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All of us have own culture, even in a math class, and these cultures give huge impact, but we tend to forget that. If a teacher does just usual math,  that usual math is not usual by others. Knowing and connecting to individual students are essential to create an inclusive class culture and get them involved. Torazo 

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All of us have own culture, even in a math class, and these cultures give huge impact, but we tend to forget that. If a teacher does just usual math,  that usual math is not usual by others. Knowing and connecting to individual students are essential to create an inclusive class culture and get them involved. Torazo 

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CRP is critical perspectives to apply in the classroom. This helps with student engagement as they are able to relate to content. To successfully do this you need to know your own positionality to better help your students. Understanding your own philosophies allows you to grow as an educator, as teachers we are in a position of constant growth, learning from students and learning ever changing curriculum. CRP embraces culturally diverse classrooms and allows students of all backgrounds to approach the content in a way that works for them. - Hope Miller

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Positionality is extremely important in a teacher's first attempt into successfully incorporating CRP into a classroom environment. Failure to understand your own biases might allow an inappropriate implementation of culture in an attempt to include culture. In other words, culture appropriation. This is extremely dangerous as misconstruing aspects of culture will not only alienate minorities, but possibly offend them; thus hurting your relationship and ability to teach them. Such critiques require an introspective reflection and a thorough understanding of other cultures to more realistically create an inclusive environment.
-Justin Vu

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Disclosing one's own bias and allowing others to know is an important first step as Ladson Billings understands with her own ideals about CRT and how it affects urban youth education. Allowing others to show their own biases is important to have a more thoughtful discussion. This extends to the classroom with interaction with students - Bryan Alonso

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Disclosing one's own bias and allowing others to know is an important first step as Ladson Billings understands with her own ideals about CRT and how it affects urban youth education. Allowing others to show their own biases is important to have a more thoughtful discussion. This extends to the classroom with interaction with students - Bryan Alonso

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I think that validating your own culture in the classroom while also doing the same for your students is important. Bring into the class discussion who you are a person as well as the students makes the class feel more human. A connection is made allowing students to feel valued and makes it so students know something that pertains to the discussion without necessarily knowing the math, in my case.

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These kinds of lessons are a great way to bring meaning to what students are learning in the classrooms. Students should be encouraged to learn and explore other cultures that may be different from their own. Teachers should be sure to encourage and celebrate diversity in the classroom. As teachers we want to create a safe learning environment where students feel valued and seen. Students may also feel more motivated to engage with educational content when they see that they are going to learn about a topic that may be culturally relevant. - Daniel Pardo

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CRPs are principles that allow teachers to use cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and cultural resources to engage students in the curriculum and teach students knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that prepare them for success in a multitude of diverse communities. In order to do this, teachers must be conscience of their own biases in order to not act on them in the classroom. Cultural competence is key in order to mitigate our own biases about other cultures in our communities. It is important to include culture into our lessons in order to teach students about other cultures so that we may celebrate our differences and create a more equitable learning environment for all our students. - Bijan Afghani

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Christina Meade: In the reading by Geneva Gay there is a big focus on the descriptive characteristics of Culturally Responsive Teaching. Gay discusses these 6 characteristics that we talked about during today's lecture. I feel that the principle that "Culturally Responsive Teaching is Validating" is extremely important to take into account as a teacher because this idea allows for teaching both TO and THROUGH the strengths of diverse students. This is important because by validating our students, we may be able to create a caring and empowering learning environment within the classroom. 

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Christina Meade: In the reading by Geneva Gay there is a big focus on the descriptive characteristics of Culturally Responsive Teaching. Gay discusses these 6 characteristics that we talked about during today's lecture. I feel that the principle that "Culturally Responsive Teaching is Validating" is extremely important to take into account as a teacher because this idea allows for teaching both TO and THROUGH the strengths of diverse students. This is important because by validating our students, we may be able to create a caring and empowering learning environment within the classroom. 

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I think that having culturally responsive principles and knowing how to apply them within the classroom is very essential in order for students to feel related or part of. One example I can think of is understanding your own philosophical positionality and knowing how to correctly deliver it to your students for them to grow and be empowered. - Nereyda S

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In History classes, the opportunities to discover cultures and be appreciative of other's own cultural agency is strong that it's important to host these class discussions safely with students. Especially with students of other ethnicities that may not be a demographics majority in the school's area, it's important to help students understand and be accepting of everyone. -Kennedy

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As a white woman and after working on our first reflection assignment, I feel I have a better understanding of my own biases and how I can use them as tools rather than deficits. With that said, CRP's will help me establish principles for my class lessons while also giving me space to self-reflect as an educator and become more aware. Learning is life-long and requires adaptation, patience, and understanding. A CRP principle that stood out to me was "empowering" students, because if the students do not believe in themselves, who will? As a teacher we can only do so much, therefore empowering our students will give them the courage to make change in their communities and show them that their voice matters in and outside of the classroom. - Maggie Brown

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It is necessary to recognize ones own positionally and biases. This allows you to self moderate and adjust in a way that aligns with CRP. From there students will be able to relate to the content of the class and that will encouraged them to be engaged. If a teacher does not regulate there biases they will alienate the students. - Jeffrey Majoros

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As an educator it is important you have an open mind and accepting of the community that you will work in. This will allow you to understand cultural differences and look beyond those differences. Being aware is important because it will allow to develop lesson plans that be inclusive to everyone in your class. Being culturally responsive will also allow you to be productive with your student families.

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The CRP discusses how each person has to be aware of their own cultural identity and to know the differences about them. As a teacher we have to guide our students to find and be aware of their cultural identity. As a teacher we have to build upon the different cultures our students have into our classroom. Not only that but we have to be aware of our own culture and the biases that come with it. Acknowledging our culture and our student's culture can help us create culturally responsive lessons that students can fully relate to. Victor Salazar

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As a future math teacher, I find it hard sometimes to bring in culture first hand in a classroom because of the content itself. Sometimes we forget about other important aspects that is important to our students. What is helpful is that CRP talks about how we as teachers need to incorporate using student's experiences, interest, characteristics, etc.. into the classroom to enhance the learning.  This starts by reflecting our own bias and experience, so that we know what influences what and how we teach. These can help us connect and bond with our students and their families. -Jeralyn

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As future educators, we need to understand that all of our students will have different backgrounds and cultures. We need to take the time to understand that because of our students' cultures, they may behave in certain ways. An example given in the reason is eye contact. In some cultures, eye contact is a sign of respect, but in others, it is considered disrespectful to look an adult in the eyes. We need to be able to accept and help our students embrace their own cultures even if it is different than our own. 

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As future educators, we need to understand that all of our students will have different backgrounds and cultures. We need to take the time to understand that because of our students' cultures, they may behave in certain ways. An example given in the reason is eye contact. In some cultures, eye contact is a sign of respect, but in others, it is considered disrespectful to look an adult in the eyes. We need to be able to accept and help our students embrace their own cultures even if it is different than our own. 

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Wendy

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https://education.uw.edu/people/faculty/jbanks/multicultural-ed-series

https://education.uw.edu/people/faculty/jbanks/books

https://intime.uni.edu/four-approaches-multicultural-curriculum-reform

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Reflecting back on my own educational experiences I learned about celebrated figures such as Martin Luther King Jr.s’ Letter From Birmingham Jail in my sophomore English class and read The Color of Water. Both readings inspired me and created a sense of pride, being that I am a descendant of the African slave trade. These examples of exceptionalism create the metanarrative for people of color. A sense that we are always reaching for freedoms and fighting injustice. Instead of telling stories of joy and prosperity like in the ancient world, folklore today that continues to provide a cultural reference and motivation towards surviving in a world that isn’t always kind. The idea of multicultural education is vast and full of opportunities for connection. It’s the approach that requires experience and repitoire with students and families from diverse backgrounds that determine how you teach a culturally responsive curriculum.

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Reflection on CRP Teaching Principles - Rishica Venkatesh

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Reflection on CRP Teaching Principles - Rishica Venkatesh

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After reading Geneva Gay's text, I came to understand that culturally responsive teaching involves using one's own cultural frames of reference to modify both the curriculum content and teaching strategies, with the goal to make the content more relevant and easier for students to comprehend. By lowering our barriers and spending a moment to understand our students' backgrounds, we can create an inclusive environment and validate our students' opinions, values, and beliefs. A student thrives when they feel that they are being seen, heard and understood. The least we can do as educators is be conscious of our own biases and "create infrastructures to support the efforts of students" (Gay 2018). We need to create lessons that cater to different types of learners, acknowledge the differences of various ethnic groups, and incorporate multicultural information and resources in our classroom.

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Banks is one of the pioneers of multicultural education, and has written several articles/books on the subject. I am adding links to follow-up on the topic. http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/curriculum/steps.html

Stages:
Additive (adding MCE to content),
Contributions (the most common approach-it focuses on Holidays and Heroes),
Social Change ( curriculum designed to develop change agent)
Transformative (Reconstructing curriculum to prepare socially  conscious-anti racism approaches)

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Stages of Multicultural Curriculum Transformation
Just as there are several conceptualizations for multicultural education (see Defining Multicultural Education), there are several perceptions as to what constitutes multicultural curriculum transformation. Approaches for multicultural curriculum transformation range from slight curricular changes to a fully-revised social awareness and action conceptualizations. James Banks (1993), Peggy McIntosh (2000) and others have formulated continuums for curricular reform that help move transformation efforts from the former toward the latter.
The following stages of curriculum transformation have been adapted from several existing models including those by Banks (1993) and McIntosh (2000).

Stage 1: Curriculum of the Mainstream
The curriculum of the mainstream is Eurocentric and male-centric. It ignores fully the experiences, voices, contributions, and perspectives of non-dominant individuals and groups in all subject areas. At this stage, all educational materials, including textbooks, films, and other teaching and learning tools, present information in a Eurocentric, male-centric way. This stage is harmful both for students who identify with dominant culture and those from non-dominant groups. It has negative consequences for the former because, according to Banks (1993), it:

reinforces their false sense of superiority, gives them a misleading conception of their relationship with other racial and ethnic groups, and denies them the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge, perspectives, and frames of reference that can be gained from studying and experiencing other cultures and groups (p. 195).

The curriculum of the mainstream has negative consequences for students from non-dominant groups, as well, failing to validate their identities, experiences, and perspectives. According to Banks (1993), it further alienates students who already struggle to survive in a school culture that differs so greatly from their home cultures.

Stage 2: Heroes and Holidays
Teachers at this stage "celebrate" difference by integrating information or resources about famous people and the cultural artifacts of various groups into the mainstream curriculum. Bulletin boards might contain pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks, and teachers might plan special celebrations for Black History Month or Women's History Month. Student learning about "other cultures" focuses on costumes, foods, music, and other tangible cultural items.

The strengths of this stage are that the teacher is attempting to diversify the curriculum by providing materials and knowledge outside the dominant culture and that the Heroes and Holidays approach is fairly easy to implement. Still, the weaknesses heavily outweigh the strengths:

By focusing celebratory attention on non-dominant groups outside the context of the rest of the curriculum, the teacher is further defining these groups as "the other."

Curricula at this stage fail to address the real experiences of non-dominant groups, instead focusing on the accomplishments of a few heroic characters. Students may learn to consider the struggles of non-dominant groups as "extra" information instead of important knowledge in their overall understandings of the world.

The special celebrations at this stage often are used to justify the lack of effort at more authentic transformative measures.

The Heroes and Holidays approach trivializes the overall experiences, contributions, struggles, and voices of non-dominant groups, consistent with a Eurocentric, male-centric curriculum.

Stage 3: Integration
At the Integration stage, teachers transcend heroes and holidays, adding substantial materials and knowledge about non-dominant groups to the curriculum. The teacher might add to her or his collection of books those by authors of color or by women. She or he might add a unit which covers, for example, the role of women in World War I. A music teacher might add slave hymns or songs from Africa to her or his repetoire. At the school level, a course on African American History might be added to course offerings.

The strengths of the Intergration stage are that it transcends special celebrations to deal with real issues and concepts and that it more closely ties diverse material into the rest of the curriculum. But many weaknesses remain:

New materials and units become secondary resources and knowledge as textbooks and the meat of the curriculum remain based on a Eurocentric, male-centric orientation (Banks, 1993).

New information is still delivered from a Eurocentric, male-centric perspective. For example, the story of Manifest Destiny is still told only from a European point of view.

Stage 4: Structural Reform
New materials, perspectives, and voices are woven seamlessly with current frameworks of knowledge to provide new levels of understanding from a more complete and accurate curriculum. The teacher dedicates her- or himself to continuously expanding her or his knowledge base through the exploration of various sources from various perspectives, and sharing that knowledge with her or his students. Students learn to view events, concepts, and facts through various lenses. "American History" includes African American History, Women's History, Asian American History, Latino American History, and all other previously differentiated fields of knowledge.

Stage 5: Multicultural, Social Action, and Awareness
In addition to the changes made in the Structural Reform stage, important social issues, including racism, sexism, and economic injustice, are addressed explicitly as part of the curriculum. The voices, ideas, and perspectives of the students regarding these and all other topics are brought to the fore in the learning experience -- the students themselves becoming yet another multicultural classroom resource. The textbook is viewed as a single perspective among many, and the relevance of its limitations, along with those of other educational media, are explored and discussed.

Banks, J. (1993). Approaches to multicultural curriculum reform. In J. Banks and C. Banks (Eds.), Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

McIntosh, P. (2000). Interactive phases of personal and curricular re-vision with regard to race. In G. Shin and P. Gorski (Eds.), Multicultural resource series: Professional development for educators. Washington, D.C.: National Education Association.

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Multicultural Education - Stages of Multicultural Curriculum Transformation

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Just as there are several conceptualizations for multicultural education (see Defining Multicultural Education), there are several perceptions as to what constitutes multicultural curriculum transformation. Approaches for multicultural curriculum transformation range from slight curricular changes to a fully-revised social awareness and action conceptualizations.

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I come from a conservative Latino background so that comes with its own values that lies in with machismo, religion, and family values, as well as (un)conscience colorism that has Eurocentric values that contain biases against non-white and non-christian/catholic people. Being raised in that type of home stereotyped many groups, and created biases about all people that I don’t want to thoughtlessly assume. This starts by actively listening to everyone’s diverse experiences, and ensuring students are heard in the spaces they learn in. A part of my philosophy wants to encourage a student’s voice by being an active member of their communities, ie. in the classroom students would be involved in constructing class regulations and collaborate when performing duties like passing out tools or cleaning up shared spaces at the end of class.

Through observations, I’ve come to see how personal students become with teachers, they share personal information about their identities and background with hope of not being ridiculed or disregarded. I’d like to create a space where students have the assurance to represent themselves, and the self-efficacy in their academics. Teachers can take their students into consideration by adding real world resources to the curriculum. If a teacher can get students engaged in the lessons, and personally invested in the work they produce, it can partly help with the classroom management aspect.

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Culturally responsive teaching is key to making the learning of a classroom feel more relevant to them, making it more likely for students to pay attention. One principal that applies the most to me as a math teacher would validating. Validating is done inside of a math classroom for example by analyzing graphs with real statistics. One actual example I feel could have a true impact is looking at student body population percentages. If we put into perspective how large groups are we can possibly focus on empowering that  group. As for empowerment of these cultures, we can create lessons that highlight the success stories of these communities. The fact is that we as teachers need to make students feel motivated. By doing this we get more retention and students that feel like their education is worth more.
-Emmanuel Anceno

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As an educator it is imperative to recognize and reflect upon one's positionality, and how it can effect the classroom. Remembering that the way I teach, the content I provide, and the interactions I have with students will always be effected by my personal experiences and culture. I want to educate myself on my students personalities and culture so that I can become more open and accepting, while also showing them that I'm genuinely interested in them and want to show them respect. - Gisele Ellis, #015891562