Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds

Season 7 Episode #18 Unlocking Creativity: Diverse Perspectives in the Classroom

• Jebeh Edmunds • Season 7 • Episode 18

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Creativity doesn't just happen—it blossoms when we honor the rich cultural backgrounds our students bring to the classroom every day. This episode dives into the powerful connection between creativity and culturally responsive teaching, revealing how diverse perspectives don't just promote inclusion—they spark innovation.

When students see their cultural identities reflected in curriculum, something remarkable happens. They engage more deeply, take intellectual risks, and develop critical thinking skills that fuel creative expression. Their hands raise more frequently, their voices grow stronger, and they bring unique approaches to problem-solving that wouldn't exist in a one-size-fits-all environment. As educators, we're not just teaching creativity—we're unleashing it by creating conditions where every cultural perspective is valued.

The episode offers practical strategies for implementing culturally responsive creativity: story circles where students share family traditions and proverbs; visual cultural walls showcasing diverse patterns and artifacts from African textiles to cultural symbols; literature circles featuring books that reflect varied lived experiences; and performance activities that allow students to express cultural knowledge through creative means. Each approach creates brave, safe spaces where sharing is invited but never forced, honoring the intersectional identities students bring to learning. The impact extends beyond academic achievement—when we welcome every story into our classrooms, we transform educational spaces into incubators for the creative thinking our complex world desperately needs. Ready to bring more culturally responsive creativity to your teaching? Check out the newly priced mini-courses and resources at jebehmunds.com that will help you implement these ideas starting tomorrow.

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Speaker 0:

Welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat. I'm your host, jebe Edmonds, and today we are diving into something that should be at the heart of every classroom creativity fueled by diverse perspectives. We've all heard that creativity is a 21st century skill, but how do we actually unlock it for every student, especially those from culturally diverse backgrounds? In today's episode, we'll explore how multicultural education isn't just about inclusion. It's also about innovation, and let's talk about it. We're going to talk about why creative thrives in culturally responsive environments, how diverse stories and traditions spark imagination environments, how diverse stories and traditions spark imagination, and three ways you can implement creative lessons rooted in students' heritage and identity. But before we jump in, don't forget to check out my new mini course pricing on culturally inclusive education. It's the same empowering content. Now it's more accessible than ever. Head to jebedmondscom, you will see the tab. Title the courses and grab yours today.

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Now. Why creativity needs culture. Let's just start with the obvious. Okay, no two students think the same, but when classrooms ignore students' cultural knowledge and their own lived experiences, we silence some of the richest sources of creativity. Research shows that students from historically marginalized groups thrive when their culture is reflected in the curriculum. Reflected in the curriculum. They take more risks, they engage more deeply, they sit a little taller with their confidence and they develop critical thinking skills. And guess what? That is creativity at work. When you spark that creativity in a student, don't you recognize that they raise their hand more, they're more engaged, they're so excited to say, oh my gosh, my Nona does that. Or oh my goodness, you know, we lived out of the country for a few months and we learned about this particular cultural food. Or, yeah, you know, my elder in my family does the same method or procedure of how they garden. So many things come about and they are willing to share when they feel comfortable and in a psychologically safe environment. We can also think about if everyone is solving a problem the same way. We only get one type of solution. But when we bring in perspectives from different cultures and backgrounds and languages, we get an explosion of new ideas. So in your classroom that might look like encouraging students to share folktales or their own personal narratives. From home they can use music, art and dance. You know how I love a good beat from different cultures as inspiration for projects, asking students to remix traditional assignments with their own heritage in mind.

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Now you might be wondering well, what if a student is adopted from a different cultural background? You can have them even pick either their own home identity or their own culture from where they are of origin, whatever makes them feel comfortable. You know, sometimes in adoption cases it could be pretty traumatic. So definitely reach out to that student's parent or legal guardian before you start the exercise, just to make sure your eyes are dotted and your T's are crossed and you're being culturally responsive. Some three ways that you can start unlocking creativity today is by having a story circle. Start the week with a five-minute story share. Let students tell a family memory or a proverb or a cultural tradition and again, like I'm saying, if you have a student that is from a different family, if there's a cultural background that they might be interested in sharing that might not be theirs, that's also something to explore.

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Creating visual cultural walls Create a space where students post images, visual cultural walls and create a space where students post images, colors or patterns that represent their background. I always would put up African fabrics and we would do African printing in art to show textiles and have the students touch and see and feel and learn about the significance of different patterns in African cultures and remember, even if you can pull up a map of the various African prints and design names Mudcloth versus Ankara, and students can see the region in the continent of where those patterns and fabrics originated from, so that could be a part of your cultural wall. You know we're so versed in talking about European cultures and fabrics. You know the Scottish tartan, you know, but we don't talk about the Liberian country cloth and how the similarities they have and the differences. That's something you can totally do. Diverse perspectives spark innovation. Here's another good example of encouraging your students to share their diverse perspectives in the classroom. I loved it when my students did plays. We would do lit circles where they could pick the book that had a reflection of their lived experience or a lived experience of somebody in their family.

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We are very intersectional. We are very. We all have multiple identities that we carry, and having that by encouraging our students to really showcase and share who they are is when they feel most comfortable. This is not something you want to make a student feel like share what you are, kind of a thing. We don't want to be interrogative when we're doing this work. We just want to have that brave, safe space for them to share when they are ready, using music, art, dance. You know spoken word poems I love seeing those live wax museum displays that students do and even sparking a poetry night, a poetry slam about your culture.

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Have students take the wheel on this. You know some of the times when we are so adamant and used to. You know our default setting of showing everybody. This is the way to go. Sometimes you're also learning from them. Let them guide you through this process.

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Another thing I want you to continue to encourage is you know, if a student doesn't quite know a folktale, maybe give them about a week to say we're going to start this project and I'm going to send a newsletter home to your family and just say if there's a favorite folktale that you would like to share with your child, please share it with us. Give them a large index card that they could write it on, or have them share a favorite recipe that only they know how to make from home and make a cookbook. And don't worry, you know you're not going to get it right the first time, and this is something that I don't want it to be one and done. I want you to continue to bring up those diverse perspectives in your classroom, have those open conversations and also have a list of norms. When you're talking about sharing, you know, have the students listen and not respond until after the person is shared. That active listening is so important in this day and age and a lot of the times we miss that during COVID. So giving into that practice and modeling what active listening looks like, sounds like and feels like that will also help in this exercise throughout your classroom year. And again, you can use any of my lesson plans Explore my multicultural lesson plans on my site to bring this work to life easily. Whether it's storytelling, folktales or historical narratives, I have got you covered. And while you're there, subscribe to my newsletter for free resources, monthly tips and educator inspiration in your inbox every week.

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One more thing before we go Creativity isn't something we teach, it's something we unleash, and by honoring our students' diverse perspectives we create the conditions for brilliance to bloom. I had a former student send me a wonderful thank you card. I'm not going to give the details, but it was so warm and close to my heart that I really cried. She just graduated high school and she was an adoptee and she really showed me how valuable my representation was being a Black woman in her classroom, and she also made me feel that all of the hard work that I did to infuse multicultural education was not lost. So I'm so proud of that young woman and I cannot wait to see her soar in this world.

Speaker 0:

And if you had enjoyed this episode, please feel free to leave me a review, share it with your educator friend, and remember your classroom becomes a more creative space the moment you welcome every story. And one last reminder before we go y'all check out the updated pricing on my mini and full courses at jebedmondscom, that is J-E-B-E-H-E-D-M-U-N-D-S. Dot com and grab those ready to use lesson plans to start today. Until next time, keep leading with culture. Bye, bye.