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Discussion starters allow students to think about diversity and inclusion using guided discussion questions aimed at viewing problems and solutions through others' eyes (Penn State, n.d.). Through discussion, teachers encourage and provide an arena for student empowerment (American University, 2019)

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The importance of Social Emotional Learning Opportunities 

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The importance of Social Emotional Learning Opportunities 

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Social Emotional Learning opportunities allow students to develop skills to react to traumatic or adverse situations like empathy, resilience, and compassion.

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This resource provides teachers and students with prompts for allow students to respond to complex and social issues found in reading materials. 

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Journal Prompts on Social Issues in Literature 

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Journal Prompts on Social Issues in Literature 

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In our district, we use the acronym TRIBE to promote Trust, Respect, Integrity, Belonging, and Empathy. I have produced a collection of books many school libraries already have and links for digital read alouds where applicable.

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Dream Variations by Langston Hughes

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Dream Variations - To fling my arms wide

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Since Hanna Moved Away by Judith Viorst

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New Math by Nikki Grimes

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New Math by Nikki Grimes | Poetry Foundation

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The Dream of Shoji Kimicko Hann

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Curious to see caverns,
we detoured in Tennessee
to ramble through Fat Man's Misery,
past a ballroom and gun powder machine
till we reached The World's Second Largest Underground Lake-
on which my husband had promised a ride
in a glass-bottom boat.

There, a kid hunched over a hot-rod magazine.
Dan, I think his name was,
radiant, in clammy, artificial light.

I asked Dan,college-break? He nodded inside his hoodie then helped me into the glass-bottom hold. I peered into the milky water and watched the seeded trout swim up for the chum he dumped overboard on our account. He was milky white, himself, from months of cave sitting. I wondered if he'd write a poem on a summer spent underground. Thought to suggest it-how foolish- then wondered if what I really wanted was Dan, as I stepped into his boat, to take my arm and ask me something- at this middle age, probably for a couple coins then give a promise of safe passage as he ferried me to the realm of the dead that I've been thinking about for several years not because of a girlfriend's cancer but because my body is no longer young. I mean, lovely- and that there's no turning back to that water's edge. There's only the couch every afternoon at four o'clock and not wanting to ever move. Not wishing to die exactly- just not wanting to rise because the light feels so pressured. And I can't have that ardent glow reflected back while brushing teeth or fastening a necklace. Now there's this casting around for other stuff- the daughters' secrets-the pathetic urge to write about their secrets- or a crush on Charon. Not an old man as it turns out but a youth, colorless and tired of his i-Pod. No, he's not really of interest to me. And this is my secret: that I wish he were- as with those arms reaching through clouds of cigarette smoke to lead me into reeking dives. I'm past that. And he, Dan, not the poetic Charon- will probably climb out of the caverns into the six o'clock evening sun. Stretch. Change his shirt, eat his mother's meatloaf and head off in a rusted Honda for the Piggly-Wiggly parking lot with a six-pack and a girl, those hand-sized moths flitting in the light as the sheriff chases the kids to another dead end spot- those enormous dusty moths my husband caught for me to hold in my hand because he knows, in the afternoon light after the dank caverns, how fluttery the furry wings will feel. Which is more than melodrama can bear. To have wished for Danto ask me something? I knowthe passage is not what you wanted to hear.

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Curious to see caverns, we detoured in Tennessee to ramble through Fat Man's Misery, past a ballroom and gun powder machine till we reached The World's Second Largest Underground Lake- on which my husband had promised a ride in a glass-bottom boat. There, a kid hunched over a hot-rod magazine.

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Students examine the ideas and values behind the American Revolution, and what drove the colonists to seek independence, through nonfiction texts including Liberty! How the Revolutionary War Began.

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4th Grade English Language Arts - Unit 4: American Revolution | Common Core Lessons

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Students examine the ideas and values behind the American Revolution, and what drove the colonists to seek independence, through nonfiction texts including Liberty! How the Revolutionary War Began.

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American Indians faced numerous challenges to their survival as a people on their own lands in the eighteenth century. The French and British vied for control of the continent at mid-century while the American colonists continued to look to the interior for lands to expand their settlements. After the British victory in the Seven Years' War, Indigenous peoples found their diplomatic options more circumscribed. As North American colonists who were eager for land began to spill over the Appalachian Mountains in the 1750s, British concern and Native American anger over the expansion increased. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 attempted to restrict that expansion and alienated many American colonists. In the years after the French and Indian War, Britain's strategies to keep its Native American alliances sometimes backfired, as discussed in this article " The History of the Stamp Act Shows How Indians Led to the American Revolution."

The outbreak of the American Revolution had great consequences for American Indians. Many saw the Revolution as a contest for Indigenous lands as well as for liberty. Some groups, such as the Cherokee warriors, defied their elders and attacked frontier settlements all along the southern frontier. The Cherokees took the offensive against the Americans early, only to be defeated by Patriot soldiers from the southern colonies.

Many other tribal groups attempted to remain neutral. In the Ohio Valley, the Shawnees, led by Cornplanter, and the Delawares, led by White Eyes, worked hard to steer a course between the combatants. But hatred of Indigenous people among western colonists and hunters soon destroyed that peace. American militia killed White Eyes of the Delawares in 1778, and others slaughtered unarmed, converted, Moravian Indians at Gnadenhutten, Ohio, in 1782. The Ohio Valley tribes allied themselves with the British after these attacks.

Many other Native Americans sided with the British in the hopes that a British victory would stem the flood of western expansion. The Iroquois Confederacy split. Joseph Brant, a well-educated Mohawk and a Free Mason, along with his sister Mary Brant, led his people away from a policy of neutrality and into an alliance with the British. The Stockbridge band of the Mohican tribe, however, joined their western Massachusetts neighbors, volunteering as minutemen even before fighting broke out.

The Revolution resulted in the creation of the new republic but also a new reality for Indigenous Americans. When Great Britain handed over all of its territory east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes to the United States at the Peace of Paris in 1783 without consulting their Indigenous allies, the Native Americans living in those lands found themselves under severe pressure from speculators and migrants interested in expanding the territory of their new nation either by treaty or by force.

As a word of caution, teachers should make students aware of the issues involved in using primary sources of Native American speeches. These valuable but rare primary sources were usually transcribed by Europeans, and the documents often reflect European ideas of Native American speech.

You might consider the following sources for further background on these events and best practices for teaching Indigenous perspectives.

D1.4.9-12. Explain how supporting questions contribute to an inquiry and how, through engaging source work, new compelling and supporting questions emerge.

NCSS.D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.

If students have not studied the Seven Years' War prior to this lesson, it will be helpful to review the role of Native Americans in that conflict. It will also be helpful if students have an understanding of the way European control of the land changed after that war. The British received all the French lands in Canada (except two small offshore islands) and all the French lands east of the Mississippi River. Spain took over Louisiana. Consider these resources for background as well as some primary voices that can be used in a more extensive review lesson of the Seven Years War:

Digital History's The Seven Years' War

"The History of the Stamp Act Shows How Indians Led to the American Revolution" from NEH's Humanities magazine.

South Carolina Governor Glen, " The Role of the Indians in the Rivalry Between France, Spain, and England, 1761" from History Matters.

Address by Minavavana, Chippewa Chief, to the British, 1761, on Digital History.

"Another Race of White Men Come Amongst Us": Native American Views as British Replace the French in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1765, on History Matters.

Sir William Johnson, 1772, commenting on the behavior of settlers in the western territories, on History Matters.

Students will also benefit from a geographical awareness when considering interactions among different groups of colonists and indigenous peoples. You might consider using this Map of Native American Tribes in 1783 from Mapping History. The page also provides other resources you might find helpful.

Activity 1.

Begin with the Journals of the Continental Congress, Speech to the Six Nations, July 13, 1775. This document is a request made by the Americans to the Iroquois, asking for their neutrality. It is interesting that in this document, while the Americans are officially asking the Native Americans to stay out of the conflict, they dedicate a great deal of the speech to making their case for independence. The symbolism of the "family quarrel" is repeated throughout many of the documents. The language, including the idea of a "covenant chain" and addressing the Iroquois as "brothers," is significant.

You may choose to introduce a section of the text without date or context to prompt inquiry. Consider the following passage:

BROTHERS AND FRIENDS! We desire you will hear and receive what we have now told you, and that you will open a good ear and listen to what we are now going to say. This is a family quarrel between us and Old England. You Indians are not concerned in it. We don't wish you to take up the hatchet against the king's troops. We desire you to remain at home, and not join on either side, but keep the hatchet buried deep.

While reading or during discussion, students might consider the following questions:

Working in small groups or as a whole class, read and analyze the full text. This can provide a model for analysis as well as help in framing some of the questions different indigenous groups might have entertained. Ask students to speculate on the following:

Would you expect that Native Americans would get involved in the fighting of the American Revolution? Why or why not?

If you think that Native Americans would choose sides and fight, with whom do you think they would ally and why?

Activity 2.

Invite students to analyze several sources that document decisions made by Indigenous people to side with the British, ally with the Americans, or remain neutral. Students might complete this activity working in small groups, with each group investigating one or two documents, then come together as a whole class to compare findings.

To support your students in this work, consider using Document Analysis Worksheets from the National Archives Educator Resources.

The following documents offer a range of Native perspectives. Remind students that these primary sources were usually transcribed by Europeans, and the documents often reflect European ideas of Native American speech.

" The Oneida Indians to Governor Trumbull," 1776. The Oneida, one of the Six Nations, tried to remain neutral but eventually ended up on the American side, which split the Six Nations. This document is from early in the war and also refers to the conflict as a fight between brothers that does not concern Native Americans.

" The Disturbances in America give great trouble to all our Nations": Mohawk Joseph Brant Comes to London to See the King, 1776, on History Matters. This document has a helpful headnote. Mohawk leader Joseph Brant talks about the long-lasting alliance between the British and the Native Americans but also expresses the Mohawk feelings of anger and betrayal regarding the lack of British protection from the Americans.

" Conference with Indians at Fort Pitt," July 6, 1776. The Delawares and Shawnees focus on the issue of not allowing the combatants to march through Native American lands, not wanting the war to be fought on Native American land.

" Treaty with the Delawares: 1778." The treaty between the Delawares and the United States of North-America raises issues of fair trade, rights for armies to cross Native American land, the desire for peace, and other issues.

" Chickasaw Peace Treaty Feeler-1782." The Chickasaw Indians had a long alliance with the British. When the Spanish replace the British in West Florida, the Chickasaw send a peace feeler to the United States that uses the language of family.

Chickasaw Chiefs, Message to Congress, July 1783. In this message to Congress, the Chickasaw desire a halt to encroachments on their land and regular access to supplies in order to appease their belligerent young warriors; they discuss the difficulties that the war has posed for Native American communities.

As a whole group or in smaller groups, review with the students their annotations and develop a Venn Diagram of key arguments for choosing sides.

As part of the discussion of these documents, help students to analyze and evaluate. The following questions might be used to guide this aspect of the discussion:

What do we know about this individual? His/her perspective?

Who made the record? What was his perspective? Why is it important to know who was responsible for making the record?

When was the record made?

What was the purpose of making the record?

What is the nature of the document: letter, oral history, government document? Was the source public or private? Why is this information important?

To demonstrate their understanding of the context surrounding the alliance decisions made by Indigenous peoples during the Revolutionary War, invite students to use the primary documents and their Venn diagrams to address the following questions:

Students should also be encouraged to consider what questions these documents do not answer. What information or perspectives are missing that would present a fuller understanding of these events?

What happened to these Native American allies after the American Revolution? Students could explore the post-revolutionary experiences of the different Native American tribes in the United States and Canada. How did their experiences differ from what the treaties signed with the new United States had promised? What factors (i.e. location/geography, tribal leadership, their Revolutionary allegiances, relationships between the various Native American tribes) played a role in the post-Revolutionary experience of the different Native Americans? Students could take their research one-step further: where are those Native American groups today? See the U.S. Census Bureau's American Indians and Alaska Natives Map.

The Continental Congress was quite involved in Native American affairs during the War. The Library of Congress offers classroom materials on the Home Front during the Revolutionary War with several documents and discussion.

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Native Americans and the American Revolution: Choosing Sides

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Native American groups had to choose the loyalist or patriot cause-or somehow maintain a neutral stance during the Revolutionary War. Students will analyze maps, treaties, congressional records, first-hand accounts, and correspondence to determine the different roles assumed by Native Americans in the American Revolution and understand why the various groups formed the alliances they did.

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Over the past few decades, students, their experiences, upbringings, and backgrounds have changed. Classrooms now reflect families of varying races, cultures, and socioeconomic statuses. As a result, the way teachers educate these students must change, too, says Cherese Childers-McKee, assistant teaching professor in Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies. One of these shifting approaches to education is known as culturally responsive teaching.

Below, we explore the concept of culturally responsive teaching, compare it against traditional teaching models, and offer a number of strategies that you can use to incorporate the approach into your own methods.

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What is culturally responsive teaching?

Culturally responsive teaching, also called culturally relevant teaching, is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Traditional teaching strategies emphasize the teacher-student dynamic: The teacher is the expert and adheres strictly to the curriculum that supports standardized tests while the student receives the knowledge. This teaching method is outdated, Childers-McKee says.

"Teachers have more diverse classrooms today. We don't have students sitting in front of us with the same background or experience, so instruction has to be different," she says. "It needs to build on individual and cultural experiences and their prior knowledge. It needs to be justice-oriented and reflect the social context we're in now. That's what we mean when we talk about culturally responsive teaching."

Culturally Responsive vs. Traditional Teaching Methods

Culturally responsive teaching can manifest in a number of ways. Using traditional teaching methods, educators may default to teaching literature by widely accepted classic authors: William Shakespeare, J.D. Salinger, and Charles Dickens, for example, adhering to widely accepted interpretations of the text.

Culturally responsive teaching, on the other hand, acknowledges that there's nothing wrong with traditional texts, Childers-McKee says, but strives to include literature from other cultures, parts of the world, and by diverse authors. It also focuses on finding a "hook and anchor" to help draw students into the content using their past experiences.

"This way, students can see themselves in some of what they're reading and not just the white, western world. The learning is more experimental, more hands-on," she says. "Instead, you're showing them a worldwide, multicultural community and looking for different interpretations while relating it to what it means for society today."

Why is culturally responsive teaching important?

Culturally responsive teaching is especially pertinent today because the traditional education path from school to college to a career and life in the suburbs isn't a reality-or desire-for everyone, Childers-McKee says. Educators' approaches to teaching need to reflect these differences.

"That typical, mainstream education is not addressing the realities of today's students. Culturally responsive teaching isn't just for those students who don't come from white, middle-class, English-speaking families-it's an important teaching strategy for everyone. When done the right way, it can be transformative."

When integrated into classroom instruction, culturally responsive strategies can have important benefits such as:

Strengthening students' sense of identity

Promoting equity and inclusivity in the classroom

Engaging students in the course material

Supporting critical thinking

Here's a look at five culturally responsive teaching strategies all educators can employ in their classrooms.

5 Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for Educators

1. Activate students' prior knowledge.

Students are not blank slates, Childers-McKee says; they enter the classroom with diverse experiences. Teachers should encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge in order to contribute to group discussions, which provides an anchor to learning. Taking a different approach to the literature that's taught in classrooms is one example of this.

2. Make learning contextual.

Tie lessons from the curriculum to the students' social communities to make it more contextual and relevant, Childers-McKee advises. "If you're reading a chapter in history class, for example, discuss why it matters today, in your school, or in your community," she says. "Take the concept you're learning about and create a project that enables them to draw parallels."

3. Encourage students to leverage their cultural capital.

Because not all students come from the same background, it's important to encourage those who don't to have a voice. Say, for example, you teach an English class that contains ESL students. It's important to find ways to activate the experiences they do have-their cultural capital, Childers-McKee says.

The teacher may choose a book for the class to read in which the ESL students could relate and feel like they could be the expert, for instance. As a teacher, Childers-Mckee's once chose a book that told the story of a child of migrant workers because some of her students came from an agricultural background.

"When you have a mixed classroom, you want those in the minority to feel like they are an expert. You want to draw from their experiences," she says. "I do caution that you don't want to cross a line and make 'Johnny' feel like he needs to speak for all Mexican people by putting them on the spot, for example. That's a line you need to walk."

4. Reconsider your classroom setup.

Take inventory of the books in your classroom library: Do they include authors of diverse races? Is the LGBTQ community represented? Do the books include urban families or only suburban families? Beyond your classroom library, consider the posters you display on your walls and your bulletin boards, too. "These are all small changes you can make to your classroom more culturally responsive," Childers-McKee says.

5. Build relationships.

Not all students want to learn from all teachers because the teachers may not make them feel like they're valued, Childers-McKee says. Teachers need to work to build relationships with their students to ensure they feel respected, valued, and seen for who they are. Building those relationships helps them build community within the classroom and with each other, which is extremely important, she says.

"When we think about culture and diversity, people often automatically think about black students, but people need to think broader than that, now," Childers-McKee says. "Some teachers whose students are all white and middle-class struggle with how culturally responsive teaching strategies apply to them. It's equally important for them to teach students about diversity. These aren't just teaching strategies for minorities, they're good teaching strategies for everyone."

Educating for the Future

Educators have the unique power to impact the lives of their learners. Making use of thoughtful, inclusive instruction can have positive effects on students that last far beyond their time in the classroom.

Employing culturally responsive teaching strategies is a small step toward enacting meaningful change in education. If you're interested in leading your organization toward positive change on a larger scale, earning an advanced degree is one way to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.

Pursuing a degree, such as a Doctor of Education , will empower you to address the challenges currently facing education and improve the learning experience. Students of the program work with industry-aligned faculty on real-world organizational issues, allowing them to have an immediate impact on their professional environments.
To learn more about how an EdD can further your career while improving students' educational experiences, explore Northeastern's Doctor of Education program page, or download our free guide below.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching: 5 Strategies for Educators

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Culturally responsive teaching values students' cultural references in all aspects of learning. Here are five strategies to bring to the classroom.

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For decades, researchers have found that teachers in public schools have undervalued the potential for academic success among students of color, setting low expectations for them and thinking of cultural differences as barriers rather than assets to learning.

In response, scholars developed teaching methods and practices-broadly known as asset-based pedagogies-that incorporate students' cultural identities and lived experiences into the classroom as tools for effective instruction. The terms for these approaches to teaching vary, from culturally responsive teaching and culturally sustaining pedagogy to the more foundational culturally relevant pedagogy. Though each term has its own components defined by different researchers over time, all these approaches to teaching center the knowledge of traditionally marginalized communities in classroom instruction. As a result, all students, and in particular students of color, are empowered to become lifelong learners and critical thinkers.

This explainer unpacks what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher, how all these research terms are related, and where other academic concepts such as critical race theory tie in-or not.

What is the definition of culturally responsive teaching?

Culturally responsive teaching means using students' customs, characteristics, experience, and perspectives as tools for better classroom instruction.

The term was coined by researcher Geneva Gay in 2000, who wrote that "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."

It's the kind of teaching that helps students of color see themselves and their communities as belonging in schools and other academic spaces, leading to more engagement and success.

What is culture, and why is it relevant to student learning?

Culture refers to the customs, languages, values, beliefs, and achievements of a group of people. Students' culture and lived experiences that influence how they understand and make sense of the world or themselves are an integral part of who they are as learners. As Emily Style, the former founding co-director of the National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity), once wrote, "Half the curriculum walks in the door with the students."

While more than half of public school students are students of color, most schools are organized around the mainstream culture of white Americans. The culture that many students experience at home and in their communities is not always represented at school-or is represented in a stereotypical way.

Also, 80 percent of teachers are white. Research has found that teachers are just as likely to have racial biases as non-teachers, and those biases tend to influence the expectations they have for their students and their ways of managing their classrooms. For example, past research has found that white teachers have lower expectations for Black students than they do for white students, and those can turn into "self-fulfilling prophecies" when students internalize them or when teachers change their approach to students as a result of their mindsets.

One study found that white teachers were more likely to praise a poorly written essay if they thought it was written by a student of color than if they thought the essay was by a white student. Teachers' racial biases can also result in decreased access to advanced coursework and higher rates of suspensions.

When did culturally responsive teaching start?

Culturally responsive teaching stems from the framework of culturally relevant pedagogy, which was introduced by scholar Gloria Ladson-Billings in the 1990s. Ladson-Billings was tired of the commonly held narrative that Black children were deficient and deviant, and that there was something wrong with them. Instead, she wanted to find out what was right with Black children, their families, and their communities. To do so, she researched the practices of effective teachers of Black students.

For about two years, Ladson-Billings observed teachers who were identified by both principals and Black parents as being excellent. The teachers had different ways of teaching, but they all had high expectations for their students and fostered academic success. They also all valued and integrated themselves in the community from which their students came.

Ladson-Billings distilled the commonalities in those teachers' beliefs and practices into the framework of culturally relevant pedagogy, which she defined as a model that "not only addresses student achievement but also helps students to accept and affirm their cultural identity while developing critical perspectives that challenge inequities that schools (and other institutions) perpetuate."

There are three components of culturally relevant pedagogy:

student learning-prioritizing students' intellectual growth, including their ability to problem-solve;

cultural competence-creating an environment where students affirm and appreciate their culture of origin while also developing fluency in at least one other culture; and

critical consciousness-teaching students how to identify, analyze, and solve real-world problems, especially those that result in societal inequities against marginalized groups.

So, what are the characteristics of culturally responsive teaching?

Gay's research shows five essential components of culturally responsive teaching:

A strong knowledge base about cultural diversity. Teachers should understand different racial and ethnic groups' cultural values, traditions, and contributions to society, and incorporate that knowledge into their instruction.

Culturally relevant curricula. Teachers should include multiple perspectives in their instruction and make sure the images displayed in classrooms-such as on bulletin boards-represent a wide range of diversity. Teachers should also contextualize issues within race, class, ethnicity, and gender.

High expectations for all students. Teachers should help students achieve academic success while still validating their cultural identities.

An appreciation for different communication styles. Teachers should understand different communication styles and modify classroom interactions accordingly. For example, many communities of color have an active, participatory style of communication. A teacher who doesn't understand this cultural context might think a student is being rude and tell the student to be quiet. The student may then shut down.

The use of multicultural instructional examples. Teachers should connect students' prior knowledge and cultural experiences with new knowledge.

Doesn't that require teachers to reinforce stereotypes about students of color and even discriminate against white children?

In short, no. While the academic framework of culturally responsive teaching and other asset-based pedagogies emerged from how to best support students of color, it evolved into a teaching approach that serves all students, regardless of their racial background.

Sharroky Hollie, the director of the nonprofit Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning, works with teachers to practice what he calls cultural and linguistic responsiveness. In his work, he talks about the rings of culture, meaning the various aspects of students' identities that can impact how they interact with the world around them.

To Hollie, it's not just about thinking of ways to validate and incorporate a student's racial background into the classroom. It's not about thinking of students in a one-dimensional, stereotypical way. Culturally responsive teachers must also consider the student's gender, age, socio-economic status, whether they live in the suburbs or a rural area, and more.

"It's not as simplistic as we're trying to value our students of color," he said. "We're actually trying to value the rings of culture that they bring to our schools, regardless of their racial background."

For instance, in predominately white school districts, there are white students who, due to where they live or their family's socio-economic status, are underserved by their school district and could benefit from a culturally responsive approach to education, Hollie said.

What is culturally sustaining pedagogy, and how is it different than culturally relevant teaching?

Schools are still places where white norms are considered the default standard in the curricula, behavioral expectations, linguistic practices, and more. Culturally sustaining pedagogy says that students of color should not be expected to adhere to white middle-class norms, but their own cultural ways of being should be explored, honored, and nurtured by educators.

The framework builds on the work of Ladson-Billing and others but offers a "loving critique" that cultural relevance in the curriculum is not enough for students in today's world, given demographic shifts toward a more diverse society. Paris and Alim also argue that asset-based pedagogies, like culturally relevant teaching, traditionally haven't paid enough attention to young people's more fluid relationships with their identities.

Ladson-Billings has embraced the evolution of her foundational pedagogy, writing in 2014 that "culturally sustaining pedagogy uses culturally relevant pedagogy as the place where the beat drops." She also told Education Week that she is now paying close attention to how teenagers shape culture, an aspect that wasn't present in her original work.

It's important to remember that these asset-based pedagogies-culturally responsive, culturally relevant, and culturally sustainable, among others-are not in conflict with each other. While their frameworks vary, they all have the same goal of dismantling a deficit approach to educating students of color and focusing instead on their strengths, assets, and communities in the classroom.

What does the research say about the effectiveness of these teaching frameworks?

A 2016 synthesis of decades of research on culturally responsive teaching and related frameworks found that engaging in culturally affirming practices across subject matters, including mathematics and science, led to positive increases in students' understanding and engagement with academic skills and concepts.  For instance, students in high school math class could learn about statistics by assessing the probabilities of racial profiling cases in various neighborhoods or using other datasets applicable to their communities that bring up questions about justice and injustice.

Culturally responsive teaching and similar approaches to teaching also increased students' motivation, interest in content, and the perception of themselves as capable students, among other benefits, the study found. Brittany Aronson, an associate professor in educational leadership at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a co-author of the study, said, whenever teachers drew direct connections between classroom lessons and students' experiences outside of school, students could see greater value in the academic content as it applies to the real world. Such work helps students see themselves as knowledge producers and researchers.

Overall, teaching that makes school relevant to students helps them succeed both in terms of quantitative measures such as high test scores, and more qualitative measures such as becoming life-long learners able to ask critical questions about the world around them, both in and out of school, Aronson said.

What are some examples of culturally responsive teaching?

Teachers who practice culturally responsive teaching have a classroom full of books featuring characters and images that represent a variety of ages, genders, ethnicities, and other types of diversity. They share the achievements and expertise of people from different ethnic groups in every subject area. They include multiple perspectives when discussing historical and contemporary events, including those from oppressed groups who are often left out of the narrative. And they encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge and cultural experiences to make connections to the academic content.

Culturally responsive teaching also must have an element of critical consciousness, where students are empowered to critique and analyze societal inequities. For example, Teddi Beam-Conroy, an associate teaching professor at the University of Washington, was teaching the Declaration of Independence to a class of 5th graders. When they got to the line that said, "All men are created equal," Beam-Conroy asked her students, "Who were the men who were considered equal at that point?" To illustrate the point, she asked everyone to stand up-and then told them to sit down if they didn't identify as male, if they didn't identify as white, or if their parents rented instead of owned a home.

That exercise opened the door to a conversation about how Americans weren't all equal in the late 18th century. Beam-Conroy's students discussed when women and African Americans got the right to vote-and what implications that has had on the composition of U.S. Congress or the Supreme Court. The critical consciousness piece is "examining how historically, power has been distributed and guarded among particular folks who make the laws," Beam-Conroy said. "Fifth graders can understand that."

Culturally responsive teaching can also involve a deeper reimagining of classroom codes of conduct. For instance, in some students' culture, talking while someone else talks shows how invested and engaged they are in the conversation, said Hollie with the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning. Culturally responsive teachers find ways to incorporate that verbal overlap into their lesson rather than seeing it as rude or worthy of discipline.

What isn't culturally responsive teaching?

Researchers note that some educators say they're practicing culturally responsive teaching, but it's an overly simplified version. For example, for some teachers, a multicultural school potluck meal or adding diverse books to their classroom library sufficiently counts as affirming students' culture in education. But culturally responsive teaching is deeper, more critical work.

"There's a tendency to truncate culturally responsive teaching to be about a whole myriad of things-it's about relationships, it's about anti-racist education, it's about diverse books," said Zaretta Hammond, the author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. "It's like that old parable of the king who asks nine blind men to describe an elephant. Each one grabs a different part of the elephant. 'Oh, it's flat and wide'-he's got the ear. 'No, it's like a rope'-he's got the tail. No one has the whole picture."

Too often, she said, white progressive educators view culturally responsive teaching as an add-on to their regular instruction instead of a fundamental shift in their pedagogy. For example, a teacher might think students of color just need to see themselves in order to feel motivated and do the work, so she'll incorporate diverse books into her classroom or syllabus-but not change anything to the content or her way of instruction.

Another common misconception is that culturally responsive teaching is a way of addressing student trauma, which is a deficit-based ideology that assumes the universal experience of people of color is one of trauma, Hammond said.

How widespread is culturally responsive teaching?

Most teacher-preparation programs have also incorporated culturally responsive teaching into their courses. And some school districts, including New York City and Baltimore City, have adopted a culturally responsive and/or sustaining approach to education.

Still, experts say it's difficult to pinpoint exactly how many teachers have adopted these asset-based pedagogies because some may use only certain tenets. For instance, helping students develop a critical consciousness is often ignored.

What does all of this have to do with critical race theory?

Critical race theory, broadly speaking, is an academic concept with the core idea that race is a social construct, and racism is not only the product of individual bias or prejudice but is also embedded in policies and systems, such as a legal system-or as some scholars such as Ladson-Billings propose, an educational system.

Aspiring K-12 teachers in graduate level courses may study aspects of critical race theory to better understand how school systems are designed in ways that don't serve the needs of students of color. But critical race theory is not taught as a guide for classroom instruction, nor is it typically used as a culturally relevant or culturally responsive lesson plan for kids and teens, said Aronson with Miami University.

Asset-based pedagogies, like culturally relevant or culturally responsive teaching, are not the same thing as critical race theory. They have different theoretical bases and different goals. However, there might be some commonalities-for example, the questions students are encouraged to ask about social systems, including education, may ring close to the consciousness critical race theory is meant to evoke.

In an interview with Education Week, Ladson-Billings stressed that culturally relevant teaching, as she defined it, has nothing to do with critical race theory. But opponents to critical race theory have glossed over those nuances, she said, adding that deliberative public debate is hard when people don't know what they're talking about.

"The attack on anything that allows more participation and moves us toward equity is going full force," she said.

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Here's what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher and where critical race theory ties in-or not.

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Key Vocabulary for Culturally Responsive Teaching 

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Key Vocabulary for Culturally Responsive Teaching 

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Most educators acknowledge that a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching is ineffective, and a more student-centered approach is necessary for student success. Culturally responsive teaching incorporates and centers unique student experiences and identities, supporting educators to build learning partnerships that result in increased student engagement and ownership of learning.

But what exactly is culturally responsive teaching?

Based on Gloria Ladson-Billings' 1994 culturally relevant pedagogy framework, culturally responsive teaching refers to an approach to teaching and learning that facilitates the achievement of all students by recognizing that culture is a powerful force in shaping how we see ourselves and the world around us. In a culturally responsive classroom, reflective teaching and learning occur in a culturally supported, learner-centered context, whereby the strengths students bring to school are identified, nurtured, and utilized to promote student achievement. When students feel seen, heard, and understood, they are more likely to engage in the learning process and achieve success.

Zaretta Hammond, in her book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, defines Culturally Responsive Teaching as "an educator's ability to recognize students' cultural displays of learning and meaning making and respond positively and constructively with teaching moves that use cultural knowledge as a scaffold to connect what the students know to new concepts and content in order to promote effective information processing. All the while, the educator understands the importance of being in relationship and having a social-emotional connection to the student in order to create a safe space for learning."

Components of Culturally Responsive Teaching

In Beyond Flesh-Colored Crayons: The Four Components of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy , Hammond lists the four key components for culturally responsive pedagogy as follows:

1. Affirmation - I recognize and accept you as you are. I understand and nurture your multiple identities and none of these aspects of you are in conflict to me.

2. Validation - Validate students' experience of the world by acknowledging the socio-political context we live in. Teach the truth about power, politics, history, and context in developmentally appropriate ways, and use these issues as tools of instruction and discourse.

3. Cognition - Use students' culture as a reference point for helping them understand concepts. This is where learning theory, neuroscience and culturally responsive teaching all meet up.

4. Processing - Help students "hold on to it." Learn about the neuroscience of information processing to support students in internalizing content to the level of automaticity. Call and response, music, movement, and storytelling are all culturally relevant ways to create neural pathways.

What Culturally Responsive Teaching IS / IS NOT

Culturally responsive teaching is:

a bridge between home and school life,

affirming of students' history and culture, and

centering student voices and learning styles in all lessons and classroom experiences.

Culturally responsive teaching is not:

confusing race and culture as being the same thing,

only about motivating students of color,

relying on a single method to engage students within the lesson,

mastering the details of every culture, and

just adding Black (or other groups') history to the curriculum.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching - National Equity Project

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When we attend to healing, we expand our ability for ourselves, our organizations, and our movements to evolve and grow. Learn why healing is capacity building!

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Encouraging Community Involvement at Home 

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Encouraging Community Involvement at Home 

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In the era of social media, activism for kids is a heated topic. So, how do you support kids in their activist efforts? Follow these 7 steps.

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Louise Braille invented a system allowing blind people to read and access learning materials, and he did so when he was a child.

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SIX DOTS, a Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant READ ALOUD

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George Moses Horton was in slavery in the South when he taught himself to read in secret.

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Cultivating Progress - It Can Start With One Book

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Diversity and Inclusion Classroom Posters 

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Diversity and Inclusion Classroom Posters 

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This event would ask school families to sign up for a booth and sponsor a treat, activity, and learning opportunity for all school families.

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Local LGBTQ+ Community Resources

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Local organization for disability inclusion

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Disability Programs and Services for Southeast Missouri Residents

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SEMO ALLIANCE for DISABILITY INDEPENDENCE, INC.

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Local office to support children, families, and caregivers affected by the child welfare system.

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ADDRESS: 145 S. Mt. Auburn Rd. Suite B, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701

HOURS: Mon-Fri: 10:00a-4:00p, Sat-Sun: Closed

Cape Girardeau, MO, is home to several innovative programs that serve children and families in the region. Our team advocates for youth in foster care, provides tangible goods through our Sammy's Window clothing closet and food pantry, and gives training to foster parents. Our Hope Children's Home also provides a temporary, healing home environment for children awaiting foster placements.

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Foster Care Services in Cape Girardeau, MO, FosterAdopt Connect

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FosterAdopt Connect provides foster care services in Cape Girardeau, MO for children, youth, and families within the child welfare system.

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Sylvia Mendez and her family fight for desegregated schools.