Culturally responsive teaching

Culturally responsive teaching called culturally relevant teachingis an education method that takes into account students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences. It is an alternative to traditional curricula that focuses on standardized testing and established texts and topics. Cultural responsiveness builds cultural competence by helping students and teachers understand various perspectives.

Culturally responsive teaching involves reversing the traditional view of analyzing poor academic performance, which is to focus on barriers to learning. Instead, advocates believe that educators should explore students’ strengths, which lie in the diversity of the classroom and society. According to culturally responsive teaching, differences are not deficits. Instead of focusing on what students lack, educators lead the classroom in valuing what everyone brings to the educational environment.

Researchers have found that culturally responsive teaching aids students in helping them grasp and retain information. It helps them develop critical thinking skills and confidence. Students whose experiences and cultures are validated are more open to befriending students of other cultures and can improve a school’s climate. However, educators implementing culturally responsive teaching may find it difficult to acknowledge that racism and personal bias are real.

Background

Early ideas about public education in the United States focused on basic literacy—reading, writing, and arithmetic—and values primarily based in religion. Much of what was taught was to be memorized and regurgitated. The goal of education was to develop children into adults who were ready to enter the workforce and contribute to society.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, public schools began recognizing the importance of creativity and critical thinking. Psychologists such as William James contributed insights into how children learn. James, who published The Principles of Psychology in 1890, wrote that education should stimulate children’s curiosity and thirst for knowledge. He believed that the purpose of education was to prepare children for the physical and social communities in which they lived. In the decades that followed, the field of educational psychology informed theories about education.

Two world wars, immigration, and increased global trade in the first half of the twentieth century reinforced the value of thinking internationally and culturally, as well as attaining higher levels of education. More educational systems focused on the value of the individual and maximizing children’s potential. Children generally remained in school until about age eighteen, and the number of postsecondary and higher education institutions increased.

As the twenty-first century loomed, educators addressed an increasingly diverse population and modern ideas about the focus of education. Among these was Gloria Ladson-Billings, who began teaching in public schools in Philadelphia at the end of the 1960s. Ladson-Billings was a product of segregated schooling in West Philadelphia, where the education system and society had low expectations for Black students in the years before school desegregation. She remembered a fifth-grade teacher who included Black Americans in her lessons but had to post a student at the door to watch for the principal because lessons were supposed to conform to the content of the history book. Ladson-Billings remembered these classes as opening her eyes to high-achieving Black Americans not included in the official curriculum and providing her with inspiration to excel.

As a teacher, Ladson-Billings saw many intelligent students in her classes and wanted to figure out why they were not academically successful. She earned a PhD in curriculum teacher education and began asking not what was wrong with Black children and their families, but instead what was right with them. She developed theories about how teachers, schools, and education could best serve the children.

Ladson-Billings believed that culturally relevant teaching could make a difference. She popularized what she called culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) and also introduced the budding field of critical race theory into education. In the 1990s she published the first of many articles about culturally relevant teaching that prompted other scholars and educators to further study the issues she raised.

Ladson-Billings advocated for using students’ cultural references in education. She advised schools and educators to use the students’ culture to shape education and help students understand themselves and their communities. She believed that cultural references should be considered in all areas of education, from academic subjects to physical education. This requires that educators first consider the students in the class rather than develop curricula and methods based on what the teachers think should be taught. CRP involves considering how students learn and working to develop their cultural competence. She said educators should work toward three goals for students: achieving academic success; fostering positive cultural and ethnic identities; and helping them develop critical consciousness, or the ability to recognize systems of inequality and consider ways to change them.

Geneva Gay was among the scholars who built upon CRP theory. Gay wrote about culturally responsive teaching, which involves putting Ladson-Billings’s ideas into practice. At its core is the idea that students most readily learn when the knowledge and skills being taught are framed in terms of the students’ experiences. Students are thus likely to find information more meaningful and interesting, which will help them retain the knowledge, ultimately improving their educational outcomes.

Overview

Culturally responsive teaching considers the varied and multiple cultures to which students belong. Individuals likely are part of several cultures and frequently shift between them. Examples include ethnicity, race, age, gender identity, disability, and socioeconomic status, or class.

Culturally responsive teaching pedagogy requires teachers to get to know their students as individuals, not simply as a community. To do so, educators must foster a welcoming environment. They can do this by considering how best to learn about students and maintain relationships. Educators should consider the instructional materials they choose and ask if they support students’ identities. For example, an instructor might include works of classic British authors, such as William Shakespeare, as well as literature from other cultures and parts of the world. Instructors should consider ways in which the material can engage students who have varied experiences.

Educators should have and communicate high expectations and develop challenging instruction. They can foster discussion and examination of power structures. Educators should consider how to encourage students to take the initiative in civic participation. This might involve discussing current issues in the community and evaluating of power imbalances, for example. Students should be encouraged to identify concerns and consider—and pursue—possible solutions.

The culturally responsive teaching curriculum is inclusive and shaped in part by students. Educators adapt methods based on students’ learning styles. Resources should reflect diversity in perspectives. For example, American history lessons on Westward expansion might include the perspectives of White settlers, Native Americans, Chinese Americans, African Americans, newly arrived European immigrants, miners seeking gold, and laborers building the railroad systems. Educators can increase engagement and retention of information by helping students recognize how a concept matters in modern times or relates to their experiences.

Researchers say culturally responsive teaching offers many benefits, such as increasing reading comprehension and mathematical thinking. Neurologists who study neural pathways have found that individuals are better able to learn new information when they can connect it to what they already know. Educators who take the time to understand students’ cultural backgrounds can develop the most suitable methods of instruction. For example, some cultures have strong oral traditions, so teachers who use rhythm, repetition, and other methods reinforce neural pathways for comprehension. Learning strategies that connect to students’ lives are more engaging. Inclusive learning helps students feel safe and supported in school, which in turn aids learning.

Implementing culturally responsive teaching in schools and classrooms can be difficult for educators. For culturally responsive teaching to succeed, educators must acknowledge that racism exists. They must also be able to honestly confront their own cultural biases and preferences before they can initiate culturally responsive teaching in the classroom, especially if they are teaching students an antibias curriculum. However, individuals may perceive discussion of inherent bias as a criticism and not be receptive to culturally responsive teaching.

Ladson-Billings has noted many misinterpretations of applying cultural relevance to teaching. For example, it is not sufficient to add information about cultures to lessons about a topic and continue to teach it in the traditional way. Compartmentalizing cultures and ethnicities—such as picking a week to focus on one ethnic group at a time—fails to engage all students; they will be less engaged when the topic is a group in which they are less interested. Instead, educators must rethink their processes and adapt them to meet students’ needs. She has suggested that teachers find a commonality in a topic and have students bring their family and cultural history into the classroom. For example, all students can explore what immigration has meant to their family.

In the 2020s, conservative political organizations seized upon educational constructs such as critical race theory to galvanize supporters. Critical race theory is a different topic than culturally responsive teaching; however, the precepts of critical race theory have often been misconstrued or inaccurately portrayed such that they have become a politically divisive issue. This trend has also engulfed other initiatives that seek to counteract the marginalization of certain communities. Examples include efforts to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and to ban thought-provoking books in public schools and libraries. Beginning in 2021, several southern states legislated measures against public school instruction that mentioned race as a cause of civil strife. By 2024, such legislation had spread nationwide, with 44 states considering some type of regulation to restrict how race and gender issues can be taught, and 18 states signing bills into law that mandated such policies.

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