Culturally Responsive Teaching: An Essential Practice for Educational Equity
Our mission at STCC is to support students as they transform their lives. Overcoming educational inequity is an essential part of this mission. As educators, we work together to create an environment that fosters this transformation: a dynamic, multi-cultural community where students grow in character, intellect, and self-confidence. The Anti-racism and Inclusion Alliance’s (AIA) Pedagogy initiative is working towards overcoming educational inequities. At the heart of OUR collaborative work, we are grounded in the following principles and/or objectives:
In alignment with the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Equity Agenda adopted in 2018, we must work to "enhance social and economic mobility for all citizens, but particularly those that have been historically underserved and underrepresented, especially students of color."
Advancing student success, as educators, acknowledging the experience, knowledge, and strengths that historically underserved and underrepresented students (particularly students of color) contribute to our educational environment as cultural wealth is essential (Yasso, 2005).
As noted in Muniz (2019), fostering “ learning experiences that cultivate the engagement and curiosity of culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse students enhance the learning environment of all students by facilitating brain processing, motivating and engaging students, cultivating critical thinking and problem-solving skills, strengthening student’s racial and ethnic identities, and promoting a sense of safety and belonging (para 1-7)”.
According to the Student Bill of Rights that the Department of Higher Education published as part of The New Undergraduate Experience in 2021, students have a "right to inclusive, anti-racist, and culturally responsive curricula and pedagogies."
It is our hope to strengthen the mission of STCC by way of continuous growth, as well as implementation, of inclusive and culturally responsive practices college-wide.
The information and resources on this page are intended to provide an introduction to culturally responsive teaching: what it is, why it matters for our students, how we can begin to put it into practice, and where we can learn more.
The word "we" is important here. Creating a culturally responsive learning community is an undertaking that calls for collective effort. As members of the Anti-racism and Inclusion Alliance at STCC (AIA), we encourage you to join us in this undertaking. Working together, we hope to foster ongoing growth, learning, and innovation that supports the success of all of our students and strengthens the mission of our College.
Why is Culturally Responsive Teaching important for our students?
At STCC, 30% of our students identify as Hispanic or Latinx. 15% identify as Black or African American. 68% qualify for Pell Grant funding. Many are first-generation college students, English language learners, and immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Historically, these groups of students have been underserved and underrepresented in American higher education. Moreover, data from The New Undergraduate Experience shows that our current educational system continues to yield inequitable outcomes.
In part, this persistent inequity stems from a “culture of the classroom” that does not do enough to welcome, support, and respect our students. Too often, students experience that culture as something that is not only foreign but unfriendly, and too often they are made to feel that if they want to achieve academic success, they need to leave their cultures and communities behind.
Culturally responsive teaching works to challenge and remedy this inequity by creating a more inclusive culture of the classroom, one that welcomes, supports, and respects all of our students and values their cultures and communities. In doing so, it creates a better learning environment not only for historically underserved and underrepresented students, but for everyone in our college community.
As Jenny Muniz (2019) notes, learning experiences that engage culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse students enhance the learning environment for all students. They do this by motivating students, facilitating mental processing, cultivating critical thinking and problem-solving skills, strengthening student’s racial and ethnic identities, and promoting a sense of safety and belonging.
What is Culturally Responsive Teaching?
In the words of the Equity Agenda, culturally responsive and sustaining teaching seeks to create an inclusive learning environment “in which all students can thrive and are regarded in the totality of their human dignity.”
Citing the work of Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) and Django Paris (2012), the Equity Agenda states that “‘culturally sustainable’ means recognizing, maintaining, and developing cultural identity and diversity, as they are assets, not weaknesses.”
Different experts conceptualize culturally responsive and sustaining teaching in somewhat different ways. However, writer and educator Zaretta Hammond provides one useful framework. Hammond identifies four pillars (2018):
Developing awareness: Teachers reflect on their own cultural identities, work to understand their students’ cultures, and develop a critical consciousness of how cultural identities and sociopolitical contexts impact student learning.
Building learning partnerships: Teachers “reimagine the student and teacher relationship as a partnership” and foster self-efficacy and ownership in their students.
Enhancing cognitive development: Teachers develop their students’ cognitive abilities by engaging them in meaningful work that provides an appropriate level of challenge. Teachers train students in the cognitive practices necessary for academic success while at the same time offering opportunities for students to draw on their cultural resources and make connections with their own experiences.
Creating a community of learners: Teachers create a safe and supportive learning environment, encourage students to become both independent and collaborative learners, and “make space for student voice and agency.” As educators, we must recognize the knowledge, experience, and strengths that our students contribute to the classroom. Recognizing this "cultural wealth" (Yosso 2005) is at the heart of our collaborative work to achieve student success.
How can we start to put Culturally Responsive Teaching into practice?
Through self-reflection:
We can evaluate our teaching practices and challenge ourselves to evolve and grow in ways that support the success of all of our students.
We can examine how our experience as learners informs our approach to teaching and consider how students with different backgrounds might respond to our teaching in different ways.
We can question how our cultural identities shape our experience inside and outside the classroom and consider how students with different identities might experience those environments in different ways.
As we reflect, we can pay particular attention to the experiences and perspectives of students who have been historically underserved and underrepresented, especially students of color.
Through study, conversation, and collaboration:
We can study methods of culturally responsive teaching.
We can learn about our students, their cultures and communities, and the sociopolitical contexts that shape their experiences.
We can talk with students about their educational experiences, including their experiences in our own classes.
We can have conversations with colleagues about how we can better support the success of our students.
We can put what we learn to work in our own teaching.
In our teaching:
We can challenge ourselves to be more inclusive, equitable, and effective in our teaching.
We can approach our teaching not only in terms of communicating information, but in terms of building trust, respect, and understanding.
We can welcome and respect the perspectives, experiences, and strengths that our students bring to the classroom.
We can encourage our students to be active and independent learners while providing them with support, guidance, and a sense of community.
We can engage students in work that offers a meaningful form of challenge and intellectual stimulus, a meaningful degree of choice and self-direction, and a meaningful sense of connection and community.
We can welcome opportunities to learn and grow in our teaching.
View the page of resources for videos and links to materials for learning more about applying Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Teaching.