Shakespeare in a Culturally Responsive Classroom

On February 4th, I got to attend a WUmester lecture by Dr. Watson over how to create a “culturally responsive classroom.” A culturally responsive classroom uses students’ diverse cultures and experiences to help them learn and achieve within the classroom. This can range from implementing multiple cultural perspectives within lessons, to connecting with students about their home lives and backgrounds. Within Dr. Watson’s lecture, she listed two specific areas that teachers can intentionally improve upon to make their classrooms more adaptive to the variety of cultures that are present in their schools. These areas include stance and content instruction. Within these two areas, there are opportunities for teachers to use Shakespeare’s writing to teach culturally responsive lessons.

Stance is a teacher’s mindset around race, culture, teaching, and learning. Dr. Watson explained that a teacher must be aware of his or her own personal “stance” to be able to foster a culturally responsive classroom. One important question teachers must ask themselves when teaching content is, “what perspectives are being left out?” This question is very relevant to The Merchant of Venice, because there any many contradictory perspectives within the text that can offer to learning opportunities in the classroom. By having students examine issues of the text through the lense of both Shylock and Antonio, they can practice understanding opposing sides of an argument. Perspective-taking leads to more culturally responsive classrooms, and it teaches empathy that can be applied to students’ lives outside of the classroom.

Another important concept of stance is the connection of the classroom to students’ home lives. In order to be able to connect material to students’ home lives, Dr. Watson emphasized that teachers must take the time and effort to get to know their students personally. She also talked about the importance of connecting classroom material to all cultures within the classroom, not just the dominant culture. The Merchant of Venice provides an example of a society that is completely run by the dominant culture (the culture of the Christian, Venetian society). Teachers can use the dominant culture presented within The Merchant of Venice as a bridge to another conversation about the effects of only seeing the perspectives of the dominant culture within our own society.

Finally, teachers can be intentional with their content instruction to create more culturally responsive classrooms. Dr. Watson believes that a teacher can use flaws and prejudices within the materials as learning points in class discussions. She calls this, “critical literacy.” Rather than skipping over the problematic elements of texts, she encourages teachers to point them out and have open discussions about why they are faulty. With all of the racial and religious discrimination within The Merchant of Venice, teachers have almost countless examples of problematic themes to bring up in discussions. Whether by examining the prejudices that both the Jews and Christians held in the play, or the lack of mercy on the part of both Shylock and Antonio, teachers can use The Merchant of Venice to “explore and express justice.”

Teachers have the unique opportunity of helping students develop their own perceptions of the world, and Dr. Watson’s suggestions for teachers aim to help students create perceptions that are filled with understanding, tolerance, and empathy. By intentionally examining stance and content instruction within their classrooms, teachers can adapt their teaching methods to be more aware and inclusive of the multiple perspectives and cultures that exist. The Merchant of Venice is only one of countless ways to implement culturally responsive teaching techniques into the classroom.