IaplicatioDS / 184
The point of cultural compatibility is that the culture of the community
is used as a 'guide in the selection of educational program elements so
that academically desired behaviors are produced and undesired behaviors
are avoided' (Jordan,1985:10), according to the goals of education.
2 Principles in translating ethnographic information into improved
classroom practice.
One principle is that of 'strategy of least change', i.e. existing
curricula and syllabi for students and trainees should be adapted more
than changed, at a pace acceptable to the teachers. This also means that
innovation in schools cannot be seen as the desired effect of educational
research, but as the response of teachers involved in cultural
translation. Another principle is that of 'selection rather than invention*
of classroom practices: ethnographic information is used 'as a guide in
selecting, shaping and combining practices that are already part of the
repertoire' of teachers (Jordan,1985:12). If behaviour is context-
sensitive, thιΓn teachers should be trained to discover and characterize
the features of those naturally-occurring contexts (at home or at school)
that elicit from the children particular behaviours, skills, cognitive
operations or communicative performances that are relevant to school
goals, and then to select the appropriate educational practice.
3 Heed for interdisciplinary effort.
In research, as in curriculum planning or teacher education, the
combination of different disciplines is needed and its importance should
be learnt in practical, joint activity. Teacher education may be cha-
racterized as a 'responsive' search, with a f∞us on the community and
the classroom, for information and theories that would develop a culture-
sensitive pedagogy.
On the basis of these considerations, a critique can be made of studies
designed to compare the children's linguistic experience at home and
school, focusing on patterns of interaction, as for example the Bristol
A*
longitudinal study. Its importance as ^descriptive account of language
development is unquestionable, as is its authority to dispel myths about
the language environment provided by working class parents: