Students bring valuable cultural ways of knowing and worldviews to the classroom. Teachers who build on student cultures are able to motivate and make learning more meaningful. We believe that teachers should Think Local within a holistic orientation to create a student-centered and culture-centered education that arises out of student cultural knowledge, life experiences, and belief systems. Like the Farm to Table movement in agriculture, teachers need to think about reaching students using a Think Local perspective. We highlight three examples of culturally relevant programs and how their holistic programs are based on thinking local. From these three cases, we recommend that teachers consider utilizing five cultural competencies that will assist them in integrating the local expertise of students into schooling.

学生将有价值的文化知识和世界观带入课堂。建立在学生文化基础之上的老师能够激励和使学习变得更有意义。我们认为，教师应从整体的角度出发思考本地问题，以建立以学生为中心，以文化为中心的教育，这种教育源于学生的文化知识，生活经验和信仰体系。像农业中的“从餐桌到餐桌”运动一样，教师需要考虑使用本地思维平台吸引学生看法。我们重点介绍了与文化相关的计划的三个示例，以及它们的整体计划是如何基于本地思维的。从这三个案例中，我们建议教师考虑利用五种文化能力，这将有助于他们将学生在当地的专业知识融入学校。