South Suburban Teacher And Author Provides Mentorship And Culturally Responsive Education
South Suburban Teacher And Author Provides Mentorship And Culturally Responsive Education
BY KATHERINE NEWMAN
This week is Teacher Appreciation Week across the country and there is one south suburban teacher that has gone above and beyond to connect with his students. First generation Ghanian American, Samuel Agyarko Jr. teaches at Thornwood High school and is committed to providing culturally responsive learning experiences for his students along with offering them mentorship.
Growing up, Agyarko said that he noticed “there really is no space for culturally responsive education,” and wanted to change that by going into education and creating that space in his own classroom.
In essence, culturally responsive teaching is grounded in a teacher’s cultural competence and encourages each student to relate their learning experiences to their own cultural experiences.
“My bachelor’s degree was in Applied Computer Information Systems but it just wasn’t speaking to me spiritually so I switched gears, left IT behind, and got my masters in Educational Leadership and committed to working with students in disenfranchised communities who have had an experience similar to mine,” said Agyarko.
While working as a teacher and developing his own best practices for connecting with students and allowing them to be their authentic selves in his class, he noticed that even though there were guidance counselors and school psychologists, there was still a lack of social and emotional resources for students.
“School psychologists that are supposed to connect with students on a social-emotional and holistic level don’t really have the capacity to do so. I recognized that during my growth as a teacher, that the vast majority of my conversations with my students were not about the content of my classes, they were about how to conduct themselves or how to channel their frustrations,” said Agyarko.
It was this experience that led Agyarko to start his own nonprofit organization, The A-TEAM, Educational Consulting with Response to Intervention Services. The nonprofit has a goal providing culturally responsive educative mechanisms for student success which just further extend the work that Agyarko is doing at Thornwood and makes it more accessible.
The A-TEAM, Educational Consulting with Response to Intervention Services was created to provide disenfranchised communities with learning opportunities outside of what they are offered during the school day.
Agyarko described disenfranchisement as being “not just necessarily a black or brown issue” because it is “based on economics and class.”
“To level the playing field, I started my nonprofit to provide workshops for these disenfranchised students and communities who don’t necessarily have the resources or the capacity to focus on the fun stuff because they have to concentrate on reading, writing, and arithmetic,” said Agyarko.
In addition to teaching at Thornwood, Agyarko also serves as the Work-Based Learning Coordinator where he is responsible for bringing in culturally responsive guest speakers which allow students to see people who look like them from backgrounds similar to theirs who have executed a plan for success.
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