Culturally Responsive Teaching

Culturally responsive teaching practices are what comprise a pedagogy that can be described as “an approach to teaching that considers the unique cultural backgrounds of [students]” (Emdin 2011).  Culturally responsive teaching practices center the notion that our students come from a variety of diverse backgrounds and therefore possess a variety of cultural capital from which they draw to support their learning.  

For example, a student’s social capital may include collaboration or leadership skills that support their learning.  As another example, a student’s linguistic capital may support their learning in a setting where they are provided opportunities to make connections between the language(s) they know and the new content being learned.

Culturally responsive teaching requires knowledge of our students and both the cultural capital that they possess and that which they do not such that we may design learning experiences that build on their assets and support their needs.

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• RESEARCH

  Examine selected research on culturally responsive teaching: 

  Emdin, C. (2011). Moving beyond the boat without a paddle: Reality pedagogy, black youth, and urban science education. The Journal of Negro Education, 80(3), 284-295,435. http://mantis.csuchico.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/moving-beyond-boat-without-paddle-reality/docview/903303332/se-2?accountid=10346(opens in new window)

  Wlodkowski, Raymond J, & Ginsberg, Margery B. (1995). A framework for culturally responsive teaching. Educational Leadership, 53(1), 17. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept95/vol53/num01/A-Framework-for-Culturally-Responsive-Teaching.aspx(opens in new window) 

  Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487102053002003(opens in new window)

  Cataldi, E., Bennett, C., Chen, X. (2018). First-generation students: College access, persistence, and postbachelor’s outcomes.  Stats in Brief.  NCES 2108-421.  U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018421.pdf (PDF) 

  Jack, A. (2016). (No) Harm in Asking: Class, Acquired Cultural Capital, and Academic Engagement at an Elite University. Sociology of Education,89(1), 1-19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43743444(opens in new window)

• APPLICATION

  Ready to apply culturally responsive teaching practices to your teaching? Here are some ideas and strategies to get you started:

  1. Create a survey or activity for the first day of class to better understand the backgrounds of your students.
  2. Make the conscious decision to discuss at least one topic with a student each day that is not directly related to the course you are teaching.  (This may sound silly, but the results from this strategy can be huge.)
  3. Redesign a lecture or instructor-centered lesson to be a student-centered(opens in new window) learning activity.
  4. Plan how you will incorporate routines into your practice that ensure you provide all students with an opportunity to share their ideas in groups or full class discourse.
  5. Review your syllabus and replace a traditional assessment with a project or presentation.  
     1. Bonus Round: Build in the ability for students to choose how to demonstrate their understanding.
  6. Review syllabus for policies (especially “black and white” or “zero tolerance”) to evaluate impacts that may disproportionately affects students from marginalized economic, educational, or non-White backgrounds.
     1. Key Words: Look for words and phrases like “respect”, “personal accountability”, “responsibility” which often carry subtext rooted in monoculturism.