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MindsetWorks | Growth Mindset | Growth Mindset Programs

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Brainology is an online interactive program in which middle school students learn about how the brain works, how to strengthen their own brains, and how to better approach their own learning. In the process they develop a growth mindset whereby they think of their intelligence as something they can develop through study and learning rather than as something fixed, as explained by our co-founder Dr. Carol Dweck.

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COVID-19 has turned college life upside down. Students and professors across the country are grappling with unprecedented challenges as their campuses shut down and classes are moved online. In times like this, when survival is paramount both physically and mentally, issues such as fostering an inclusive classroom or teaching to a diverse student body are in danger of falling by the wayside.

In our well-intentioned rush to make education both possible and more humane during these chaotic times, we cannot afford to let our commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion slip. Fifty years of research in the humanities and social sciences reveals that race is central to understanding human behavior in the United States and throughout the world. It continues to be one of the most significant issues of our time.

Race both shapes individual experience and organizes communities and societies. It is a source of bias, prejudice, discrimination and oppression even as it can also be a source of identity, motivation and pride. If the goal is educating and equipping students to live and work in our current diverse and divided society, understanding racial dynamics is a key component of a college education.

Consider the current COVID-19 outbreak. As is often the case during times of crisis, racism and xenophobia are front and center. From President Trump's initial insistence on calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus," to the rise in verbal and physical attacks against Asian Americans, to the disproportionate impact of a racially biased medical system on the survival rates of people of color, the importance of race in society and in daily life has never been clearer. While the virus does not discriminate on the basis of race, race nevertheless affects who is likely to receive treatment, who is likely to recover first and who will suffer the most.

In today's climate, race is on students' minds, and they want to talk about it. Even so, many students and professors are not comfortable discussing race or equipped to have effective conversations about it. People show up to conversations about race with different histories, opinions, feelings, misconceptions and knowledge. Talking about race exposes our vulnerabilities and blind spots: students fear being misjudged or misunderstood by their peers or their instructor while professors worry about getting called out on social media or in teaching evaluations for making mistakes. Students and professors of color also often take the brunt of the emotional labor that these conversations evoke. These experiences frequently reproduce unequal power dynamics in the university, such that those with the most privilege in a room benefit the most. Finding common ground or a shared language to communicate can sometimes feel impossible.

Done right, however, conversations about race can be effective and even empowering. To accomplish that, we need to deal with a major stumbling block: people often show up to conversations about race with different and even inaccurate understandings of what race is and what racism means. We propose that by developing a shared understanding of race as actions that people do, rather than a thing that people are, educators can facilitate more effective learning experiences and conversations. Talking about race as actions that people do helps establish common ground, foster a shared vocabulary and provide the opportunity to improve racial literacy.
Doing Race and Undoing Racism
People often think that race or an essential characteristic that people have or are. The pernicious "logic" of race as a fundamental aspect of a person's being has a deep history in the United States and has undermined race relations since the nation's founding.

Here's how it works. Race becomes racism when people -- sometimes inadvertently, sometimes not -- start referring to another group in ways that portray them as inherently deficient, inferior or lesser. Next comes the inference that "those people" are lesser because their biological or cultural makeup -- their ancestry, DNA or blood -- is fundamentally different and cannot be changed. The final inference is that these so-called essential characteristics are the reason why some groups are more moral, more intelligent or even more human than others, resulting in a hierarchy. This view of race as a "thing" then fuels institutions, laws and policies that can be used to justify the current and past oppression of so-called inferior groups. In the U.S., slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Chinese Exclusion and Indian Removal Acts, Japanese internment, and Mexican repatriation are all outcomes of this way of thinking.

A large body of interdisciplinary research built up over decades, however, shows that race is better understood : as actions that people do as they interact with one another and the institutions and practices of society. Racial differences and disparities are not caused by essential characteristics, either biological or cultural. Rather, racial differences arise because people who are situated differently in society have different kinds of experiences and social interactions with others and the world around them. Our differing experiences shape us into diverse kinds of people, with varying backgrounds, perspectives and lived experiences. People "do race" through their everyday actions and activities that are motivated by often unspoken but deeply felt assumptions about who counts, whom to trust, whom to care about, whom to include and why. This is how race is socially constructed.

Consider again COVID-19. Race is being done through how some people label the virus (as "Chinese"), how some people are treated (as in the 1,000 attacks against Asian Americans) and by who gets blamed for the virus (people perceived to be Chinese or Asian). Despite being socially constructed, race is real and impacts people's lived experiences. Even President Trump, who at one point defended calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus," recently clarified in public comments and on Twitter that Asian Americans should not be blamed or mistreated.

Race is also done in the way that some racial groups are more likely to contract and die from the virus than others. While African Americans comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent approximately half of all COVID-19 diagnoses and 60 percent of deaths in counties with higher numbers of African American residents. Similarly, Latinx people in San Francisco and Navajo people in New Mexico are dying at much higher rates than their population numbers warrant. This has nothing to do with their "essential" characteristics. The disparity arises from the experiences and treatment they share: less access to quality health care, wealth and resources and higher rates of bias and discrimination.

Our forebears must be held accountable for making race as it is today -- for having done race in so many ways that created and promoted harmful differences among groups of people. We, however, are responsible for what we do today to either maintain it or remake it. Through our actions, we have the power to do race differently and "undo racism."

Along with our colleagues at Stanford University's Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, we have created a multimedia, evidence-based tool kit called RaceWorks, turning scholarship into action to foster greater racial literacy. We believe that these five key components are key to helping students and professors effectively engage issues of race in conversation and in the classroom.
Five Ways to Cultivate Racial Literacy
Use the language of "doing." Race is not a biological or cultural essence, so avoid referring to race in any way that portrays it as a thing that people have or are. In conversations, and in learning experiences about race, use the idea of race as a doing as a starting point to create common ground and dispel misunderstandings. Reflect on what people involved in the conversation think race is, ask why and how they know that. Then compare and contrast answers that cast race as a "thing" versus race as a "doing." So, if someone says "Chinese people" or "Muslim people" or even "my people" are a certain way, follow up by unpacking where people think these so-called differences come from and why. Draw attention to the fact that answers that construct race as an essential characteristic ignore the way all people either do race -- or undo racism -- through their actions, their relationships with others and their ideas about others.

The idea that race is not a biological or cultural essence is difficult for many people to understand for the simple reason that most are used to thinking of it that way. When you teach about race, make sure to draw the contrast between ancestry (the genetic inheritance passed down from biological parents to their biological child through the process of human reproduction) and race (a complex system of ideas and practices regarding how some visible characteristics of human bodies such as skin color, facial features and hair texture relate to people's character, intellectual, physical and moral capacities, and patterns of behavior). Understanding race as a dynamic system of social distinction helps clarify for your students what race is, how it works and what we can do about it.

Learn to perceive how race and racism operate in society. Race operates across different levels of society: the individual level (people's biases, stereotypes, feelings and attitudes); the interactional level (interactions with other people like family, friends, teachers, police officers and with products like social media, TV, film, music and advertisements); the institutional level (schools, law enforcement agencies, financial institutions); and the ideological level (cultural and historical narratives about race and racial difference). These levels all influence one another in the doing of race; they can then be sites for intervention. Mapping how race is done in society empowers us to have an empirical, evidence-based perspective that can lead to scalable changes that mitigate racism.

For instance, some students might see testing police officers for bias, with the purpose of rooting out likely racists, as a viable policy solution to reducing racial disparities in law enforcement. This perspective, however, locates racism in the hearts and minds of individual police officers and often stops there. A doing-race perspective considers how institutional practices and policies, like conducting discretionary traffic stops, contribute to disparate treatment by race and can result in systemic versus individual-level biases. It's important to look beyond individuals' biases, beliefs and attitudes to see how race is done (and reinforced, reproduced and reflected) throughout the social worlds that these individuals inhabit.

Know the history of race and understand how it influences the present. Doing race does not just involve what we are doing today. Racially significant incidents and discriminatory laws continue to shape our institutions and the cultural stories we tell about why some groups are supposedly superior or inferior to others. While ideas about race may change over time, they are rooted in an ongoing history and the actions of the past. When mapping how people do race, understanding the past is necessary for understanding the present.

Some students might not realize, for example, that political "dog whistles" of today can be more fully understood and critiqued when their historical context is taken into account. Calling Mexican migrants "illegal" is not only problematic today for the biases and stereotypes that the term calls up, but also because it neglects a complex history of settlement, movement and migration between Mexico and the U.S. over several centuries.

Acknowledge that all people "do race." All people "do race" as they interact with one another and the institutions and practices of society. Cultural narratives about race are in the air we breathe -- they are part of our individual experiences, thoughts and feelings, the stories we tell, the media and art we consume, and the social institutions we participate in. They powerfully shape how we see one another and the world around us. No one is exempt.

This idea can be useful in helping people identify their assumptions, biases and blind spots. For example, consider the different perspectives involved in why Indigenous students might prefer the term "Native" to "American Indian." Or why using certain racial epithets like the N-word, even in an academic discussion, almost always derails a conversation. Similarly, discussing current events like police shootings of unarmed black and brown people can cause very different feelings and reactions depending on students' racial backgrounds and experiences. Professors and administrators addressing such issues need to consider how race is being done, both by themselves as well as others, when such topics come up.

No matter the intention, words carry certain connotations and historical weight. If you do not have the lived experience of people in those groups, you may be unaware of those connotations. Acknowledge that when we use problematic terms, we are doing race and that our actions have impacts about which we may be unaware and wish to avoid.

But also recognize that since people do race, they also have the power to "undo racism." While people are shaped by the societies they live in, they can also change or disrupt the norms, values, institutions, practices and policies that reinforce and reproduce racism. We have the power to change our world and undo racism.

By spotlighting how people do race, educators are also laying the foundation for how students can be empowered to undo racism. As historian Ibram Kendi asks in his bestselling book How to Be an Antiracist, how can each and every one of us play a role in building an antiracist society? Through increasing racial literacy by learning how to perceive when, where and how race is done, students can be empowered to be change agents in building a more equal and inclusive world.

Talking and learning about race is hard, uncomfortable and threatening. But the classroom -- physical or virtual -- should be a brave space for encouraging students and professors alike to lean into that discomfort while, at the same time, leaving room to recognize that people's fear and anxiety can be triggered by different factors and experiences. Really caring about race and fighting against racism means that we need to take responsibility, recognize the history that we all share and perpetuate, and learn how to talk about it.

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Five ways college educators can have more effective conversations about race (opinion)

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COVID-19 has turned college life upside down. Students and professors across the country are grappling with unprecedented challenges as their campuses shut down and classes are moved online. In times like this, when survival is paramount both physically and mentally, issues such as fostering an inclusive classroom or teaching to a diverse student body are in danger of falling by the wayside.

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[Image description: Illustration from All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman. Children of various races and faiths pointing to locations on a world map.] If you're nervous about talking about race with your kids, these books about racial diversity will give you an easy place to start destigmatizing difference & celebrating racial diversity. Bold and *marked books are written or illustrated by #OwnVoices makers of color. Raising Luminaries is free and accessible for readers who can't afford a paywall. Donate or shop using an affiliate link via| Paypal | Venmo | Ko-fi | Buy a t-shirt | Buy a book Anti-Racism For Beginners: Part 1 Acknowledging & Celebrating Racial Diversity Posts may contain affiliate links, which allow me to earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Check out the full affiliate disclosure along with my statement of accountability. If you're into supporting libraries (please do!) more than consumerism, you can also support my work directly:

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" How do I teach my kids to be anti-racist when I'm still learning myself?"
- Anonymous, Books For Littles Facebook Group (archived)

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It's normal to get flustered when when our children talk about race. But if we let nervousness keep us silent and still, our fear becomes a weapon.

Growing up, I was told that discrimination would magically disappear if we stop acknowledging racial difference. All people are the same. Skin color doesn't matter. Only bad people are racist. If we are all nice and well-behaved, racism will go away.

This is the fallacy of colorblind ideology. It's a tool to keep us complicit in white supremacy. Don't be a tool.

We must talk about race with young kids. Racism thrives in silence.

When we refuse to talk about race at an early age, children absorb our silence as shame. We're taught that if we have nothing nice to say - say nothing at all. Well - white folks are aggressively silent when it comes to race! Does that mean that being Brown or Black is something to be ashamed of?

Kids pick up when we refuse to acknowledge racial difference - and how we treat people of color. Why are we surprised then, to see nice, well-behaved children reflect unconscious bias against people of color, then grow into adults who blame people of color for violence and harm against them?
(It's your job to be that adult.)
Your child needs at least one adult to speak truth to BS about racial assumptions.

My White mother who openly talked about race from birth - and how society would perceive and treat me because of my multiracial heritage. She raised me to understand that discrimination against me was not my fault. Violence would happen to me because of my race, my gender, my class but it wasn't caused by me - it was caused by white supremacy.

The Mominator refused to let me internalize the idea that I deserved racism. To do that, she first needed to acknowledge my race and the fact that I would have obstacles in life that white kids didn't.

We can help our children understand racism - and empower them to work toward racial equality.

Raise kids of color to feel proud of their culture and their right to self-advocate.

Raise white kids to recognize their duty to stand up against injustice.

But first, you've gotta acknowledge that racial differences - even though they are an imaginary, human-imagined construct, exist as a real thing in our society, with real-life impact on real-life people.

Start by telling our kids that yes - we do see skin color and racial identities.

For folks who were never given space to talk about racism and discrimination as kids (or even racial diversity), it's scary to start. We don't want to say the wrong thing and mess it up.

No worries, we are going to start very gently with non-controversial, easygoing books that just show kids that racial diversity exists. In future collections, we'll get into more emotionally loaded topics - like racial discrimination, racial privilege, colorism, and the subtle tools that uphold white supremacy, such as white fragility and respectability politics.

And this diversity is glorious.

Acknowledge & Celebrating Racial Diversity

From two anonymous BFL members:

"My daughter came home saying she didn't like her brown skin and wanted white skin and 'bright' hair instead. I'm looking for books that reinforce pride in who she is."

"My white daughter said to me the other day, 'I don't like dark skin. ' I ran to the internet to research books like these."

Yikes.

Use these comments as learning opportunities. Read these books to discuss biases they've absorbed during a quiet time home together (story time!) Encourage kids to speak bias aloud so they can hear how ridiculous it sounds, think about where it comes from, and realize how it develops.

When children point out that they like particular skin tones, body shapes, or hair textures more than others - don't shout at them or insist they are wrong. Kids this age can't untangle feelings from fact. Shaming them for a gut reaction is just going to get them to clam up.

Instead, help them untangle bias from fact on their own. Ask why they feel this way. Use in an open, non-judgemental tone. Keep asking questions to unpack these assumptions. We're not here to tell them what to think, we're here to model critical thinking about racial bias moving forward.

Discuss how all bodies are good bodies - how we differ, and what we have in common.

All Are Welcome, *Lovely, We're Different, We're The Same

Acknowledge & Celebrate Cultural Diversity

When we over-simplify racism, we tell kids that racism is simply bias against people based on skin color - it's not.
How do we counter the entrenched dominant narrative's focus on whiteness?
(That's colorism, another problem we can tackle later.)

Racism expands beyond skin color - it's assumptions and discrimination against individuals and groups of people, based on racial identity. This includes not just skin color, but also cultural norms and behavior, language, and other markers of racial and ethnic identity.
*On The Day You Begin, *Where Are You From?, *Alma And How She Got Her Name
White supremacy is assuming that racism would be over if people of color just assimilated and acted more like white people, that assimilation is even a goal for people of color, and that non-white culture is deviant or inferior to whiteness.

Read stories that show how people of color are not monolithic - we're complex individuals who can't be reduced to the caricatures of mainstream media. Our ethnic heritage is something valuable worth exploring, and our ancestors traditions, achievements, and challenges have an impact on who we are today.

But our race and ethnicity is not the only thing that defines us. Show kids how we all have a right to pride in our heritage - just not at the expense of punching down another culture.

Not pictured: *Islandborn is another lovely book, which I recommend with reservations. In 2018, several survivors came forth about Junot Díaz's problematic behavior toward women. One of these reports has been shown to have been overblown - but I'm not comfortable with the way we're dismissing all survivors of his actions because of this. The book itself is great - so I'll let you decide how to move forward with all that on your own.

Explain How Diversity Makes Us Stronger

Having a broad range of experiences to draw from, mindsets to brainstorm, and abilities to solve the problems facing humanity is a very good thing. Human diversity is good for all of humanity and evolution and stuff. I am pretty sure this is SCIENCE.

The idea that winnowing humanity into one make-believe-super-race, or segregating us all into silos based on our racial identity sounds ABSURD. Right? RIGHT?!

Obviously some families are not absorbing the fact that genetic diversity is good for society and the fate of humanity, so we have to make this clear. That whole 'melting pot' assimilation thing our teachers celebrated 20 years ago turned out to be a bad idea.

What we need is more of a chunky stew, with folks proudly retaining and celebrating our individual racial and cultural identities while cognizant of the challenges and discrimination many groups face. These books help kids see how diversity makes us stronger.

Stay Curious, Stand Brave & Talk About Race

Don't stop here. Now that your kids understand that human skin, hair, and all of that stuff comes in a broad change of colors, shapes, and textures - help them see how all people deserve basic human rights, respect, and kindness.

Click here for part 2 of raising Anti-Racist Kids - Children's Books That Teach Kids About Social Power & Paternalism

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Anti-Racism For Kids 101: Starting To Talk About Race - Books For Littles by Raising Luminaries

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Books to help kids to unpack racial bias so they can hear how ridiculous it sounds, think about where it comes from, and realize how it develops.

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The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future (Multicultural Education Series): Darling-Hammond, Linda, Banks, James A.: 9780807749623: Amazon.com: Books

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Schools across the country are adopting social-emotional learning (SEL) standards as an approach to creating school communities that are safe and positive climates for learning, as well as a foundation to set students up for success in school and in life. In theory, this is a step in the right direction - we want schooling spaces where students, families, educators, school staff, and all those who come into contact with the school building feel safe, affirmed, and supported. We want schools that foster emotional support between students, staff, and communities, where there's a trust-building approach rather than school hardening, and we want restorative justice, rather than the policing, punishment, and criminalization of Black and Brown students.

However, these SEL conversations, practices, and curricula are too often based on white, cisgender, patriarchal norms and values which further enact emotional and psychological violence onto Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ youth of color, in particular. The current narrative around SEL is that students must manage and regulate themselves and their emotions, conform and constrict their identities, and not express their fullest, most authentic selves. As school districts begin to devise plans for back-to-school, we must re-examine how we talk about and teach SEL.

While visiting classrooms in a middle school this year, I perused how every classroom had the same print-out displayed on the wall. The poster detailed the five core competencies of SEL, as defined by CASEL - self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. As an example of social awareness, the signs read, "Keep your hands to yourself and don't take other people's property." While social awareness should be about unpacking bias, having critical dialogue about social issues, and collectively crafting justice-oriented solutions, this white-washed version, as Dr. Dena Simmons reminds us, made me wonder: whose social norms are we abiding by and adhering to?

In Dr. Monique Morris's newest book, Sing a Rhythm, Dance A Blues: Education for the Liberation of Black and Brown Girls, Morris tells the story of Esperanza, who as part of the EMERGE program in Oakland, California, was scheduled to speak at a national conference on Chicana/Latina girls in the...

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When SEL is Used as Another Form of Policing

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Schools across the country are adopting social-emotional learning (SEL) standards as an approach to creating school communities that are safe and positive climates for learning, as well as a...

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During my school years, I learned about white scholars, white inventors, white ideas, and white theories. I did not read a book about a writer of color until I was in high school, and even then, it was not a part of the official curriculum. I was expected to find myself in narratives of enslaved Africans, of the three civil rights leaders I learned about each year, and of Black struggle. I did not see myself reflected in the clear faces with blonde hair and blue eyes that I read about or saw in magazines and on television. I became convinced that ingenuity could only live within whiteness.

I searched for stories about Black biracial children with immigrant mothers and absent fathers, about Black children who lived in cities and invented games because going outside was sometimes too dangerous. I searched for stories that represented me, that portrayed Black love, Black excellence, and Black joy. I searched for these stories until I could not search anymore.

Even as I was looking for myself in stories and lessons at school, I was watching news clips of Rodney King's assault by police officers on the side of the road. I was listening with horror as newscasters told the slanted narrative of Amadou Diallo, who died with 41 New York-Police Department bullets in his body. And still today, violence against Black bodies continues, most recently with the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Each unnecessary death fills me with worry and fear about whether I can ever be free of the trauma of witnessing the dismissiveness with which our country treats Black life.

When Black students experience a world that devalues their humanity-including through curricular content that perpetuates narratives of inferiority and excludes their lives and full histories-and when they witness people who look like them being beaten or slain in the media, they are subject to the trauma of being made to feel worthless and unseen, of being made inhuman. Just imagine the damage done to our Black students' psyches when, at school, they are made invisible in academic content and yet blaringly visible through oversurveillance and policing. And what do white children learn from these very same triggering images of Black death and the white-centered curricula that dominate many of our nation's classrooms? They learn how to un-see and devalue Black lives. They learn how to feel nothing about Black suffering.

Educators Can't Be Passive

Therefore, our trauma work must include not only addressing the toxic stress of racism, which contributes to adverse mental and physical health effects in people of color (Comas-Diaz & Hall, 2019; Williams, 1999), but also confronting the dangers of white privilege. Racial trauma work is just as necessary for white children because the hate and rage that feeds racism, which originates from the acceptance of white supremacy, inflict harm too. Without a deeper understanding of their racial biases and assumptions, white youth run the risk of putting Black lives at risk over their privileged safety (like the Central Park dog walker Amy Cooper) or becoming inured to basic civic injustices (like the politicians who allowed the water problems in Flint, Michigan, to happen and persist).

To ensure that all children, especially Black youth, have the privilege to live full lives, educators must confront racism and the resulting trauma from it. If not, we are not really doing equity work, and we are not really trauma-informed or trauma-sensitive. We are just saying we are. We are just maintaining the status quo. We are just making ourselves feel good. If we truly care about the future of our young people and our nation, we can no longer be passive about racial justice. We can no longer walk away, bask in our comfort, and ignore the way racism is killing us and destroying our nation.

Engaging in anti-racist work challenges the very institutions and systems that benefit from it, which means it comes with a host of risks. For me, it has resulted in a loss of material comfort and relationships, but I am willing to accept those risks for the promise of an anti-racist future. Anti-racist work has to be the hill you are willing to die on. That may sound drastic and morbid, but it is not a choice for Black folks-this dying for defending our humanity. I want to live in a world where Black people do not have to experience being punished for the color of our skin or being forced to conform to the ways of the white powerful. I've learned from experience that mitigating racial trauma requires naming racism, whiteness, and white supremacy and their impacts on people's lives. We have to identify the problem we are trying to solve to begin working towards solutions. For too long, our nation has chosen not to confront our ugly past or the continuing dehumanization of Black people-a negation of reality that is carried out in our schools. Our wounds will never heal if we do not identify and tend to them.

Teaching to prevent and mitigate racial trauma requires, first and foremost, that educators commit to racial justice, to being anti-racists . I have grown impatient with the many teachers I support who tell me how scared they are to talk about race, how they do not know where to begin, how they are paralyzed by discomfort and wanting to get it right. Racial justice is urgent, and though I understand this fear and desire, we have to stop prioritizing white tears over Black lives. We cannot let our emotions paralyze us from engaging in anti-racist teaching. We have to start somewhere. In a society that is founded on whiteness, the chances are high that we will make mistakes on our anti-racist journeys. We may say the wrong thing. We may offend someone. What matters most, however, is that we learn from our missteps and bounce back instead of wallowing in our self-pity. When we educate for racial justice, we must engage in self-work and understand our power and privilege so that we do not harm our students through an inadvertent abuse of power. If we do nothing, Black people will continue to experience the injustices we have always faced.

As we engage in racially just pedagogy, it is important that we do not retraumatize students by showing pictures or videos of police- or vigilante-related violence against Black people. Instead, focus on teaching students how to identify and analyze racial bias in media and provide ways for them to reach out to media outlets with their findings to advocate for fuller stories. Empower students to disrupt single narratives of Blackness. Most important, center students' realities in the content you teach. This means affirming and valuing students and their communities in our teaching and putting social justice, equity, liberty, healing, and humanity at the core of our instruction, curriculum, and school policies.

In this regard, I encourage educators to interrogate, with an antiracist lens, the curriculum, learning experiences, and school policies to which our Black students are subject. Ask whose realities are reflected in what they are learning. Whose are not? Who will have the privilege of feeling valued and belonging? Who will not? It is our responsibility to mitigate the trauma of erasure that so many Black students have experienced just as I did. Go above and beyond what textbooks tell us is our history, introduce diverse voices and experiences through literature and mentors, and expose students to better media resources so that all students see and believe in Black heroism, Black ingenuity, and Black success.

Lastly, we must create opportunities for students to share their feelings freely in courageous and safe spaces centered on healing. It is crucial to provide young people with resources and activities for healing and engaging in self-care and to share accessible therapeutic and counseling supports.

Antiracist pedagogy involves deep, courageous work. It is important to understand that we cannot trauma-inform away racism. We cannot tweet away racism. We cannot read away racism. We cannot intervention away racism. We cannot breathe away racism. Educators, and especially white teachers, have to roll up their sleeves, look within themselves, sit with discomfort, reflect on what they can do better, and then live and teach with racial justice as their guiding principle. This work starts with us, but it cannot end with us. It must include dismantling old oppressive systems and structures and building anew.

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If We Aren't Addressing Racism, We Aren't Addressing Trauma

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During my school years, I learned about white scholars, white inventors, white ideas, and white theories. I did not read a book about a writer of color until I was in high school, and even then, it wa

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Glossary

About the Racial Equity Tools Glossary

Words and their multiple uses reflect the tremendous diversity that characterizes our society. Indeed, universally agreed upon language on issues relating to racism is nonexistent. We discovered that even the most frequently used words in any discussion on race can easily cause confusion, which leads to controversy and hostility. It is essential to achieve some degree of shared understanding, particularly when using the most common terms. In this way, the quality of dialogue and discourse on race can be enhanced.

There are two components to this page, the Racial Equity Tools Glossary below and information about Evaluation Terms ".

Language can be used deliberately to engage and support community anti-racism coalitions and initiatives, or to inflame and divide them. Discussing definitions can engage and support coalitions. However, it is important for groups to decide the extent to which they must have consensus and where it is okay for people to disagree. It is also helpful to keep in mind that the words people use to discuss power, privilege, racism and oppression hold different meanings for different people. For instance, people at different stages of developing an analysis tend to attach different meanings to words like discrimination, privilege and institutional racism. Furthermore, when people are talking about privilege or racism, the words they use often come with emotions and assumptions that are not spoken.

Many of the terms in this glossary have evolved over time. For example, given the changing demographic trends in the United States, the word "minority" no longer accurately reflects the four primary racial/ethnic groups. The terms "emerging majority" and "people of color" have become popular substitutes. Also, the terms used to refer to members of each community of color have changed over time. Whether to use the terms African American or Black, Hispanic American, Latinx or Latino, Native American or American Indian, and Pacific Islander or Asian American depends on a variety of conditions, including your intended audiences' geographic location, age, generation, and, sometimes, political orientation.;

The primary source for a definition is noted. Some definitions are paraphrased or updated.

You can download a pdf version of this glossary here: https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/RET_Glossary_Updated_October_2019_.pdf.

Source: Project Change's "The Power of Words" Originally produced for Project Change Lessons Learned II, also included in A Community Builder's Toolkit - both produced by Project Change and The Center for Assessment and Policy Development with some modification Racial Equity Tools.org.

About Evaluation Terms

In the previous site, www.evaluationtoolsforracialequity.org, we included a glossary. For this site, we want to highlight glossaries focused on evaluation terms from various sites (below). Each covers at least some of the terms frequently used in evaluation.

One thing to note is many words that are used in evaluation have a very specific and technical meaning in that context, which may be different from their more general meaning in everyday speech. For example, in everyday speech, the words "impact" and "outcome" are both used as synonyms for "result." However, people doing or writing up evaluations may use "outcome" to describe a changed state of being (which could be the result of a program, intervention or activity) and the term "impact" to describe the amount of change that can definitely be ascribed to that particular program, intervention or activity (its net effect). Those are the more technical meanings of those terms in evaluation. Impact can usually only be determined from random assignment, because that is usually the only way to control for all the differences that cannot be directly measured. Mean, mode and median are other examples of terms sometimes interchanged in everyday speech (to mean average or typical), but which have specific and different definitions as statistical terms. These kinds of distinctions are helpful to know when describing an evaluation, and when reviewing its findings.

Please also see Tip Sheets: Reviewing Resources, and the tip sheets below for more detail about key evaluation terminology and concepts.

The evaluation glossaries can be found at:

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Words and their multiple uses reflect the tremendous diversity that characterizes our society. Indeed, universally agreed upon language on issues relating to racism is nonexistent. We discovered that even the most frequently used words in any discussion on race can easily cause confusion, which leads to controversy and hostility.

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TEACHING TOLERANCE www.tolerance.org - Free K-12 resources to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy. Using social justice standards, topics include slavery, Native Americans, women. And brief videos of historians discussing impact of slavery and black history. A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Educators are acutely aware of the impact of systemic racism and the inequities that exist in the education system. Because of this, we are uniquely positioned to create immediate, positive change in the fight against anti-Black racism.

In this four-part series, we will explore tools for anti-racist teaching and will consider the ways in which we can use media and media literacy to deepen our understanding of systemic racism. Wherever you are in your social justice journey, this series is designed to introduce you to curated anti-racism resources, support your own learnings of anti-Black racism, help you discover innovative ways to integrate media into inclusive teaching practices, and show you how to amplify your Black students' voices and experiences. By attending, you will reflect on your role in systemic oppression within education, and leave with new tools and ideas for creating lasting change in their classrooms.

We are part of a movement: a widespread promise to our families and our neighbors that we will be ongoing, engaged participants in civic actions designed to root out racism, end police brutality, amplify, honor, respect and remember Black Lives Matter.

PBS will provide a certificate of attendance for each one hour virtual professional learning event.

Deepening Your Understanding of Race and Racism
July 21 @12 PM ET
As educators, we have a deep responsibility to confront racial injustice, and ensure that we create anti-racist classroom environments. This includes our own ongoing reflection and learning. In this one hour event we will explore the role media plays in our collective understanding about race and racism, and how educators can use media to disrupt white supremacy and systemic oppression of Black people in America. This is a live event, so you will have the opportunity to ask our guests questions. Come prepared for a rich, deep, and honest conversation that will not only help you gain a deeper understanding of the roots of systemic racism, and how anti-Black racism impacts our daily lives, but also guide you as you reflect on your own role and responsibilities as an educator.

Download your certificate of attendance here.
Using Media to Know Better, Teach Better

July 23 @12 PM ET

When conversations of racial injustice and equity arise, many educators find themselves reacting in the moment, without being prepared for these important conversations. In this series, we'll introduce steps you can take to be proactive, starting with a focus on media literacy. In the second episode of our four part series, "Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching," we'll explore ways in which you can use media to know better and teach better. The current media landscape is oversaturated, and it's sometimes hard to analyze which resources are best, especially around topics of racism and oppression. This conversation is designed to help educators analyze and evaluate media, and provide important context so you can meaningfully shape your anti-racist classroom planning and practices. We'll also focus on ways in which you can use these media literacy tools to empower yourself and your students to change classroom and personal practice.

Download your certificate of attendance here.
July 28 @12 PM ET
Amplify Student Voice

How can media be used as a tool to share messaging, ignite action, and change perspectives for your students? Join us for this one hour conversation to find out. In the third episode of our Virtual Professional Learning Series, Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching, middle and high school students will take center stage. While focusing on student voice, we will explore ways in which educators can use media to support and amplify their students in their own anti-racist learning journeys.
Download your certificate of attendance here.
July 30 @12 PM ET

Focusing on Young Learners
Download your certificate of attendance here.

In the fourth and final episode of our Virtual Professional Learning Series, we will discuss how and when to use media as a tool in anti-racist teaching for young learners. Whether it is in your lessons, practice, or literature you will learn ways to integrate media to guide young learners in developmentally appropriate, anti-racist learning.

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Tools for Anti-Racist Teaching | PBS Education

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Educators are acutely aware of the impact of systemic racism and the inequities that exist in the education system. Because of this, we are uniquely positioned to create immediate, positive change in the fight against anti-Black racism.

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RACE MATTERS: AMERICA IN CRISIS
Anchored by Judy Woodruff, this PBS NewsHour special focuses on the frustration pouring out onto American streets, outrage about police brutality, and America's deep systemic racial disparities in the economy, education, criminal justice system and health care, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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RACE MATTERS: AMERICA IN CRISIS Anchored by Judy Woodruff, this PBS NewsHour special focuses on the frustration pouring out onto American streets, outrage about police brutality, and America's deep systemic racial disparities in the economy, education, criminal justice system and health care, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Pedagogical Support for CRSE via WeTeachNYC

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Pedagogical Support for CRSE via WeTeachNYC

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This collection contains a set of resources designed and curated to support teachers in engaging in remote instruction in culturally responsive and sustaining ways. They are intended to serve as guidance and not a central mandate. Schools should utilize these resources in ways that best serve the school community.

These resources are designed support teachers in three major areas:

Building and sustaining community and relationships with students and families in the remote instruction context

Designing and implementing effective remote instruction aligned to key principles of culturally responsive and sustaining education

Reflecting on instructional practices and practices towards sustaining community with students and families in order to move forward and make changes to instruction to better support students and families

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Remote Instruction: Pedagogical Supports for Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Practices | WeTeachNYC

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This collection contains a set of resources designed and curated to support teachers in engaging in remote instruction in culturally responsive and sustaining ways. They are intended to serve as guidance and not a central mandate. Schools should utilize these resources in ways that best serve the school community.

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Paul Spella / The Atlantic

America recently passed the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first captive Africans brought to what would become the United States. September 2019 was chosen as an imperfect but significant date to mark the start of American slavery and the systems of inequality perpetuated by the nation's original sin.

For 163 years, The Atlantic has discussed, argued, and analyzed America, its lofty ideals and the reality that often falls short of them. This magazine was founded, in part, to argue in favor of abolition, and has been a home for black voices such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington-each calling upon the country to realize its promise of freedom and equity for all its citizens.

Amid a pandemic that is disproportionately killing brown and black people and an economic recession disproportionately devastating the finances of people of color, a major moment of racial reckoning has arisen after yet another series of police murders of black Americans-the latest in a generations-old trend of disproportionate killing and violence against black communities by those sworn to serve and protect.

There have been protests, looting, and more police violence. Major companies and individuals are being called to account for discrimination, leaders in the public and private sectors are losing their jobs for failing communities of color, and many Americans are seeking new ways to support the movement toward racial equity. Confronting the continued realities of racism and its steep cost is painful and complex, and forces a question: How did it come to this?

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series of police murders of black americans

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secretary of the smithsonian lonnie bunch

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America recently passed the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first captive Africans brought to what would become the United States. September 2019 was chosen as an imperfect but significant date to mark the start of American slavery and the systems of inequality perpetuated by the nation's original sin.

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Support your professional learning journey and hear from leading authors, researchers, and practitioners via our archived webinars. These recordings cover best practices in literacy instruction, family and community engagement, summer learning, and more.

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Webinars for Educators | Scholastic Education

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Explore education webinars to support your professional learning journey and hear from leading authors, researchers, and practitioners.

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Teaching Channel

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This school year, I have the privilege of working shoulder to shoulder with teachers who are rolling up their sleeves and asking hard questions about how they can better serve their under-performing students who are disproportionately English learners, poor students, and students of color. They are working to incorporate culturally responsive practices into their classrooms.

I believe culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a powerful method for accelerating student learning. But truth be told, most educators are not really sure what it is or what it looks like. For some, it seems mysterious. A number of leaders discount it because it seems too "touchy feely" or only focused on raising students' self-esteem, when they need to raise achievement levels. But CRT is so much more than that. It's the reason why I wroteCulturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. ( Brief podcast on CRT)

Two of the biggest challenges I see teachers struggle with when first embracing CRT, is understanding the role culture actually plays in instruction and how to operationalize culturally responsive practices. They worry that they have to learn 19 different cultures -- everyone's individual customs, holidays, foods, and language. This simply isn't true. Here are four other big ideas about culturally responsive teaching to keep in mind:

1. Culturally responsive teaching isn't the same as multicultural education or social justice education. Too often we use the terms culturally responsive teaching and multicultural education interchangeably, when they're different things. They are related, but only culturally responsive teaching focuses on building students' learning power. It's important to remember that CRT isn't about diversity training, but about helping students reach deeper levels of understanding.

2. Culturally responsive teaching builds students' brain power by Improving information processing skills using cultural learning tools.This isn't an aspect of CRT we talk about a lot. Instead, educators like to focus on the affective elements. Keep in mind one way that the achievement gap manifests itself is by creating dependent learners who find it hard to do critical thinking or independent learning. When we focus on using culture as a cognitive scaffold, then we're able to leverage students' neural pathways that make learning easier.

3. Culturally responsive teaching is grounded in social and cognitive neuroscience. Neuroscience is giving us new findings every day that support why culturally responsive practices work. For example, social neuroscience reminds us that relationships are the on-ramp to learning, meaning if a student doesn't feel heard or seen, then it leads to increased stress. Stress hormones like cortisol impair the brain's executive function. So in order to create a learning environment conducive to all students learning, we need to lower stress hormones by building those relationships.

4. Culturally responsive teaching requires teachers to recognize the cultural orientation we call "collectivism."Teachers are often confused about how culture plays a role in culturally responsive teaching. They think they have to mention race, ethnicity, or cultural artifacts like ethnic food, music, or literature all the time for every different group. Instead, a key starting point to making cultural responsiveness manageable is to organize instructional activities around collectivist cultural principles -- group harmony and interdependence. Vygotsky talks about this as "socio-cultural learning" and highlights that it is necessary to move students into their zone of proximal development.

Here's another important point to make: Culturally responsive teaching isn't a program or set of strategies. First and foremost, it is a mindset. That means that it's equally important to do the ongoing "inside-out" work to build your social-emotional capacity to work across social, linguistic, racial, and/or economic difference with students and their families. Too often I hear educators say that they are "color-blind" or don't understand the socio-political issues that lead to inequities in education -- like disproportionate discipline outcomes for boys of color or low achievement data for English learners, poor students, and students of color in general.

We have to make it our personal business to build our emotional stamina to address our own blind spots and biases. One of the nation's leading implicit bias scholars, Patricia Devine of the University of Wisconsin, compares implicit bias to habits that, with intention and practice, can be broken. Her research has found that three conditions need to be in place for individuals to successfully "de-bias":

1. Intention: You have to acknowledge that you harbor unconscious biases and are motivated to change.

2. Attention: You have to pay attention to your triggers and know when stereotypical responses or assumptions are activated.

3. Time: You have to make time to practice new strategies designed to "break" your automatic associations that link a negative judgment to behavior that is culturally different from yours.

"De-biasing" requires a level of metacognition. In this case, you're not thinking about your thinking, but thinking about your unconscious reacting. Remember, it isn't about getting rid of our biases, it's about rewiring our brains to not respond unconsciously to the negative dominant narratives about the learning capacity of poor students, students of color, and English learners. We have to tame our amygdala, our brain's fight or flight defense mechanism, and take advantage of neuroplasticity - our brain's ability to change itself and respond differently to emotionally charged situations, like talking about race, culture, and inequity.

At the end of professional development sessions with teachers, I usually share this quote from Atul Gawande, author of the Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right: "Better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try." Operationalizing CRT may seem overwhelming, but start with something small but high leverage, and grow your comfort and skill level. We can do this!

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Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain

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This school year, I have the privilege of working shoulder to shoulder with teachers who are rolling up their sleeves and asking hard questions about how they can better serve their under-performing students who are disproportionately English learners, poor students, and students of color.

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The growing diversity of the U.S. population continues to impact formal education in many ways. One key area has been the increased awareness of the need to adapt learning environments to enhance the achievement of students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Culturally responsive teaching is an asset pedagogy designed to increase motivation by replacing mainstream teaching practices with those grounded in students' experiences and ways of knowing. The culturally responsive teaching (CRT) framework places students' cultural identities at the core of the learning process and utilizes the ?cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles? of diverse students [1]. When considering issues of culture and identity, many people first think of race and ethnicity. However, there are many dimensions of diversity present in most classrooms, and CRT means that educators should engage students' additional identities in recognition of the intersectionality of various facets of who their students are.

Another trend that has impacted formal education is the rapid growth of online, or elearning. Often research on CRT, and discussion of CRT, is conducted in the context of the traditional face-to-face classroom. However, the growth of elearning has meant that increasingly more often, the adult learning environment is online.

As a result of the growth of elearning, educators who were used to teaching in face-to-face classrooms now find themselves in the very different situation of teaching online. The online learning environment adds an extra layer of complexity to the development of culturally responsive teachers and classrooms, as described by Heitner and Jennings:

"...a lack of understanding about culturally responsive issues and practices to meet the needs and expectations of online students can lead to miscommunication, mistrust, poor guidance, frustration, attrition, and delayed program completion. These issues may be exacerbated in the online classroom due to the nature of faculty/student interaction, the asynchronous nature of the instruction, the broad cultural and geographic diversity of the student body, and the lack of visual cues in the interactions" [2].

What does culturally responsive teaching in online classrooms look like? How can online instructors use principles of culturally responsive teaching to develop culturally responsive online classrooms? This article will examine basic principles of culturally responsive teaching in the context of elearning. It will focus on practical ideas for instructors interested in developing their own culturally responsive online teaching skills.

Why Culturally Responsive Teaching Is Important

A primary assumption of asset pedagogies is that learners of minority backgrounds experience mismatches between their own cultural identities and the collective cultures of the school, the instructor, and the course. These mismatches can inhibit the learning process. Referred to as barriers in universal design of learning [3], there is a widespread understanding for the need to erase these mismatches or barriers in order to create optimal learning environments for all learners. Culturally responsive teaching positions the learner's cultural identities at the core of the learning process and uses the learner's cultural knowledge, experiences, and frames of reference in order to help the learner be successful in the course and at the school.

The foundation of culturally responsive teaching includes three classroom criteria: academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness [4]. First, the culturally responsive classroom is one in which there are clear and academically challenging expectations for all students. The learning environment is one in which a variety of learning assessments are utilized. Educators must be knowledgeable in content area and highly skilled at creating effective learning environments.

Secondly, the culturally responsive classroom encourages high levels of cultural competence, as students and teachers demonstrate a deep understanding of their own and others' cultures. Finally, educators must have sociopolitical consciousness, or a well-developed understanding of their own world views, along with the knowledge that their own worldviews are shaped by their experience, and, as such, are probably not the same as those of the learners in their classes. Culturally responsive educators are those who continually examine their own cultural perspectives and biases to ensure that they are creating environments that are supportive to all learners.

Taking Theory to Practice in the Online Classroom

How can educators create culturally responsive classrooms? The "Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching" [5] was designed specifically for adult learning environments and describes norms and practices designed to encourage participation, inquiry, discourse, and respect for all learners. It includes four elements:

establishing inclusion

developing attitude

enhancing meaning

engendering competence

Each of these elements will be examined individually, in the context of the online classroom.

Establishing inclusion. Planning for the culturally responsive classroom starts with course development. Just as first impressions of a face-to-face course are based on what the student sees when he or she walks into the classroom for the first time, students' first impressions of an online classroom are based on what they see when they initially access the course. Instructors may post information on their course websites about what culturally-responsive classrooms look like; and these postings may be written, in audio formats (e.g., podcasts) or using video clips (or in some combination thereof). There may also be initial discussions; synchronous or asynchronous, on topics related to racial, gender, ethnic, and sexual identity, to name a few.

Important in this type of information is to define what culture, and culture responsibility looks like. The concept of culture may mean different things to different people, and often, we think of culture in terms of the dimensions of culture we are familiar with (forgetting the broader definition of the concept of culture). Culture can be related to dimensions of diversity such as race, ethnicity, age and gender (among others), but can also be viewed on an organizational level (the culture of the U.S. Army, for example). In order to develop a culturally responsive classroom, learners first have to understand the concept. That involves providing information to learners and then discussing the concept among all in the class.

In order to start developing a culturally responsive classroom, pre-work is required so when the student accesses the course for the first time, the stage is set. Giving voice to students, an important aspect of establishing inclusion, can start at the beginning of the course, with activities in which students introduce themselves and tell the class about who they are. Guidelines for introductions that include content about the importance of culture can help set a culturally responsive tone. Asking specific questions about students' cultural identities and backgrounds (and providing examples) can help students feel comfortable in sharing their own information. To set a culturally responsive tone, instructors may describe their own cultural backgrounds in their introductions.

Icebreaker activities can be useful in culturally responsive teaching. For example, Lehman and Conceição suggest an activity entitled "Where in the World Are You" [6]. A map of the world is posted in the online classroom and students download the map, mark their locations, and share information on themselves and their cultures and traditions (which may or may not be related to their physical location on the map). Again, a broad view of the term culture should be emphasized, as students might share information about any of the different cultural groups to which they belong. They then upload the map back to the course website for others to view.

Establishing inclusion also involves developing a foundation of respect and connectedness through established routines, mutually agreed upon norms, and equitable treatment of all learners. To ensure all students feel included in the learning community, it is important to encourage them to voice their feelings in the face of perceived discrimination or disrespect, and also in sharing the positive, respectful, and reinforcing experiences in the online classroom. Giving voice to those opinions can be challenging, especially in online learning environments, so creating those opportunities through discussions (synchronous and asynchronous) and chat sessions can be useful. Initial discussion forums in which students develop guidelines for the course, including tips for holding respectful, scholarly discussions on controversial topics, and suggestions for course etiquette can all be discussed right at the start of the course. As noted earlier, however, this means the instructor must be prepared, and the course must be set up, to hold these discussions when the course opens.

In a face-to-face classroom, introductions and the establishment of inclusion can happen in real time, but in an online classroom, students do not all participate at the same time. Students typically access online courses at different times throughout a lesson or unit of instruction. Instructors must allow time for students to participate, and to learn about their classmates and the instructor. Therefore it is important to establish inclusion in the online classroom after the course starts. During this time of establishing inclusion, instructors must be engaged in the course. They must show learners they are present. Instructors should be active participants in communicating with students, discussing their backgrounds, highlighting similarities and differences, and using inquiry to learn more about their students. They may also refer to course guidelines, policies and procedures discussed above, so students better understand the classroom environment.

Developing attitude. Helping learners feel positively about content and the learning process is facilitated by building on students' personal experiences and knowledge, in addition to incorporating learner autonomy into curricular planning [5]. Addressing the relevance of the course content to students' lives and creating opportunities for student volition in the learning environment are the foundational aspects of this element. Learners see the relevance of content when they are able to relate it to their lives and experiences. It is important to note that often, textbooks and curriculum are designed for mainstream, majority cultural groups. Therefore, it is imperative to contextualize learning activities in the learners' background experiences and knowledge base. Instructors can use what they've learned while working to establish inclusion (discussed in the previous section) to develop attitude.

One way to address the issue of developing attitude is by supplementing curriculum with materials reflective of diverse identities. For example, in adult English language classes, educators often find informative essays about national and ethnic groups on the Internet, in addition to using international newspapers' English language resources. These provide linguistically-accessible materials that are written from the cultural point of view of the students. Another strategy is to incorporate materials that present images and experiences from members of minority groups, focusing on racial and sexual identities, for example. These inclusive materials create spaces for learners from those communities to add their sometimes-marginalized voices to the class. Additionally, allowing learners to share their own experiences relative to course topics helps the learner to attach meaning to the learning activity; thereby creating cultural connections between mainstream topics and their lives. In the online classroom, instructors have to create spaces for these things to happen, they have to allow for time for these things to happen, and they have to be present in order to guide the activity. Activities such as jigsaw reading or peer teaching can easily be implemented through various technologies and can help facilitate learning in a culturally-responsive way, however in order for them to be successful, they must be set up appropriately, with clear guidelines and examples, and with time to allow students to participate and the instructor to be present and involved.

Teachers empower students when encouraging them to take charge of their own learning. This can include activities in which learners formulate their own goals and desired outcomes (at the course, lesson or assignment level) and engage in self-assessment of achievement of those goals. This can also include giving learners the option of selecting from a variety of learning activities. They might also ask students to search for books, articles, research, or activities that are relevant to the student's background and to course content, and then share them with the class (or develop book reports, literature reviews or other written or video-based assignments). By viewing the curriculum design process as a collaborative activity, teachers will establish a learning environment that is relevant to their learners' lives, as well as one in which learners feel autonomy over their learning. This also helps the instructor to develop a collection of culturally relevant materials related to his or her course.

While an important aspect of developing attitude is the idea that students take charge of their own learning, it is also important that instructors set guidelines, instructions, and parameters for assignments. These things help to ensure an appropriate level of academic rigor and a level of standardization for all students in the course, which is important when evaluating student performance. As an example, an instructor may ask his or her students to write a review of a book of their choosing related to course topics. Instructions for the assignment might include guidelines for the types of books allowed, page number requirements, style and formatting requirements, and key issues to address in the report. The student has control of their learning because they are able to choose the book, but the instructor sets standards for all students in the course to ensure an appropriate level of academic rigor.

Conversely, it is very easy for online students to become frustrated and tune out in online courses that lack appropriate structure. In the online classroom, students typically don't get immediate feedback from the instructor (or immediate answers to their questions), so developing and communicating guidelines and parameters is all the more important.

Enhancing meaning. Another element of culturally responsive teaching is making learning meaningful and engaging students in reflection and critical inquiry. Learning gains meaning when learners are able to understand the purpose and utility of their learning. The acquisition of new knowledge should be a welcoming process rather than a foreboding one marked by inaccessible vocabulary and content-specific jargon. Effective teachers will offer numerous opportunities for learners to explore and create new meanings together and encouraging them to ground their understanding in their own stories and narratives. The culturally responsive teacher lays this foundation with guidelines and mutual establishment of the norms for online communication. Central to this element is helping students develop a critical perspective, which can be accomplished by helping students connect course content to their own cultural experiences or to the cultural experiences of others. Making connections between course content and students' identities (considering the many different dimensions and levels of identity) is also critical. In the online classroom, these types of things can be done through synchronous class chat sessions, synchronous or asynchronous discussions, or video-based discussions. These types of activities can be facilitated by students, as well. Activities such as "Think, Pair, Share," are designed to help students integrate new knowledge with prior knowledge, develop questions, summarize information, and apply what they've learned in class. These types of activities can be done in virtual learning environments, and can help students to consider multiple perspectives, critically analyze their own assumptions, and develop deeper level understanding of course topics.

Problem-based learning (or problem posing) can be used to make learning meaningful to students, and to also help them in critical inquiry. Games, activities, simulations, and case studies all fall under the category of problem-based education. Problem-based learning lends itself well to online learning. Case studies can be analyzed, discussed and debated, simulations can be worked through, and games can be played in the online classroom. Students can work individually or on teams. From a culturally responsive teaching standpoint, many of these things can be customized so they are more relatable to students. Case studies, for example, can be modified so students more closely identify with the actors, situations, and settings in the case. Instructors and students can develop their own case studies, as well, using a culturally responsive perspective.

Engendering competence. The final element, engendering competence, is comprised of practices that show the learner evidence of his or her learning and proficiency and the use of assessments that are contextualized in the learners' experiences [5].

This requires the use of effective assessment tools that relate to the students' backgrounds and allow them to demonstrate mastery in a variety of ways. This often includes the use of performance-based or portfolio assessments, student-invented dialogues, focused reflections, and journals.

Problem-based learning activities, such as those above, can be accompanied by opportunities for students to critically reflect on what they've learned. While the same types of activities may be used at this stage, they may be used on a different level than they might have in the enhancing meaning stage. Rather than a case study that involves a unit of class, for example, a culminating case study, requiring students to synthesize what they've learned throughout the course may be used here. Instructors may post prompts or questions for critical reflection, and students can complete reflection papers, online diaries, post on blogs, or create video diaries that demonstrate their competency and proficiency, while focus on assessing broader course concepts.

Creating a culturally responsive online classroom requires planning and engagement throughout the course. The four elements of the "Motivational Framework of Culturally Responsive Teaching" serve as an effective guide for online instructors. Bearing in mind that these elements are not meant to be completed in linear progression but in a cyclical manner, instructors can examine their teaching practices using the following questions:

To establish inclusion, how do I acknowledge the cultural identities, such as racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, and gender identities, of my students?

How do I learn about my students and what they feel is important about the learning experience?

How do I encourage my students to connect with their classmates?

How do I ensure that students feel free to point out class policies that they feel are discriminatory or biased?

To develop attitude, how do I help learners feel positively about content and the learning process, in addition to incorporating learner autonomy into curricular planning?

How do I encourage students to communicate with each other and with me on a deep and meaningful level?

How do I incorporate materials and resources that represent the diverse backgrounds of my students?

To enhance meaning, how do I help students connect to the material in ways that are based in critical reflection and critical inquiry?

How do I incorporate a variety of learning activities and instructional practices?

How do I integrate practical applications into learning activities

How do I require students to examine the curriculum from multiple perspectives?

To engender competence, how do I use authentic and effective assessment that allows them to demonstrate mastery in a variety of ways?

How do I encourage students to take ownership of the learning process?

How do I create space for students to assess their own learning?

Conclusion
There is a dizzying amount of literature available about the theory and rationale underpinning the culturally responsive teaching approach. However, with continued dissemination of the "Motivational Framework of Culturally Responsive Teaching," there is a growing awareness of the importance of incorporating cultural identities of adult learners into the online classroom. In this article, the basic principles of culturally responsive teaching in the context of elearning were presented, in addition to tips for implementing the relevant norms and practices in their online classrooms. As online teachers become more proficient at creating culturally responsive learning environments, they will achieve the goal of establishing equitable and inclusive classes for all their students.
References

[1] Gay, G. Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press, New York, 2000.

[2] Heitner, K. L. and Jennings, M. Culturally responsive teaching knowledge and practices of online faculty. Online Learning 20, 4 (2016).

[3] Rose, D.H., and Meyer, A. Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal design for learning. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria, VA. 2002.

[4] Ladson-Billings, G. Crossing over to Canaan: The journey of new teachers in diverse classrooms. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2001.

[5] Ginsberg, M. and Wlodkowski, R. Diversity and motivation: Culturally responsive teaching in college. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2009.

[6]Lehman, R. M. and Conceição, S. C. O. Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2010.

About the Authors

Christy M. Rhodes, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the College of Education at East Carolina University. She has been involved in adult basic education and literacy throughout her career, working with adult English language learners in the U.S. and abroad. Her research focuses on the ways adult educators create inclusive learning environments and the culturally responsive teaching framework. She is currently adapting the Culturally Responsive Teaching Survey (CRTS) for use in adult basic education classes, in addition to adult English language classes. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the National Coalition of Literacy and serves as the Co-Director of the Commission for Adult Basic Education and Literacy of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education.

Steven W. Schmidt, Ph.D. is a professor of adult education and the Adult Education Program Coordinator in the Department of Interdisciplinary Professions at East Carolina University, in Greenville, North Carolina. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in adult education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. Prior to his faculty appointment, he worked in employee training and development at Harley-Davidson Motor Company. In his teaching, research, and consulting work, Dr. Schmidt specializes in online teaching and learning and workplace training and development. He served as president of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education in 2014 (www.aaace.org) and is the author of two books: Organization and Administration of Adult Education Programs and Case Studies and Activities in Adult Education and Human Resource Development.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Online Classroom

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eLearn Magazine is a leading source of high-quality information on the uses of online learning and training strategies in a variety of contexts for K-12, higher education, and the corporate workforce.eLearn Magazine presents new technologies and approaches for creating, delivering, and supporting online instruction and workplace performance.