Culturally Responsive Teaching

By Sara Smith,  The Education Alliance Brown University

Cultural diversity should be infused in the classroom and school setting. Yet, many academic institutions and school districts keep this vital aspect of education at the bottom of the priority ladder. What routes can be taken within educational settings in order to “climb” to a higher level of understanding and acceptance? Should action be proposed to administrators? If so, what should this entail? Or, should more emphasis be placed on teacher training?

Sara: Culturally relevant practice is important at all levels of school functioning. The critical issue here is acknowledging and exploring the relationship between culture and learning. Learners and teachers need opportunities to share their cultural ways of knowing and learning, to acknowledge and appreciate the differences, and to reflect on the multiple ways of demonstrating what is known. Learning about the connections between culture and learning helps teachers not only to assist their particular learners in accessing and mastering the school curriculum, but also to broaden their own awareness of the various ways that individuals approach and manipulate content, language and literacy. These understandings are important to administrators, too, so that they can make informed decisions about program, policy and procedure across grades and subject areas.

A conversation among all stakeholders within a school, including teachers, administrators and students, can help everyone to understand current practices and to determine how best to work together to deepen that understanding.

What specific classroom strategies are accessible to teachers to address the  achievement gap?

Sara: Several works have been written about the achievement gap and strategies that teachers have found   effective in working to close it. For a discussion of what the achievement gap is and how it applies to English language learners, see Williams & McTighe and Freeman & Freeman.

For a look at a study on how different types of educational programs affect the achievement gap for English language learners, see Collier and Thomas. The following brief list includes strategies that appear repeatedly in the literature on the achievement gap as it applies to English language learners. A list of suggested resources for further exploration of these and other strategies follows.

Strategies

• Design curriculum for all students around themes, focusing on the essential understandings within the curriculum.
• Develop assessments that are meaningful to students and that provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of the essential concepts.
• Communicate high expectations to all students. Base units and lessons on the same high standards and learning objectives for all students; differentiate for students at different levels of English proficiency by providing role options in activities and multiple vehicles for assessment.
• Get to know students, their families, communities and cultures. Find out about strengths, values and priorities. Do this through direct, genuine interaction with people, not merely through reading about culture. Explore what students already know. Develop projects and assignments that build on student knowledge and lead to deeper understanding.
• Express high expectations for all students in multiple ways. Study how teachers and students communicate expectations in direct and indirect ways. Talk with students about ways to maximize positive messages and eliminate negative ones.
• Build in frequent and varied opportunities for students to work collaboratively with peers on meaningful tasks that lead to deeper understanding of essential concepts.
• Help students to identify their own strengths, recognize their own progress and develop strategies to work through difficult tasks.
• Involve parents as directly as possible in the curriculum.
• Communicate your passion for teaching and learning as well as your enjoyment of what you do.

What is the best way to learn about the cultures represented by the children in my classroom? Are there written   resources, or are there other sources that would give me a quick overview?

Sara: There are many commercially produced resources about culture. Books, magazines, newspapers, videos and Internet resources can all help us learn about new cultures.

The best sources of information about the cultures of the children in our classrooms, however, are people from the children’s families and communities. By talking face to face with people who know the culture intimately, we can learn a great deal about the practices, beliefs and values of a culture. A conversation with a family or community member also gives us a local perspective as to the resources and needs of the specific community in which our children live and come to school. We can understand not only what people do when and where, but also how and why.

How do we begin a conversation with a family or community member? Some teachers begin by making a phone call or sending a note home with a child, expressing interest in learning more about the family culture. They ask a parent to help them to learn more about a topic on which the parent is an expert. Some teachers invite parents to meet with them at a time and place convenient to the parent.

Some teachers recruit parents or community members to come to speak to the class about different ways of living, working and learning. Some teachers send questions home to families on topics that children are talking about in school. These teachers include parents’ opinions and experiences in the curriculum. Some teachers contact a local community-based organization to request an introduction to someone knowledgeable about the community.

When there are a number of cultures represented, how can the teaching environment be made culturally relevant without it being ‘tokenism’?

Sara: Dr. Mignonne Pollard, a staff member of the Equity Assistance Center housed at The Education Allliance at Brown University offers this strategy of using active learning methods in combination with cultural sensitivity.

For instance, I’ve ask students in mixed groups to work on issues around school desegregation and their experiences. We’ve talked about using books like Maniac Magee and Ruby Bridges in the earlier years for young students–and Linda Brown’s story for the older students. We were struggling with how to tell the story of school desegregation in K-12 schools.

I had students try to understand the legacy of racism by showing video clips, writing about themselves, and doing a circle exercise. All the students stand in a circle. I say a statement, if a student agrees with the statement, she/he steps-in. So, I’ll say, ‘I have a large family’ or ‘I know someone who attended a racially segregated school’. I try to make the statements relative to the lesson, but non-threatening.  The strategies I like to emphasize engagement in class through the use of interactive activities that have a focus on cultural sensitivity. I do not separate cultural sensitivity from the other categories. Active learning methods and cultural sensitivity are the two main principles that I use in my classes.

Many of us know of many wonderful ways teachers can create classrooms that are responsive to different cultures, languages, learning abilities, and learning styles, etc. However, despite the fact that it is “just good teaching,” a seemingly large number of teachers do not choose to incorporate these strategies, even when trained.  What are some resources for research about the beliefs and attitudes of teachers regarding differentiation?  We can do a lot of staff development, but the beliefs and attitudes seem to need to be understood to get better “buy in.”

Sara: Professional development that incorporates language acquisition and cultural awareness theory and implications provides necessary foundational knowledge. Direct experience with the tasks of learning in a new language can enhance that knowledge. Teachers report that taking part in learning situations in which they must perform tasks in another language is a powerful way to gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of their students’ learning tasks. Events that facilitate conversations about learning between teachers and ELL students or alumni capture student experiences that may have been invisible to teachers and gives teachers a chance to ask questions directly. Presentations by or conversations with parents of ELLs can shed light on family and community goals, values, and funds of knowledge that may be unknown to teachers.

Teacher beliefs and attitudes develop over time. Sustained professional development in which teachers have the opportunity to discuss integrated topics — sheltering, differentiation, language acquisition and cultural awareness, to test implementation strategies in their classrooms, and to reflect collaboratively on their successes and concerns may be the most expedient path to gradual buy in.