Culturally responsive practices affirm students’ diverse backgrounds and perspectives. These practices center traditionally marginalized communities in classroom instruction and result in all students developing impactful critical thinking skills that support not only their academic success but also their lifelong learning.
In this overview, we use culturally responsive practices as an umbrella term covering culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally sustaining pedagogy, as well as culturally responsive or relevant teaching. Although there are nuances in this terminology, the practices have similar goals based on research that builds on each other.
The Framework of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) was introduced by Gloria Ladson-Billings in the 1990s, when she theorized that the reason Black children were not achieving to the same degree as white children was not due to “deficiencies,” a widely held belief at the time, but rather due to the ways education systems traditionally teach. Ladson-Billings researched teachers who exhibited excellence in teaching Black students and from these observations distilled three pillars of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: student learning, cultural competence, and critical consciousness. Respectively, these emphasize prioritizing students’ intellectual growth; affirming and appreciating students’ cultures of origin while also developing fluency in at least one other culture; and teaching students how to identify, analyze, and solve real-world problems. (Ladson-Billings, 1995)
Building upon Ladson-Billings’ work, Geneva Gay coined the term “Culturally Responsive Teaching.” In 2000, she wrote:
“When academic knowledge and skills are situated within the lived experiences and frames of reference for students, they are more personally meaningful, have higher interest appeal, and are learned more easily and thoroughly.”
Gay’s research surfaced five critical components to effectively engage in culturally responsive teaching: educators must exhibit a strong knowledge base about cultural diversity, prioritize culturally relevant curricula which should connect to students’ prior knowledge, hold high expectations for all students, make a concerted effort to understand and appreciate different communication styles, and use multicultural examples in the classroom. (Gay, 2000)
Culturally relevant practices can help students make connections and build on prior knowledge, both of which are critical to encoding. They also help foster a sense of belonging and reduce the risk of identity threats that are shown to impede focus and flood working memory (Charlot et al., 2021). When culturally relevant practices are utilized effectively and consistently in the classroom, educators see not only better academic outcomes but also stronger social and emotional outcomes. More specifically, studies suggest incorporating culturally responsive pedagogical practices in the classroom leads to an increase in attendance, credits earned, and GPA, as well as a reduction in high school dropouts (Dee & Penner, 2017).
Culturally responsive practices might look like:
- Leveraging students’ prior knowledge: Provide students opportunities to incorporate aspects of their lived experience to the lesson.
- Contextualizing learning: Ask students questions that will prompt them to make connections to their own lives.
- Making the physical environment reflective of diverse perspectives: Design the physical environment to highlight diverse perspectives. This can include books, posters, and other materials by diverse authors, in different languages, and featuring traditionally underrepresented groups.
- Discussing current events/politics: Give students opportunities to engage in discussions relevant to their daily lives. The goal is not to tell students what to think, but to teach them how to become informed and engage in respectful dialogue. Leverage pop culture like music, movies, social media, and other topics in classroom content
- Leveraging students’ cultural capital: Seek ways for students to use and share the skills, knowledge, and strengths they bring to the classroom. For example, if students speak more than one language, allow them to use languages other than English.
- Investing in culturally responsive professional development opportunities: Schools and districts should actively seek out opportunities to learn more about CRP and incorporate these learnings into their systems and structures.
- Partnering with families and community members: Building bridges between school and community is pivotal in authentically centering students’ lived experience within the classroom.
Outside any single classroom, culturally responsive practices are most effectively implemented when fundamental beliefs in the pillars of CRP are demonstrated at a school- and system-wide level with investment in full-scale structural change.
References:
Dee, T., & Penner, E. (2017). The causal effects of cultural relevance: Evidence from an ethnic studies curriculum. American Educational Research Journal, 54, pp. 127-166.
Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press.
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2).
Charlot, J., Leck, C., & Saxberg, B. (2020). Designing for learning: A primer on key insights from the science of learning and development. (v1.3)
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Education Research Journal, 32(3) pp. 465-491.