Teachers in public schools undervalue the potential for academic success among students of color, setting low expectations and seeing cultural differences as barriers rather than assets, according to years of research reported in an Education Week article.
Exactly what is “culturally responsive” teaching?
It means using students’ customs, characteristics, experience and perspectives as tools for better classroom learning.
More than half of public school students are students of color. Still, most schools focus on mainstream white American culture. The culture of many students is not always represented at school—or is represented in a stereotypical way.
Research finds teachers are just as likely to have racial biases as non-teachers (80 percent of teachers are white) and biases influence expectations for students.
Research shows five essential components of culturally responsive teaching:
- Understand different racial and ethnic groups’ cultural values, traditions and contributions to society, and incorporate that knowledge into instruction.
- Include multiple perspectives in instruction and make sure images displayed in classrooms—such as on bulletin boards—represent a wide range of diversity. Contextualize issues within race, class, ethnicity and gender.
- Help students achieve academic success while still validating their cultural identities.
- Understand different communication styles and modify classroom interactions accordingly. Many communities of color have an active, participatory style of communication. If this cultural context is ignored, a student might be perceived as being rude, told to be quiet and the student may then shut down.
- Connect students’ prior knowledge and cultural experiences with new knowledge.
Some examples of culturally responsive teaching:
- Have a classroom full of books featuring characters and images representing a variety of ages, genders, ethnicities and other types of diversity.
- Share achievements and expertise of people from different ethnic groups in every subject area.
- Include multiple perspectives when discussing historical and contemporary events, including those from marginalized groups often left out of the narrative.
- Encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge and cultural experiences to connect to the academic content.
Education Week
