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Teachers’ Multicultural Attitudes and Perspective Taking Abilities as Factors in Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Teachers’ Multicultural Attitudes and Perspective Taking Abilities as Factors in Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Judith A. Fabes, Nancy Eisenberg, and Mark T. Greenberg British Journal of Educational Psychology, 2019

Brief Analysis
This article explores how a teacher’s multicultural attitudes and capacity for perspective-taking are key predictors of their effectiveness in delivering culturally responsive pedagogy. It extends teacher learning by highlighting the psychological and emotional skills that underlie CRP. The study emphasizes the need for professional development that fosters empathy, reflective thinking, and cross-cultural awareness. This is valuable because it moves CRP beyond surface-level strategies and into the realm of mindset, which is essential for equitable teaching of multilingual learners.

How This Will Benefit ELLs

Understanding the importance of multicultural attitudes and perspective-taking helps us see that supporting ELLs is not just about differentiated instruction or language scaffolds. It's about how educators perceive their lived experiences, values, and ways of communicating. When we approach ELLs with genuine curiosity, empathy, and openness to their perspectives, we can create classrooms that feels safe and validating. This kind of relational trust is essential for academic risk-taking, language development, and personal growth. Building relationships is just as important as teaching content, and both are deeply intertwined in CRP.

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Teachers’ multicultural attitudes and perspective taking.pdf

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Peggy Ashbrook
Science and Children, National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), March/April 2021

Brief Analysis
This article extends a teacher’s understanding of culturally responsive teaching by grounding it in everyday science learning. Ashbrook emphasizes that all children engage in scientific thinking in their culturally-rooted daily activities such as cooking, caring for siblings, or exploring nature, and that these practices are often rooted in culture. The article is valuable because it challenges the traditional, Eurocentric view of science instruction and encourages teachers to connect school learning to students’ lived experiences and family knowledge. Ashbrook offers a practical self-documentation activity where children use drawings or photographs from home to express how they experience scientific concepts, positioning them as experts and making their cultural backgrounds visible in the classroom.

How This Will Benefit ELLs

This article encourages us to empower English Language Learners by connecting academic learning to their everyday lives. ELLs often engage in scientific inquiry outside the classroom without recognizing it as “science.” By inviting them to bring in photos or drawings from home, we can validate their experiences and create a stronger bridge between home and school. This approach supports language development by giving ELLs opportunities to speak about familiar topics.  It also promotes confidence, engagement, and a positive learner self-concept. Incorporating culturally meaningful activities helps ELLs see themselves as capable participants in the classroom community and in the world of science.

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Equitable Mathematics Through Social–Emotional Learning and Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Equitable Mathematics Through Social–Emotional Learning and Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Treshonda Rutledge, Tandrea Fulton, Ashley Schmidt, Sarah B. Bush, and Juli K. Dixon

Kappa Delta Pi Record (2023)

Brief Analysis

This article presents a compelling case for integrating Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching (CRMT) with Social–Emotional Learning (SEL) to promote equity in mathematics classrooms. It extends teacher learning by offering a practical, relationship-centered framework that shifts CRP from an “add-on” to a foundational approach to instruction. The authors provide real classroom examples, such as a lesson rooted in students' lived experiences with local stores and pricing, to show how SEL and CRMT can work together to build student agency and meaningful learning. The article is valuable because it outlines concrete strategies for embedding students’ cultural knowledge and identities into math instruction while addressing their emotional and social needs.

How This Will Benefit ELLs

This article shows how SEL and culturally responsive practices can be combined to support English Language Learners in subjects like math where language barriers often hide understanding. Validating students’ cultural knowledge and connecting math content to their real-world experiences can help ELLs engage more confidently and meaningfully. The article emphasises relationship-building, emotional safety, and student-centered learning which are essential for multilingual learners' success. The authors encourages us to see ELLs through an asset-focused lens: not as students who need fixing but as contributors with valuable perspectives that should shape our instruction.

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2023 Equitable Mathematics Through Social Emotional Lea [retrieved_2025-07-01].pdf

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5 Principles of Culturally Responsive Teaching

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5 Principles of Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Tan Huynh (2022)

Blog: Sharing an assets-based narrative about multilinguals

Brief Analysis

This blog post introduces five foundational principles for culturally responsive teaching. These include maintaining an asset-based mindset, offering support alongside appropriate challenges, designing student-centered instruction, incorporating students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and building partnerships with families and communities. The post is helpful because it takes these broad concepts and explains them in clear, actionable ways that apply directly to classroom practice. It helps teachers see how culturally responsive teaching can be woven into daily routines and instructional decisions, especially when working with multilingual learners.

How This Will Benefit ELLs

Huynh's emphasis on honoring students’ lived experiences, family knowledge, and home languages encourages us to plan lessons that reflect our students. The reminder to set high expectations with proper scaffolding is especially important. Integrating these principles into the classroom can help ELLs feel more confident, capable, and included in their learning. This kind of environment supports their academic growth and helps build stronger connections between school and home.

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There's a rising wave of discussion around culturally responsive teaching (CRT). The goals of CRT ( Hammond, 2016) are to:

● Improve the learning capacity of diverse students.
● Center instruction around the cognitive aspects of teaching and learning.
● Build resilience and an academic mindset by providing pushback against the deficit narratives about students of color.

Many of us, myself included, have never participated in coursework on this topic, yet it is so crucial to providing an equitable learning experience for multilinguals (MLs). Teachers can develop culturally responsive instruction by incorporating into their lesson design five guiding principles, which come from Dr. Diane Staehr Fenner and Dr. Sydney Snyder's new book entitled Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners (Corwin, 2021).

Guiding Principle 1: CRT is assets-based

The way we see students determines the way we teach them. With a deficit perspective, we are handcuffed by what we think students can't do. From an assets viewpoint, we are free to think of all the things multilinguals can do. One way to be strengths-based is to build on students' linguistic and cultural backgrounds. If multilinguals come from an oral-language tradition, we can incorporate stories. If they come from a community-oriented culture, we can design learning using collaborative structures.

Guiding Principle 2: CRT simultaneously supports and challenges students

If learning is to be equitable for multilinguals, then they must be given access to grade-level curriculum. When I first started teaching MLs, I would scoff at teachers who wanted the multilingual students to learn the same content as their peers. I would think, "How can this teacher expect students to learn about fair trade when they can't even read the words 'fair trade'?" In my pull-out sessions, I would ignore the teacher's content and start by teaching them colors of the rainbow, school supply items, and farm animals.

Reflecting back, I am horrified by how I watered down the curriculum for my students. By doing so, I was widening the achievement gap. Now I have come to realize that multilinguals can and must learn the same content as their grade-level peers ( Echevarría et al., 2017).

Guiding Principle 3: CRT places students at the center of learning

This principle is about instructional design. When designing learning, create experiences where students are required to do the heavy cognitive work of learning and manipulating both content and language. Ways to do this include collaborative structures, inquiry-based learning, problem-based learning, concept-based learning, and service learning.

All of these approaches to lesson design see students as active participants in their learning because when designed well, learning is the by-product of engagement.

Guiding Principle 4: CRT leverages students' linguistic and cultural backgrounds

When we can link the content that we are teaching to what students are already familiar with, there is a firm foundation on which to build new learning. For example, when I taught a unit about world religions, students had to learn about the common characteristics of established belief systems. On the first day of that lesson, I had students sit in same-religion groups to identify the features of their own faiths. Starting off with what they know about their spirituality was a low-risk way to learn the content.

Guiding Principle 5: CRT utilizes students' schools, families, and communities

Gone are the days when we taught in silos. Now it's time for us to reach within and beyond schools to partner with all of the stakeholders in students' lives. For example, we might invite families or community members representing the different faiths found in students' communities into school to share their values.

Students' family members and community guests can provide firsthand knowledge of the content and add a level of relevance to learning. It would be a pity not to collaborate with them on our religion unit, for example. When we take advantage of these resources, we have the added benefit of students, families, and community organizations feeling like they are also valued members of the school.

Culturally Responsive Teaching is here to stay

CRT is not a fad. It's not one more thing we have to do for multilinguals. It's a way of being with MLs and their families that is grounded in the assets of multilingual students, their families, and their communities. By our holding high expectations of MLs while providing high support, they can be both successful in school and proud of their heritage.

Which of these guiding principles are you most excited to start with in your context?
References
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2016). Making Content Comprehensible for Secondary English Learners: The SIOP Model (5th ed.). Pearson.

Hammond, Z. (2016, October 20). Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain. The Teaching Channel ( Corwin Book)

Snyder, S. C., & Staehr Fenner, D. (2021). Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity. Corwin.

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#147. 5 Principles of Culturally Responsive Teaching - TanKHuynh

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There are 5 guiding principles of culturally responsive teaching for MLs. With these principles, MLs are more successful at learning.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

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Zaretta Hammond

Youtube, May 4, 2017

Brief Analysis

This webinar equips teachers with practical knowledge grounded in neuroscience to better support culturally and linguistically diverse students. It deepens a teacher’s learning by explaining how culturally responsive practices such as affirming identity, reducing threat responses, and building relational trust actually change how the brain learns. Hammond highlights concrete strategies, including structured routines, cultural scaffolding, and purposeful feedback, which enhance both cognitive engagement and academic rigor. She links educational practice to how the brain processes information and handles stress,thereby  helping teachers design lessons that are both meaningful and accessible for all students.

How This Will Benefit ELLs

Zaretta Hammond teaches us that creating a safe and engaging environment is essential for helping English language learners thrive. When we build strong relationships and establish predictable routines, we reduce the stress that can block learning and open space for students to take academic risks. By using students’ cultural backgrounds as entry points for instruction, we help them see themselves in the curriculum and feel that their knowledge matters. This approach encourages us to be more intentional about how we design learning experiences, so that ELLs can feel supported, capable, and included in every part of the classroom.

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Zaretta Hammond: Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain Webinar

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Colorín Colorado

Brief Analysis

This is a toolkit that offers practical strategies specifically designed for ELL classrooms. It highlights the importance of building on ELLs’ linguistic and cultural strengths to foster inclusion and engagement. Educators will find useful guides for selecting culturally appropriate texts, supporting holiday and religious celebrations, and strengthening school–family partnerships. These resources deepen teacher learning by offering real-world applications of CRP principles, rather than high-level theory alone. The value lies in its ELL-specific focus—it bridges general CRP frameworks and the daily instructional needs of multilingual students.

How This Will Benefit ELLs

Using these strategies from Colorín Colorado means we can better recognize and honor our students’ cultural identities right from day one. That could be offering books in their home language, planning lessons around community celebrations, or inviting families into the classroom. When learners see their culture reflected in the curriculum and their voices respected at school, they feel safe, motivated, and supported. This environment encourages them to share more, ask questions, and take risks with language and learning—helping them grow both academically and socially.

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These resources offer educators ideas for building upon ELLs' strengths and experiences, fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students, and celebrating diversity through children's literature.

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These resources offer educators ideas for building upon ELLs' strengths and experiences, fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students, and celebrating diversity through children's literature.