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How to Support Young Learners in Racially Diverse Classrooms

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How to Support Young Learners in Racially Diverse Classrooms

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Read this article from Edutopia to learn about age-appropriate and research-based strategies teachers can use to create learning environments that respect and value students' racial diversity and lived experiences.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

Teachers may be hesitant to discuss race with young kids, but these research-backed, age-appropriate strategies can help.

Conversations about multicultural education, antiracism, and antibias are becoming more prevalent within educational communities. However, there may be hesitation and confusion about whether and how to create a classroom community that is supportive of children from racially diverse backgrounds-particularly ones who are younger.

In early childhood, educators may approach racial diversity and race-related issues from a color-blind philosophy or believe that young children are unable to understand issues of race due to their age. These approaches not only are dismissive of children and families' experiences but also create an inaccurate portrayal of history and current events. Additionally, color-blind approach is an ableist term that equates actual medical blindness with ignorance and implies that racism is only connected to sight and negates the structural and day-to-day issues associated with racism.

As a result, educators should intentionally create a learning environment that respects and values racial diversity while addressing students' experiences and the historical issues that shape those experiences. Here are five research-based approaches that early childhood educators can use.

Reflect on Who You Are and Your Experiences With Race

In order to create a learning environment that authentically supports racial diversity, educators can start with self-reflection. Understanding oneself will reveal educators' feelings, thoughts, and attitudes about race and how they influence interactions and expectations with students.

Remember Intersectionality

In addition to race, many children and families may experience other forms of discrimination and oppression when they belong to multiple identity groups simultaneously, such as gender, class, ability, language, or sexual orientation. Children may be blamed for problems or experience erasure because of their multiple identities. Therefore, creating learning environments that are supportive of racial diversity should also be inclusive of children's multiple identities. You can use resources like Photovoice, films, and texts to encourage students to reflect on the experiences of children and families with intersectional identities and think of ways they can be supported.

Discover Something to Love About Each Student

Even though children come from different racial and ethnic communities, it's important to balance that with recognizing students individually. To build learning environments that affirm and acknowledge racial diversity and intersectional identities, educators should discover something to love about each child in the classroom. This love and connection can develop through visiting the children's homes, meeting with families and community members, or interacting during recess or outdoor activities.

Avoid Tokenism

Educators should avoid doing one-off projects that reinforce stereotypes about different groups of people. Educators may incorporate activities and lessons that expose students to historical knowledge about people from a variety of racial and ethnic groups, the oppression experienced by people of different racial and ethnic groups, and the ways in which different groups have historically and currently contributed to national culture and society. When doing this, it's valuable to not position one or two well-known individuals as representative of their entire cultural community.

Build Bridges

Educators can implement activities that specifically address race-related topics or conversations. Students can read books that feature characters of different skin tones, then have a conversation about the importance of making friends with people from different backgrounds.

They can also make self-portraits by mixing paint colors or using crayons that match the children's skin tones. In this activity, children can see variation within their own and possibly other racial groups. This also may be a chance for students to observe colors associated with racial groups, like white, and notice if there are students who match that skin tone that may identify as White. For classes that are conducted virtually, students can use online painting tools.

When educators start with understanding themselves and then expand that to understanding the experiences of others, they can intentionally cultivate a learning environment that honors racial and intersectional diversity within the classroom and the larger society. It is not a practice that has an end result; rather, it's a process that requires consistent reflection, learning, and growth.

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How to Support Young Learners in Racially Diverse Classrooms

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Teachers may be hesitant to discuss race with young kids, but these research-backed, age-appropriate strategies can help.

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Check out this lesson plan from Australia's Harmony Week, which aims to celebrate multiculturalism through recognizing diversity and inclusion within our communities and helping students to understand the difference between race, ethnicity, and culture.

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Understanding concepts: reading, recording and reassessing - Students are introduced to these concepts and how they differ from each other, then apply them to their own experiences.

Aims

To help students differentiate between the concepts of culture, race and ethnicity.

Preparation

Copies of the definitions and questions sheets for students.

Butchers' paper and felt pens.

What to do

1. Prior to distributing the sheets, divide the class into three groups and allocate one of the concepts to each group.

2. Have students brainstorm words and phrases associated with their concept and record on butchers' paper.

3. Ask a representative from each group to present their ideas to the whole class.

4. Hand out the definitions sheet and work through the definitions with the class.

5. Review each of the brainstorming sheets in terms of these definitions.

6. Hand out the questions sheet and have students complete them and compare with classmates.

Culture, Race & Ethnicity definitions

These concepts are complex and are often confused or thought to mean the same thing - but they do not. Many different definitions of these terms exist, and the following are examples:

Culture

Culture is not about superficial group differences or just a way to label a group of people.

It is an abstract concept.

It is diverse, dynamic and ever-changing.

It is the shared system of learned and shared values, beliefs and rules of conduct that make people behave in a certain way.

It is the standard for perceiving, believing, evaluating and acting.

Not everyone knows everything about their own culture.

Race

The term 'race' is not appropriate when applied to national, religious, geographic, linguistic or ethnic groups. Race does not relate to mental characteristics such as intelligence, personality or character.

Race is a term applied to people purely because of the way they look.

It is considered by many to be predominantly a social construct.

It is difficult to say a person belongs to a specific race because there are so many variations such as skin colour.

All human groups belong to the same species (Homosapiens).

Ethnicity

Ethnicity is a sense of peoplehood, when people feel close because of sharing a similarity. It is when you share the same things, for example:

physical characteristics such as skin colour or bloodline,

linguistic characteristics such as language or dialect,

behavioural or cultural characteristics such as religion or customs or

environmental characteristics such as living in the same area or sharing the same place of origin.

Culture, Race & Ethnicity questions

1. How does culture define who a person is?

2. What is your culture?

3. Is this the same as your ethnicity?

4. What is a common belief about race and how is it untrue?

5. Identify some stereotypes you know of about a particular group of people.

6. List some of your values, beliefs and customs (3 of each).

7. What are some of the things from your culture that you are proud of?

8. What are some of the things about your culture that you don't like?

9. How would you describe Australian culture?

10. What are some cultural issues in Australia today?

The observable aspects of culture such as food, clothing, celebrations, religion and language are only part of a person's cultural heritage. These things make up how you live and what makes you accepted in society.

Fill in the table below with information about your own culture. Compare your information with that of your classmates.

Adapted from a Living in Harmony Funded Project, 'Culture & Colour', Northern Beaches Neighbourhood Service, NSW, 2005

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Harmony Week is the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds.

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This resource from Mission: Gender Equality includes a unit on Gender Equality made up of 5 different learning activities for 11-14 year old students. The objective of this lessons is to inform student about gender equality, its causes/consequences, and steps they can take to promote change.

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Check out the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization statement about gender equality in education, as well as, the various teacher resources such as training modules, comics, infographics, and videos for promoting gender equality in early childhood, primary and secondary education.

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SDG Resources for Educators - Gender Equality

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Gender Equality is a principle that states that all men and women need to be treated equally and to have the same rights despite their biological differences. These should not prevent them from having the same opportunities to succeed in school and in life.

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Providing a Daily Support Systems for Students

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Providing a Daily Support Systems for Students

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Watch this video to see how the Check-In/Check-Out system can help to provide at-risk students with consistent support, opportunities to set social and emotional goals, and space to build positive relationships.

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Check-In / Check-Out: Providing a Daily Support System for Students

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Read this Social Emotional Learning piece to learn about the key "ingredients" in the "recipe" for reducing risk in students' lives.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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5 Ways Teachers Can Address Socioeconomic Gaps in the Classroom

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5 Ways Teachers Can Address Socioeconomic Gaps in the Classroom

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This blog shares an educator's experience teaching in a low-income school located in an impoverished area, research supported insights that she has gathered , and 5 techniques effective for best support students from diverse socioeconomic statuses in the classroom.

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5 Ways Teachers Can Address Socioeconomic Gaps in the Classroom - Social Studies

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For my first permanent teaching position, I was lucky enough to fill a history position at a small K-8 school in a rural community.

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Read this article outlining socioeconomic status (SES) and its impact on student learning to discover ample examples of active and inclusive teaching methods, further recommendations for implementation, and additional resources.

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Examples

An instructor includes classroom policies in the syllabus that underscore respect, attentive listening, civil dialogue, honesty, and patience, regardless of background or appearance. The instructor addresses these policies on the first day, emphasizing that human worth informs intellectual exploration in class.

A mathematics instructor actively includes a diversity statement in her syllabus which acknowledges the various SES of students in class and reaffirms the value of diverse experiences for the learning environment.

A philosophy instructor provides pop-cultural examples and various revisions and representations to clarify sections of a dense philosophy text.

Rather than hold voluntary office-hour meetings which low SES students often avoid, a biology instructor requires one-on-one meetings with each student to discuss learning progress and personalized strategies for improvement.

Rather than assume students know how to succeed in the course, an art history instructor establishes clear class-participation norms, states explicit assessment expectations, and provides recommended resources/steps to improve performance.

Rather than ignore SES, a psychology instructor reminds students to measure, report and control for SES in research activities related to academic achievement.

A sociology instructor encourages students to contribute to the body of research on the educational and societal barriers experienced by students from various SES communities and the impact of these barriers on academic achievement and psychological well-being.

An English instructor allows for multiple paper rewrites and resubmissions so that students can focus on developing their writing skills.

Recommendations

Establish an Open Door Policy - Instructors can explicitly state, in class policies and in class, their willingness to support student learning outside of class. Instructors may structure out-of-class and in-class time to work with students, offer open office hours, or require students to meet at least once in office hours to make individual connections and affirm their commitment to each student's growth.

Variegate Representation - For many disciplines that involve the study, thought, or expression of human beings (history, English, philosophy, anthropology), traditional or canonical bodies of text and practice can remain culturally or economically homogenous while continuing to hold sway in the discipline. Instructors can integrate diverse cultures and peoples into curriculum content, ensuring that a variety of perspectives and representations are available in readings, case studies, and class examples. This approach can help all students recognize and imagine themselves within course content.

Variegate Difficulty - Instructors can consider offering popular, simplified, and varied language to explain important concepts. While learning styles have been proven to be a popular myth, offering several approaches to difficult content can improve student comprehension while meeting various levels of SES and academic preparedness.

Clarify Grading Expectations - Instructors can make expectations for performance, grading, and assessment clear in the syllabus, on the first day of class, and throughout term, by covering the syllabus and classroom policies, providing a rubric, and mixing formative and summative assessments. Doing so can obviate usual student complaints, while illuminating academic procedure for less familiar students.

Clarify Classroom Expectations - In addition to covering syllabus and classroom policies (see first bullet point), instructors can emphasize respect and the value of all earnest student opinion and commentary by moderating effective class discussion. Effective expectations and moderation protect all variety of student comments, from the "simple" to the "overly complicated," while helping all students improve their reasoning and articulation. A set of modules from Harvard's Instructional Moves provides techniques for responding to student comments.

Promote Collaborative Work - Instructors can activate diverse perspectives and experiences in class by staging collaborative projects and activities that get students engaging with each other. Group work, case studies, and team-based learning all provide opportunities for students to learn from each other via the zone of proximal development, to practice communication, and to consider other perspectives from their own.

Protect Emotion - Instructors can consider how to incorporate students' personal responses into course discussions. This tactic enables student honesty, reveals valuable insight, and enriches academic discussion with personal experience. Reading logs, reflective essays, careful moderation, and turn-based presentation can invite and protect individual student responses to class discussion.

Additional Resources

Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. (2012). Effective teaching and support of students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds: Practical advice for teaching staff.

Devlin M and O'Shea H. (2011). Teaching students from low socioeconomic backgrounds: A brief guide for University teaching staff. Higher Education Research Group (HERG) Deakin University.

References

American Psychological Association. Education and Socioeconomic Status.

Spencer B. and Castano E. (2007). Social Class is Dead. Long Live Social Class! Stereotype Threat among Low Socioeconomic Status Individuals. Social Justice Research 20(4): 418-432.

Stephens N., Hamedani M., and Destin M. (2014). Closing the Social-Class Achievement Gap: A Difference-Education Intervention Improves First-Generation Students' Academic Performance and All Students' College Transition. Psychological Science.

Yee A. (2016). The Unwritten Rules Of Engagement: Social Class Differences in Undergraduates' Academic Strategies. The Journal of Higher Education 87(6): 831-858.

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Examples An instructor includes classroom policies in the syllabus that underscore respect, attentive listening, civil dialogue, honesty, and patience, regardless of background or appearance. The instructor addresses these policies on the first day, emphasizing that human worth informs intellectual exploration in class.

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Effective Teaching Strategies for Students with LD

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Effective Teaching Strategies for Students with LD

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Read the National Association of Special Education Teacher's e-publication that focusses on research, writing, and practical information on teaching strategies to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities.

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Embracing Language and Cultural Diversity in the Classroom

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Embracing Language and Cultural Diversity in the Classroom

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This blog shares a teacher's personal experience as a bilingual student with a different cultural than her teacher, how this experience has informed her teaching practices, and 10 tips for teachers to help better support English-language learners in their classrooms.

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10 Tips for Embracing Language & Cultural Diversity in the Classroom

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Whether a child is learning English for the first time in the preschool setting or using various levels of English proficiency, teachers need to be intentional as they create a positive, inclusive environment in which all children can learn and thrive.

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Read the California Department of Education's professional learning series titled Educator Excellence article on culturally and linguistically responsive teaching, which outlines what it is, why it is necessary, and additional resources educators can use to implement it their teaching practices.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching is an approach that leverages the strengths that students of color bring to the classroom to make learning more relevant and effective. A major goal of Culturally Responsive Teaching is to reverse patterns of underachievement for students of color. Culturally Responsive Teaching requires teachers to recognize the cultural capital and tools that students of color bring to the classroom and to utilize their students' cultural learning tools throughout instruction.

Although Culturally Responsive Teaching is inclusive of working with students from diverse home language groups, linguistically responsive teaching is called out in Sharroky Hollie's book, Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning (2017). Its essence also lies in viewing students with home languages (other than Standard English) as assets that they bring to the classroom rather than deficits.

Principle one of California's English Learner Roadmap expresses the needs for culturally and linguistically relevant education stating, "The languages and cultures English learners bring to their education are assets for their own learning and are important contributions to learning communities."

Drawing on extensive Culturally Responsive Teaching research, New America in their article "Culturally Responsive Teaching: A 50-State Survey of Teaching Standards" (PDF) , cites eight competencies that culturally responsive educators possess:

Competency

Description

1. Reflect on one's cultural lens

Culturally Responsive Educators (CREs) are reflective about their own group memberships that may be based on race, ethnicity, social class, and/or gender. They are cognizant that their life experiences and those group memberships may create biases that can influence their interactions with students, families, and colleagues.

2. Recognize and redress bias in the system

CREs recognize that their students' access to educational opportunities may be influenced by their social markers (e.g., race, ethnicity, social class and language) and advocate for all students to have access to high-quality teachers and schools.

3. Draw on students' culture to shape curriculum and instruction

CREs draw on their students' cultures and life experiences when planning their instruction and reject instructional materials that contain cultural biases and/or stereotypes. They supplement the curriculum if it lacks the representation of their students' heritage.

4. Bring real-world issues into the classroom

CREs connect their curriculum to real-world problems and ask students to consider solutions to them. These issues may involve injustices that exist in their communities or nationwide. Through this process, CREs empower their students to see themselves as change agents that can right the injustices that exist in the world.

5. Model high expectations for all students

CREs hold high academic expectations for all students and believe that all students are capable of academic success.

6. Promote respect for student differences

CREs are models for how all students should respect one another and embrace their fellow classmate's social, cultural, and linguistic differences.

7. Collaborate with families and the local community

CREs work to break down barriers that may keep students' families from participating in their children's education (i.e., work schedules, language barriers). CREs make efforts to learn about the families and community in which they teach.

8. Communicate in linguistically and culturally responsive ways

CREs understand and honor both the verbal and nonverbal culturally-influenced communication styles of the community in which they teach. They also seek to communicate with parents that speak a home language other than English by utilizing translation services.

Resources
California's English Learner Roadmap Principles Overview
Geneva Gay, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice, Teachers College Press (2000).

Jenny Muñiz, "The 'Rigor Gap' Affects English Learners, New Study Finds" , New America (2019), accessed October 2019.

Jenny Muñiz, "Culturally Responsive Teaching A 50-State Survey of Teaching Standards" (PDF) , New America (2019), accessed October 2019.

Sharroky Hollie, Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning-Classroom Practices for Student Success, Shell Education (2017).

Zaretta Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, Corwin (2015).

Questions: Teacher and Leader Policy Office | TLPO@cde.ca.gov | 916-445-7331

Last Reviewed: Thursday, March 9, 2023

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Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching leverages and utilizes the cultural learning tools that students bring to the classroom.

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Digital Equity in Vancouver Public Schools (WA) 

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Digital Equity in Vancouver Public Schools (WA) 

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Watch this video to see how Vancouver Public Schools (WA) prioritize digital inclusion in their instruction, school framework, and student learning experiences. It highlights various ways teachers can increase digital inclusion in their classrooms and ways that districts can work to close the digital divide.

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CoSN 2019 Digital Equity Award Winner - Vancouver Public Schools (WA)

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Digital Inclusion as a Core Component of Social Inclusion

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Digital Inclusion as a Core Component of Social Inclusion

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Read the attached research to learn more about digital inclusion initiatives around the world, their target audiences, and analysis of initiative outcomes. This collection includes many ideas of action steps schools and organizations can take to advance digital inclusion.

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Inclusive Practices Establishing a Supportive School Culture for All Learners

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Inclusive Practices Establishing a Supportive School Culture for All Learners

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Watch this video from the IEP Technical Assistance Center to learn more about research promoting inclusive environments, ways to establish and encourage equitable access for all students, and pragmatic strategies to support the success of all students.

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Inclusive Practices  Establishing a Supportive School Culture for All Learners