Culturally Responsive Teaching
What is Culturally Responsive Teaching?
An intentional approach woven into every aspect of student learning.
Focuses on assets and strengths that students bring to the classroom through their rings of culture (the intersection of their racial, cultural, linguistic, gender, socio-economic status, community, etc.)
Raises expectations for all students
Makes learning relevant to students and allows students to have their cultures represented in curriculum, lessons, and classroom expectations.
Builds cultural competence for teachers and students to understand different perspectives.
Helps students feel valued and empowered.
Incorporates Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
Read more: What is Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Benefits of Culturally Responsive Teaching
According to this article, research on Culturally Responsive Teaching shows a wide range of cognitive and social benefits.
Drawing from students past experiences and culture has positive effects on comprehension and thinking because new information is linked to prior knowledge.
Students are more motivated and engaged when culturally responsive strategies connect concepts to their everyday lives and experiences.
Engaging in meaningful, open-ended social justice issues leads to growth in critical thinking and problem-solving.
Culturally responsive teaching strengthens students sense of identity, which increases school engagement, and grades.
Culturally responsive teaching promotes safety and sense of belonging - which are foundational to social-emotional learning, engagement and academic success.
Resources for Culturally Responsive Teaching
This extensive guide looks at aligning PBIS practices with cultural responsiveness. Effective school environments and positive school culture reflect a shared vision of values, beliefs and behavior expectations and help the vast majority of students to be successful. Cultural responsiveness within PBIS includes 5 core components:
Identity
Voice
Supportive Environment
Situational Appropriateness
Data for Equity
Jenny Muniz identified 8 competencies that teachers should develop as culturally responsive teachers. Read her research, recommendations and more about each of the 8 competencies in the full report linked above.
English Language Arts
From 7 Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies
Activate students' prior knowledge.
Make learning contextual by connecting literature from other times or cultures to students' current lives.
Consider inclusivity in your classroom environment. Are different races and cultures represented in your books and decor? Is the LGBTQ+ community represented? Are people with disabilities seen? Use EPOCH Education's Walkthrough Tool to evaluate your classroom space for equity and inclusion.
Connect to your students as people and form relationships through learning about their cultures, aspirations, and interests.
Discuss social and political issues that are relevant to your students and your curriculum. The focus is not on telling them what to think, but on teaching them to be informed and how to engage in respectful discussions of these topics.
Allow students to bring their strengths to your classroom, including their cultural capital. Allow them to respond to literature in a variety of ways, or share vocabulary from other languages they speak.
Incorporate popular culture into the content in the classroom to connect to their interests.
Math
From 5 Tips for Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Math Classroom
Research Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and what it looks like in the classroom. There are links to multiple resources in the article above.
Reflect on your own experience to identify changes to make to your classroom.
Adopt teaching strategies that highlight and support student voice. Teach using a student-centered lens with opportunities for students to explain their thinking and analyze the mathematical thinking of others.
Begin units with connections to students' lives. Consider analyzing real-world data related to the topic of the unit. Can data from your own school be used to analyze trends for different racial, socioeconomic, or gender groups in your community?
Build relationships. Create lessons that bring the school community into your classroom. This could include analyzing community data or interdisciplinary unit planning.
For more examples of what this looks like, read the linked article above!
Science
From Ten Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for the Science Classroom
Help students see themselves in science by using historical, current, or fictional characters that share the same ethnicity or culture as your students
Connect phenomena to the communities of your students. Focus on health, scientific or environmental problems that affect their communities.
Create a safe space to ask anonymous questions about background or vocabulary during lessons to acknowledge and accommodate the different experiences of each and every student.
Connect lessons to students' personal experiences and make lessons relatable.
Highlight students' experiences, assets, and interests.
Feature student voices and make student voice part of classroom decisions.
Use cooperative learning.
For examples of what this looks like, read the article linked above!
Social Science
From 18 Ways to Make Social Studies Classes More Culturally Responsive
Be intentional about expanding your perspective on historical and cultural events.
Diversify your classroom environment by ensuring that students from all cultures feel represented, welcomed and valued. Include posters and bulletin boards that reflect a wide array of cultures.
Go beyond the textbook to explore other perspectives. Consider reaching out to your community members from various cultures to fill in as experts. Center historically excluded perspectives and narratives.
Make cultures integral in all their forms, not just during "heritage months" and through food or festivals.
Assist your students in developing critical consciousness. Teach them to engage in respectful and rigorous discussions and consider multiple viewpoints by looking at lessons that embrace the lived experiences of students and develop norms for collaborative discussions where all students have a voice.
View an understanding of various cultures as foundational to all learning. Culture is the lens in which students are viewing the world.
Connect to students lives, along with providing opportunities for agency and action.
Elementary
From Culturally Responsive Teaching in Early Childhood Education
Apply Culturally Responsive strategies to multiple subjects. In literacy lessons, select books that connect their backgrounds, environments, home languages, and routines - including bilingual books.
Be creative in trying new approaches and routines. Incorporate children's home languages through labels, music and books.
Build connections with students and families. Communicate in multiple languages.
Become a lifelong learner by learning about the communities, cultures and social issues of your students and their families. Cultivate relationships with peers with different backgrounds.
Culturally Responsive Lesson Library