful Planning
- before planning, teachers must consider the following:
a. text- think about the text that you can use to explore topics about multiculturalism
b. discourse- when planning, consider ways that you can facilitate rather than lead a
group discussion.
c. differentiation- when planning, consider how do you differentiate your lessons for
various learners with different learning styles.(collaborative work)
d. Community involvement- invite people from the community to your class as
guests speakers to talk about a topic or class is learning about
The more exposure students get to diverse people, experiences and identities, the more
prepared they will be for life outside of the classroom.
Gender Stereotype
-a form of prejudgment, bias or limitation given to roles and expectations of males
and females

Programs that Promote Cultural Equity

Gender and Development Program (GAD)

- an approach that was developed in the 1980’s as an alternative to the Women in
Development (WID) approach.
-it focuses on the socially constructed basis of differences between men and
women and emphasizes the need to challenge existing gender roles and relations.

IPED Program
- Program of DepEd that strengthen its engagement with Indigenous Peoples (IP)
communities, especially in the contextualization of the K to 12 basic education
curriculum.
-DepEd response to the right of IP to basic education that is responsive to their
context, respects their identities and promotes their competencies and other
aspects of their cultural heritage.
DepEd Order(DO) 3, Series of 2017 (Multiyear Implementing Guidelines on the
Allocation and Utilization of the Indigenous Peoples Education Program Support
Fund (IPED-PSF)
Issued by Sec. Leonor M. Briones last January 18, 2017 that enables DEpEd field
offices to pan for and implement various activities aligned with the trust of the IPED
Program to support the public schools and other education programs implemented by
the DepEd in making the curriculum culturally responsive and developing culturally
appropriate learning resources.

Education For All (EFA)

- is a vision and a holistic program of reforms of the country to achieve an improved
quality of basic education for every Filipino by 2015
- its central goal is the basic competencies for all that will bring about functional
literacy for all.

SIX Goals of Education for All

1. Improve quality of Education
2.Expand early childhood care and education
3. Provide free and compulsory primary education for all
4 . Provide learning and life skills for young people and adults
5. Achieve gender parity by 2005 and gender equality by 2015
6. Increase adult literacy rate by 50%

Importance of Equity in Education

* Equitable education system helps all students develop the knowledge and skills they need
to be engaged and become productive members of society
* giving all children an equitable start would lead to better economic and social outcomes for
individuals for regions, and for our nation
 Interview on Providing Equity in Classroom

Introduction
Students’ diverse learning progress exists in every classroom. In the teaching and
learning process, there is a need for various teaching strategies to cater the various learning
needs of the different learners inside the classroom. A pedagogy that acknowledges, respond
to, and celebrates fundamental cultures offers full equitable access to education for students
from all cultures.

Scenario
Santol Central School is the second most populated school in Santol District. Learners
here are come from upland, lowland and some are from cities. As years passed by, learners
here are increasingly more diverse in their cultures, languages, abilities, interests and learning
styles. This interview aimed to know the strategies used by teachers of the said school to
promote equity in their classrooms. Data are gathered through interview.

Questions:
1. What level are you handling
2. How long have you been teaching?
3. What are individual differences of your learners?
4. What are your strategies in order to have equity in your classroom?
5. Among these strategies, which do you think is the most effective?
6. Are there any problem/s you encounter in providing equity in your classroom? If
yes, what are those?
7. How do you solve such problem/s?
8. What are the ways on how your school help you in providing equity in classroom?

Results
1. For questions number 1 and 2.

Respondent Grade Level Years in Service

Respondent 1 Kinder 26 years
Respondent 2 Grade 1 24 years
Respondent 3 Grade 2 22 years
Respondent 4 Grade 3 3 years
Respondent 5 Grade 5 28 years
Respondent 6 Grade 6 A 18 years
Respondent 7 Grade 6 B 7 years
Respondent 8 Relieving Teacher 1 11 years
Respondent 9 Relieving Teacher 2 2 years

3. Some of the individual differences of their learners according to the teachers I interviewed
are:
a. culture
b. languages
c. abilities
d. interests
e. learning styles

4. Teachers have variety of strategies to promote equity in their classroom. Some of the
strategies they have mentioned are:
a. Using instructional materials that relate students’ cultures (contextualized
materials)
b. Using differentiated activities and allowing students to collaborate and work in
groups.
( ex: role play/dramatization for those who are good in acting, composing poem or
song for those who are good in literature and singing.)
c. Presenting content in multiple forms- videos, manipulative etc.)
 d. Conducting remedial classes especially to those who are under frustration (poor
reader and low comprehension)
e. Using trilingual (tagalong, English and the native tongue of the learners)
f. Encouraging the entire class to support each other for the success of the entire
class.(ex: little teacher during remedial class)
5. In the lower grades, the most common strategies the teachers used to promote equity in
their respective classroom are using of contextualized materials and presenting content in
multiple forms (videos, manipulatives). While in intermediate, it is more on using
differentiated activities and allowing students to collaborate and work in groups.

6. While teachers do their best to promote equity in the classroom, there are some problems
they encountered like :
a. Poor cooperation of learners and poor retention.
b. No follow up at home. The teachers said that no matter how hard they try to teach
their learners if there is no follow up at home, then its really hard on the part of the
learner to acquire the basic skills and knowledge.
c. Lack of capacity to translate the lesson in the native tongue of the learners .
Example, one of the relieving teacher is not good in speaking Kankanaey. Some
upland learners can understand Ilokano, Tagalog and English but limited. So, the
teacher asked his other learners who can speak Kankanaey to translate what he
wanted to say to these learners.
d. Lack of financial support and time for preparation of materials.( reading materials,
manipulative, worksheets, etc.).

7. To solve these problems, teachers do maximum toleration for those learners who are not
cooperating. Teachers even conducted home visitation. Another one, teachers are doing
their best to master the language of some upland learners (Kankanaey). They even ask
financial support / assistance from the school head through MOOE. But due to lots of
things needed by the school, materials given by the school head are not sufficient.

8. Aside from the teachers, the school head is also doing his best in providing equity in
classrooms. He is sending his teachers to different seminars related to classroom
management, contextualization and other seminars that can help his teachers in managing
his/her class. He allotted also fund (from MOOE) to purchase materials to be used by her
teachers in making IM’s that could support meaningful teaching and learning though its
limited at least, he show his generosity to promote equity in each classroom.