Culturally Responsive Pedagogies

Einstein said: “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Now imagine the various students that enter the classroom. They come from all walks of life with different backgrounds and stories to tell. If educators don’t recognize that these differences do in fact exist then some of the fish that pass through those school doors will leave the building believing that they are incapable because of the trees presented for them to climb. Enter culturally responsive teaching. This method or pedagogical device is the answer to bridging this gap that students may encounter when they are not given the opportunity to show their particular geniuses or to act as their own agent in their education.

Culturally Responsive Teaching is an emerging field that focuses on student cultural backgrounds and experiences in the development of pedagogy. According to Kea (2013) cultural difference is the single largest difference in U.S. schools and also the most neglected. The goal of Culturally Responsive Teaching is to provide an equal opportunity for all students to learn in school, regardless of their gender, social class, ethnic, racial or cultural characteristics (Banks 2005). Ladson-Billings (1994) suggest that the historic failings of educators in educating non-white students is that educators attempt to insert culture into education rather than insert education into the culture. In other words, educators are not providing an equal multi-culturally relevant education by bringing tokens of culture such as food, national flags, or maps from around the world into the classroom alone. Although these actions promote a sense of multiculturalism, an education that is relative to a diversity of cultures is not necessarily being provided. Culturally Responsive Teaching attempts to bring the various experiences of the student’s cultural home life into the classroom. Schmidt (2005) identifies seven characteristics that must be incorporated into curriculum in order to provide culturally responsive instruction. These characteristics are high expectations,

Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings, 1994). This approach to teaching encompasses how knowledge is both communicated and perceived by the students. The teacher must have a good relationship with the parents, have high expectations, learn about their students culture, have culturally mediated student-centered instruction, willing to reshape the curriculum, and be a facilitator in order to accomplish this method of teaching. These are key points a teacher must be willing to do if they intend to be an effective teacher especially in a highly culturally diverse area like central

Toppel noted that cultural responsive requires teachers to question the curricula taught at school whether they promote inclusiveness or not. Furthermore, teachers should be more flexible and find a way out to include some reading materials with linkage to students’ live experiences (Toppel, 2015). Having knowledge of cultural responsive instructions expand teachers’ pedagogical practices and make them rely little on the traditional methods. In the same token, Ellis et al (2017) asserted that when teachers develop their cultural responsiveness, they broaden their awareness and gain insights into issues facing diverse students, as well as family, and communities. Cultural responsive instructions not only allow teachers to better understand ELLs’ concerns but also contribute to maintaining collaboration with family and community as a whole.

Gay (2000) defined culturally responsive teaching as “using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them. It is culturally validating and affirming” (p. 29). A quality education requires all students to be exposed to a variety of cultural perspectives that are representative of the nation at large. According to Ladson-Billings (1994), culturally responsive pedagogy must meet three criteria: “An ability to develop students academically, a willingness to nurture and support cultural competence, and the development of a sociopolitical or critical consciousness” (p. 483). Educational institutions have the charge of providing culturally diverse students with equitable educational opportunities as all other non-minority students.

After reading Geneva Gay’s article Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching I realized my pedagogy is culturally responsive in many ways. For one, I always

Research in this article was directed towards using effective culturally responsive principles for students with learning disabilities (LD) in an educationally setting. Utley, Obiakor, and Bakken (2011) have noted that schools are changing which requires new teaching skills that teachers have to acquire in order to successfully teach culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with LD. Educators have not been taking into consideration how multiple cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses affect learning. Based on their various backgrounds, CLD students have different learning styles than their white peers, which can result in low academics and can be referred for special education when their struggles in academics are a result of their cultural needs not being met. Mercer and Pullen (2009) reported 58% of white students have a learning disability. Hispanic and Asian students follow with 19% of the student population being diagnosed with a

Ladson-Billings (1994) describes the culturally responsive classroom as “a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes.” I’m in total agreement with their definition because I’ve personally witnessed the power of embedding relatable aspects of students’ daily lives into the curriculum. Four years ago, I moved from Memphis, TN to the Bronx, New York for the sole purpose of diversifying my teaching career and expanding my repertoire as an educator. I had very knowledge about the community of students I served. As a matter of fact, I had never seen a Dominican, Haitian, or Puerto Rican in my whole life. I had a complete culture

of certain cultures that are represented and if that affects their way of learning, will allow for

From January 12th through February 23rd, I observed Mrs. Nelson’s 5th grade classroom for a total of 10 hours. Mrs. Nelson’s class is located at Nielson elementary school in Galesburg, Illinois. Mrs. Nelson’s teaching style has helped me discover new ways to promote different types of meaningful learning and culturally relevant and responsive teaching in the classroom. Throughout this paper, I will identify the ways in which Mrs. Nelson has used these methods in her classroom by providing examples. I will also be discussing the best and worst tactic’s of culturally relevant and responsive teaching that she implemented.

I always try to teach my student with a culturally responsive pedagogy. I want my students to learn. So, I try to teach them to the best of my abilities. Part of that is responsive teaching. Since culture plays a significant role in the way we think and learn. After all, It’s our way of life. So, it’s imperative that I teach my students from their perspectives (Rychly and Graves, 2012).

Au’s concept of culturally responsive instruction has the goal of student achievement regardless of culture of ethnic background. This is achieved through teaching methods built “…on background knowledge and experiences gained in the home and community.” Another way to look at this is when a teacher uses ‘real world examples’ in class, the examples can be found directly in the lives of the students outside of the classroom. Due to being in an online teaching environment, I work with the independent work time structure the most. This is seen in the open-ending assignments given to my students which allow them to research, construct, and present information in the way that works best for them.

Worked with students from diverse cultural background, I value the qualities students bring in, embrace their differences and support them with culturally appropriate pedagogy. Te kotahitanga training has facilitated this to transpire more effectively.

I. We have read about the connections between critical multicultural education and culturally relevant pedagogy. Discuss how these concepts are aligned and provide two examples from the class texts of how culturally relevant pedagogy is an approach used to provide equitable educational experiences for all students.

An expert teacher shows its effectiveness by creating a classroom community that constantly interacts to grasp better the curriculum. In addition, a teachers’ expertise also consists of being culturally responsive with consideration to the classroom community (Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon, 2014). What are the characteristics and requirements of such a teacher? Glickman et al., (2014) gives out nine characteristics that best describe the expert teacher; the list and definition is below.