Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theories and Applications in Public Schools Made by Electra Nicolaysen Fernando III El Santo Bilingual Meeting, 13 January 2014

What is Culturally Responsive Teaching? Culturally responsive teaching is teaching that uses the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more appropriate and effective for them; it teaches to and through the strengths of these students (Gay, 2000). Source

Characteristics of Culturally Responsive Teaching It acknowledges the legitimacy of the cultural heritages of different ethnic groups, both as legacies that affect students' dispositions, attitudes, and approaches to learning and as worthy content to be taught in the formal curriculum. It builds bridges of meaningfulness between home and school experiences as well as between academic abstractions and lived sociocultural realities. It uses a wide variety of instructional strategies that are connected to different learning styles. It teaches students to know and praise their own and each others' cultural heritages. It incorporates multicultural information, resources, and materials in all the subjects and skills routinely taught in schools (p. 29). (Gay, 2000)

The Method, Expanded Using these characteristics to improve culturally responsive teaching would involve considerations to the classroom environment. Literature in the classroom would reflect multiple ethnic perspectives and literary genres. Math instruction would incorporate everyday-life concepts, such as economics, employment, consumer habits, of various ethnic groups. In order to teach to the different learning styles of students, activities would reflect a variety of sensory opportunities-- visual, auditory, tactile (Gay, 2000).

The Method, Demystified Essentially, the idea behind culturally responsive teaching is that lessons should be relevant to the students learning them, speaking to their cultural and individual values and priorities and helping them to see how what they learn in school is applicable to their daily lives and interests. It is education made more accessible.

Departures from Traditional Teaching Practices This method of teaching expands established curriculum, tailoring it to students’ needs and interests (not “by the book”). Objectives of the lesson are met through different or additional materials (ex. Literature, projects, etc.) This method encourages project-based learning, where students are given a freer reign in guiding their studies and thus, ideally, a greater engagement with and understanding of the material. The method incorporates some “top-down” teaching. It does not ‘teach to the tests’ but rather requires a more thorough, practical understanding of the material (which simultaneously develops skills assessed in standardized testing). Students are encouraged to work in groups and with different people to encounter different points of view and work styles so that they will be better able to adapt to new situations and consider various perspectives.

Links to More Information “This is What Happens When a Kid Leaves Traditional Education”: Link (see also the second video at the bottom of the page, a talk titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”) Culturally Responsive Teaching overview: Link (Outlines the theory developed by Geneva Gay of the University of Washington—Go Huskies!)

Questions or ideas? Please share!