Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Students come to the classroom with knowledge!

As defined by Ladson-Billings

Culturally responsive (or relevant) teaching has been described as "a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes"

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(Ladson-Billings, 1994).

Academic Achievement

Sociopolitical Consciousness

Cultural Competence

Fundamental Pillars

You may have heard the following variations

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Culturally Responsive Instruction

Culturally Responsive Teaching

What does it all mean?

Culturally responsive teaching is using the cultural knowledge, prior experience, 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)

Goal: create a learning environment conducive to all students, no matter their ethnic, cultural, or linguistic backgrounds. (Frey, 2010)

We’ve seen it in media

Dangerous Minds

Mr. Iglesias

Remember the Titans

Stand & Deliver

Freedom Writers

In what ways are we culturally responsive?

• Hold all students to high standards
• Make learning challenging
• Engage all learners
• Have an understanding and incorporate students’ various cultural backgrounds
• Make connections between the classroom and the world beyond

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In what ways are we culturally responsive?

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Schools must take a serious look at their curriculum, pedagogy, and hiring practices and all other policies that create a school climate that is either empowering or disempowering…

Sonia Nieto

Benefits of culturally responsive teaching

Benefits of culturally responsive teaching methods when compared to classrooms without these practices:

• A more positive classroom learning environment
• More efficient use of class time and human resources
• Higher quality instruction
• Higher percentage of on-task students
• Great student engagement

Burns, et al., 2005

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Classroom norms through song

Culturally Responsive (Relevant) Practices

Culturally Responsive Practices

Involving all students in the construction of knowledge

• Inquiry projects
• Collaborative work
• Authentic dialogues
• Accountability for their own learning

Villegos & Lucas, 2003

Check out the Dual Enrollment PD for a discussion on pedagogy

Culturally Responsive Practices - things to consider

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Building on students’ personal and cultural strengths

• Helping students access prior knowledge and beliefs
• Building on students’ interests
• Using examples and analogies from students’ lives
• Varied methods of instruction and demonstration of understanding
• Connections to the community

Culturally Responsive Practices - Questions to ask yourself

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Review your curriculum from multiple perspectives

• Is it relevant to the students you are teaching?
• Does the language speak to students?
• Does it include different cultural perspectives?
• Are assessments varied in structure?
• Can students’ cultures be a part of lessons?

Culturally Responsive Practices - Personal Reflection

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Making the classroom inclusive of all students takes consistent and honest teacher reflection.

• Reflect on your teaching - what seems to work, what needs some adjustment
• Check assumptions and don’t write off behavior as disruptive - it can be easy to misinterpret cultural differences as misbehaviors
• Create and share clear expectations
• Meaningful feedback

Developing Intercultural Skills

• Be aware of your own cultural characteristics and communication style
• Learn about your own culture and about other cultures
• Develop relationships with those who can be cultural informants
• Attend cultural events in your community
• Be flexible in your intercultural interactions - reserve judgments about behaviors and intentions until you understand the cultural context

Willis-Darpoh, 2013

Culturally Responsive School Environments

• Create an environment that reflects cultural and linguistic diversity
• Enact instruction through different learning styles and modalities
• Know that failure of any student is not an option

How does this connect to Dual Enrollment?

Increasing impact of Dual Enrollment through Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)

Thoughts from the field...

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for Dual Enrollment Instructors - PPT HERE

• Variations of language to define “culturally relevant”
• Regardless of term, it means empowering students
• Changing myth that HS students are deficit based
• Fundamental Pillars: academic achievement, cultural competence, sociopolitical consciousness
• Culturally responsive teaching is using cultural knowledge and prior experiences so content is relevant to students
• Dismantle idea where teacher is the owner of all knowledge and must impart this to students
• How to make pedagogy culturally relevant:
• Hold students to high standards
• Make learning challenging
• Engage all learners
• Have understanding of students’ backgrounds
• Make connections between classroom and real world beyond
• May mean to change the way students are assessed, how they are tested, how hiring practices occur
• Benefits of culturally responsive teaching
• A more positive classroom experience
• More efficient use of class time
• Higher quality instruction
• Higher % of on track students
• Great student engagement
• Student-centered approach to let students’ take ownership of learning
• Ex. Pittsburg teacher uses popular music to teach content
• Develop ways for students to access prior knowledge
• Offer questions to ask yourself as an instructor
• Develop your own intercultural skills
• Connection between Culturally Relevant Teacher and Dual enrollment
• Culturally relevant student services - are there resources for this?
• Ie - working with school with higher population of ELL
• CCC Apply is not culturally relevant
• Scaffold learning so students can enroll themselves in courses
• Volunteer PD days - reimagining instruction to provide a way for instructors to think about culturally relevant pedagogy
• Onboarding new adjunct instructors - infuse culturally relevant PD into onboarding
• Dual enrollment instructors have said they have become stronger teachers based on HS teaching experience
• Work with PD departments to infuse curriculum
• If students feel like they can’t be themselves in the classroom, it limits their learning

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References

Burns, R., Keyes, M., Kasimo, R., Orletsky, & Holdzkom (2005). Closing Achievement Gaps by Creating Culturally Responsive Schools. Appalachia Educational Laboratory at Edvantia.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally Responsive Teaching-Theory, Practice and Pedagogy. New York Teachers College Press

Villegos, A. & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing Culturally Responsive teachers Rethinking the Curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 53, No. 1, January/February.

Willis-Darpoh, Gwendolyn (2013). Creating Culturally responsive Learning Environment for Students of Color. Presentation at NAME Conference, Oakland, CA., November 2013.

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