Where Can I Learn More?

Resources that provide a general introduction to culturally responsive teaching

In this article, Escudero uses her own experience to illustrate Dr. Jeff Duncan-Andrade’s distinction between “schooling” and “education.” In the words of Duncan-Andrade, “Schooling is the process by which you institutionalize people to accept their place in a society… Education is the process through which you teach them to transform it.” Escudero then goes on to review the three pillars of culturally relevant pedagogy as conceptualized by Gloria Ladson-Billings: student learning, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness.

In this fourteen-minute video, writer and educator Zaretta Hammond distinguishes between multicultural education, social justice education, and culturally responsive pedagogy, emphasizes that culturally responsive teaching has a distinctive focus on empowering independent learning, and explains what she sees as four pillars of the approach.

In this interview, writer and educator Zaretta Hammond discusses what she sees as four key aspects of culturally responsive teaching: developing critical and cultural awareness, forming learning partnerships, enhancing cognitive capacity, and building communities of learners. She further encourages educators to approach culturally responsive teaching as a process of “collaborative inquiry” and emphasizes that the goal is to help students “become more confident, independent learner[s].” The article is accompanied by a helpful infographic.

Resources that discuss the role of the teacher in a culturally responsive classroom

In this article, education professor Christopher Emdin describes his own evolution away from an approach to teaching that emphasized managing student behavior and toward what he calls “reality pedagogy,” a term that he uses “because it’s about reaching students where they really are, making sure that their lives and backgrounds are reflected in the curriculum and in classroom conversations.”

Drawing on her experience as a teacher and principal, Pirette McKamey argues that black students recognize and respond to teachers who take them seriously and are committed to working with them. McKamey goes on to argue that anti-racist teaching requires a “paradigm shift… Instead of only asking black students who are not doing well in class to start identifying with school, we also ask teachers whose black students are not doing well in their classes to start identifying with those students.”

In this article, Rizga profiles veteran educator Pirette McKamey. In doing so, she focuses on McKamey’s approach to teaching writing, which focuses on building trust with students, recognizing and reinforcing their strengths, engaging them in a variety of meaningful tasks that help them develop their skills, and providing feedback that encourages them to keep taking the next step.

Resources that provide examples of what a culturally responsive learning environment can look like in practice

"Songs for Biology: Students Write Hip-Hop to Learn Science" PBS News Hour

This New Hour segment profiles Science Genius, a program in which students learn scientific concepts through composing rap lyrics. The segment features interviews with the developers of the program, education professor Christopher Emdin and the Wu Tang Clan’s GZA.

“Warrior Scholars - Decolonising education” Teach for All

This fifteen-minute video documents how Kia Aroha secondary school in Aotearoa/New Zealand affirms Maori and Pasifika experience and identity through “a critically conscious, culturally responsive pedagogy.”

"Clint Smith - Reframing the Narrative" Teach for All

In this short video, poet and teacher Clint Smith and his students in Washington, DC, model the practice of critical consciousness in a discussion of the power of narrative.

“Wisdom Amouzou 'Education is a means for liberation’” Teach for All

Through the voices of teacher Wisdom Amouzou and his high-school students, this short documentary explores how the classroom can become a space of healing and empowerment for students who have experienced oppression.

Resources that offer a deeper dive into the theory and practice of culturally responsive and sustaining teaching

  • Christopher Emdin, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’All Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education, Beacon Press, 2017

  • Zaretta Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students, Corwin, 2014

  • Gloria Ladson-Billings, The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, 2nd ed., Jossey-Bass, 2009

  • Django Paris and Samy Alim, eds., Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World, Teachers College Press, 2017

Other resources and references