Examples Of Culturally Responsive Teaching

The five questions Brian Sztabnik poses in this podcast heavily relates to culturally responsive teaching. By asking themselves these questions teachers use culturally responsive pedagogy that relates to classroom management. It follows two parts of classroom management from a critical perspective from Culturally Relevant Pedagogy by Gina Oran, specifically, “recognize that we are all cultural beings, with our own beliefs, biases, and assumptions about human behavior”, and

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

I aspire to help minority students excel in life. The current fundamentals of public school are not helping these students to succeed. The foundations of the school system need to change to reach these students. Making students lifetime learners is one goal that will help children of color. Another worthy goal is teaching student social-emotional skills to work through their problems.

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

Creating the opportunity for school culture will captivate that inspires children to dream and support learners to be successful. When students enter the classroom to expand their learning, they deal with positive learning that has an outcome that cultivate in classrooms to the highest level when children are appreciated and respected as teachers will have a rich cultural capital for families that gives an educational environment.

“Culturally relevant pedagogy rests on three criteria or propositions: (a) Students must experience academic success; (b) students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence; and (c) students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order” (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p.161). For academic success, teachers have to teach the students in a way that gets students to choose academic success. For cultural competence, teachers need to utilize the student’s culture as a “vehicle for learning” (Bilings, 1995, p.162). Finally for critical consciousness, the teacher needs to promote the students to think critically about the world around them (Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Teaching in a school with a diverse student body can help you prepare your students for citizenship in a multicultural democracy. With the United States becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse, public schools are following suit. Teachers need to model the acceptance of a respect for all cultures in our nation. It shows students the importance of fostering positive self-regard to one’s culture and positive attitude and open-mindedness to the culture of others. While interviewing my colleague, I was hoping to pinpoint some resources to identifying teaching strategies and cross-cultural communication strategies that will allow

Cultural responsiveness is an ever-present challenge faced by professionals in our field. Due to the opportunities and freedoms our nation offers, the influx of diverse individuals and accompanying challenges will only increase. Culture is a lens through which we each filter our personal experiences. Because each of us possess our own implicit biases, it is critical that as clinicians we routinely conduct self-assessments in order increase our awareness of them. Throughout my practice and clinical training I have continually conducted personal needs assessments to target potential areas for personal growth. I believe that my efforts to do so have furthered my mission to provide culturally sensitive services.

Students coming from various cultural backgrounds tend to question more material that students coming from a more dominant culture. For example, when instructing students about World War 2 some students may question why they are having to learn about a war they were not part of nor feel is important. It is the teacher’s job to explain the importance and impact World War 2 have on the world and most importantly the United States of America and the continuation of the freedoms we as Americans have today. Secondly, providing students with frequent feedback during open discussions and during classroom assessments. By providing feedback students can develop an understanding for why their thinking is appropriate for an appropriate for the material in which they are learning (Sleeter, 2001).

Culturally responsive pedagogy was a fascinating topic to read. Several items in the Richards’ article connected with me. I began my teaching career as someone who migrated from the north to the south. As Richard states a teacher may need to have conversations with family members to understand cultural biases (Richards, 2007, p. 65). I spoke with my mother to grasp how my upbringing impacted the connection I could have with my students. Also, she explained ways I would not be able to relate with my students as a result of my learning experiences. Another point brought out in the Richards article was fostering community involvement (Richards, 2007, p. 67). During one of my district meetings, a principal share how she took the PTA meeting to

As an educator it is important to be aware of the various learners in the classroom as well as being able to shift lessons accordingly to adapt to a greater number of students. In addition it is essential that culturally responsive practices is adapted in the classroom in order for all students to have a sense of belonging and are able to participate. For this reason, a teacher must actively use culturally responsive practices to engage students and their families because it helps to develop a relationship and maintain a level of communication. Learning “facts” about different cultures is not enough, it is more important that we make

I use as much visual art as I can to capture and enhance my students’ different learning styles. Often a text can be understood on additional levels when combined with visual art and, given the difficult and disturbing content of the course, many of my lessons combine the visual arts and literature.