
5 Ways Culturally Responsive Teaching Benefits Learners
- Facilitating brain processing. Previous studies have found that drawing from students’ cultural knowledge and norms...
- Motivating and engaging students. Culturally responsive teachers connect academic concepts to the everyday lives of...
- Cultivating critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Research on...
Full Answer
Why is culturally responsive teaching needs to be used?
This requires teachers to raise their awareness of their students’ cultural background, including the sociopolitical and historical contexts of their communities. Most importantly, culturally responsive teaching recognizes that students need to feel safe—socially, emotionally and intellectually—in order to engage in rigorous learning.
How does culture affect teaching?
study your students
- Determine if a student approaches situations analytically or holistically using pictures. Does the student analyze the context or the objects first?
- Does your student value the group opinion or her own opinion?
- Does your student place more of an importance on tasks at hand or the relationships associated with the tasks?
What does culturally responsive teaching look like?
Culturally Responsive Teaching: Building Real and Relevant Relationships with Diverse Students and Each Other FeaturingIgnacio Lopez November 3, 2021 9:00 - 3:00 5 PD Hours Live in-personor Virtual andRecorded until Jan 15, 2022 Free Parking, Continental Breakfast & Executive Box Lunch As teachers and leaders see the enactment of social-emotional intelligence in schools they are also running ...
What is 'culturally competent' teaching?
cultural competence as “the ability to success-fully teach students who come from cultures other than our own.” 2 Cultural competence involves interpersonal awareness, cultural knowledge, and a skill set that together promotes impactful cross-cultural teaching. The Case for Cultural Competence The K–12 population in the United States is trans-

How does culturally responsive instruction benefit students?
5 Ways Culturally Responsive Teaching Benefits LearnersFacilitating brain processing. ... Motivating and engaging students. ... Cultivating critical thinking and problem-solving skills. ... Strengthening students' racial and ethnic identities. ... Promoting a sense of safety and belonging.
Why is culturally responsive education important?
Since CRT focuses on inclusive curriculums, it helps teachers and students understand different perspectives, appreciate each other's strengths, and build empathy. It also helps teachers to introspect how their own identity and experiences impact their attitudes and teaching practices.
What are 3 characteristics of culturally responsive teaching?
These four practices are: (1) that teachers are empathetic and caring; (2) that they are reflective about their beliefs about people from other cultures; (3) that they are reflective about their own cultural frames of reference; and (4) that they are knowledgeable about other cultures.
Why is it important to understand the cultural backgrounds strengths and needs of your students when developing appropriate learning goals?
Studying and understanding different cultures allow the teacher to better understand why the child reacts and interacts in a school structure the way they do. Becoming culturally competent begins with honestly looking at one's own biases and prejudices and is an important goal for all teachers.
Why is it important for students to learn about other cultures?
Students Feel More Confident and Safe Students who learn about different cultures during their education feel more comfortable and safe with these differences later in life. This allows them to interact in a wider range of social groups and feel more confident in themselves as well as in their interactions with others.
Why is responsive classroom important?
“The Responsive Classroom approach provides prime evidence that social and emotional teaching strategies, when well constructed, lead to improved classroom behavior and academic growth.” Students learn best when their classrooms are places where they feel safe, challenged, and joyful— places that free them to learn.
How do you promote culturally responsive teaching?
5 Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for EducatorsActivate students' prior knowledge. ... Make learning contextual. ... Encourage students to leverage their cultural capital. ... Reconsider your classroom setup. ... Build relationships.
What does it mean to be culturally responsive in the classroom?
Culturally responsive teaching is: using students' cultural experiences in daily instruction. embracing native language and students' families as assets. creating a classroom environment that represents and respects all students. communicating clear high expectations for everyone.
What is the core of culturally responsive teaching?
Students should be taught to value and affirm their culture of origin while also developing fluency in at least one other culture. culturally responsive teaching: a pedagogy that uses students' customs, characteristics, experiences, and perspectives as tools for better classroom instruction.
How does culture influence education?
The values that the school transmits can be seen as the culture of the society. It is culture that forms the content of education. In promoting culture therefore, the school curriculum through the various subjects promotes and enhances the learning of culture.
Why is it important to address student diversity in a classroom?
Students in a classroom come from different backgrounds. Therefore, they have different cultures, languages, and learning abilities. A teacher's ai...
What is culturally responsive instruction?
It is how teachers respond to the cultural diversity of students while giving instructions in the classroom.
How can teachers be more culturally responsive?
Teachers can be culturally more responsive by removing their biases, which, intentionally or unintentionally, becomes a part of their personality i...
Why is there so much emphasis on reducing the gap among groups of students?
There was a growing feeling in the society that the traditional system of schooling was not addressing the needs of students, who did not fit into...
What is Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Simply put, Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is a research-based approach to teaching, which connects students’ cultures, languages, and life experiences with their learning in schools.
Why is culturally responsive teaching important?
While teaching in a classroom, you must have noticed that one student answers a question the way he/she does, while the other does not feel comfortable looking into your eyes while answering the same.
How does culturally responsive teaching benefit stakeholders?
1. With the help of CRT, teachers can identify the strengths and weaknesses of students and develop their own mechanisms to engage with them effectively. Since the concept is inclusive in nature, it works better for talented but underprivileged students.
How to apply culturally responsive teaching in the classroom?
The first step in being culturally responsive is to assess yourself, as we all often develop biases in our lives.
In a nutshell
It has been seen that CRT helps bridge the gap between teachers and students. It not only improves the success rate of students but also fosters positive relationships between parents and teachers, hence improving the overall education system.
Why is it important to address student diversity in a classroom?
Students in a classroom come from different backgrounds. Therefore, they have different cultures, languages, and learning abilities. A teacher’s aim should be that all students in the classroom achieve at least minimum standards.
What is culturally responsive instruction?
It is how teachers respond to the cultural diversity of students while giving instructions in the classroom.
How to be culturally responsive in a classroom?
Expressing interest in your students’ ethnic and cultural backgrounds is fundamental to creating a culturally responsive classroom. Make sure to learn the correct pronunciation of your students’ names and encourage them to share their family traditions with their classmates. This could be in the form of a family history report where students research their cultural heritage and present what they learn. Or you could take a less formal approach and ask your students to bring one of their family’s favorite foods to share with the class. Remember, you serve as an example. Model what it looks like to appreciate and honor differences.
Why is culturally responsive teaching important?
Culturally responsive teaching helps bridge those gaps by engaging students from underrepresented cultures (which can be informed by everything from race and ethnicity to religion and ability) in the learning process in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them. The benefits of culturally responsive teaching are undeniable.
What is MAT program?
Traci Dennis, director of undergraduate teacher education at American University, the MAT program is designed to prepare culturally responsive teachers who are passionate about equality in education.
What is MAT in teaching?
American University’s Online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program helps students become culturally informed educators. Classes like Effective Teaching for Diverse Students offer opportunities for students to engage in cultural responsiveness training firsthand. Through action research and curriculum design, students explore ways to support diverse learners and learn to understand the roles that family and community play in educational success.
What are some personal biases in the classroom?
These biases (racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic, to name a few) can be hard to recognize, let alone overcome, but addressing them is vital to becoming a culturally responsive teacher.
Why are underrepresented students afraid to ask questions?
In addition, they might be afraid to ask questions and share ideas because they don’t have the English language skills they need to express abstract concepts. Systemic Discrimination: Many underrepresented students have experienced discrimination in schools, hospitals, libraries, and other public spaces.
How to motivate students to excel?
While all students have their own unique strengths and challenges, it’s important that every student is motivated to excel. Make sure your students know that you expect them to engage in lessons, challenge themselves, and achieve at a high level. Unconscious personal bias can cause some teachers to set lower expectations for minority students or assume underperformance is a result of family circumstances, race, or cultural differences. If you notice a student is underperforming, take the time to figure out why. Keep an open mind and implement a personalized intervention strategy to help get him or her back on track.
How can inclusive instruction be beneficial?
Making use of thoughtful, inclusive instruction can have positive effects on students that last far beyond their time in the classroom. Employing culturally responsive teaching strategies is a small step toward enacting meaningful change in education.
How to be culturally responsive in the classroom?
5 Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies for Educators. 1. Activate students’ prior knowledge. Students are not blank slates, Childers-McKee says; they enter the classroom with diverse experiences. Teachers should encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge in order to contribute to group discussions, which provides an anchor to learning.
What is culturally responsive teaching?
Culturally responsive teaching, also called culturally relevant teaching, is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning. Traditional teaching strategies emphasize the teacher-student dynamic: The teacher is the expert and adheres strictly to the curriculum ...
Why did Childers McKees choose a book for her class?
As a teacher, Childers-Mckee’s once chose a book that told the story of a child of migrant workers because some of her students came from an agricultural background.
Why is it important to encourage students who don't have a voice?
Because not all students come from the same background, it’s important to encourage those who don’t to have a voice. Say, for example, you teach an English class that contains ESL students. It’s important to find ways to activate the experiences they do have—their cultural capital, Childers-McKee says.
Why should teachers encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge?
Teachers should encourage students to draw on their prior knowledge in order to contribute to group discussions, which provides an anchor to learning. Taking a different approach to the literature that’s taught in classrooms is one example of this. 2.
Why do not all students want to learn from all teachers?
Not all students want to learn from all teachers because the teachers may not make them feel like they’re valued, Childers-McKee says. Teachers need to work to build relationships with their students to ensure they feel respected, valued, and seen for who they are.
What is culturally relevant teaching?
Culturally relevant teaching is proposed as a powerful method for increasing student achievement and engagement and for reducing achievement gaps. Nevertheless, the research demonstrating its effectiveness consists primarily of case studies of exemplary classrooms. In addition, most of the research fails to take student perspectives into account.
Which hypothesis is associated with better academic outcomes and more positive racial attitudes?
Hypothesis 1: Perceptions of more constructivist teaching practices, cultural engagement, cultural socialization, promotion of cultural competence, support for positive interaction, and critical consciousness socialization would be associated with better academic outcomes and more positive racial attitudes.
Who is Christy Byrd?
Christy M. Byrd is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research explores how positive school climates for diversity (school racial climates) promote academic engagement, cultural competence, and psychological well-being in students.

Facilitating Brain Processing
Motivating and Engaging Students
- Culturally responsive teachers connect academic concepts to the everyday lives of their students, a strategy that makes learning experiences more personally meaningful, engaging, and effective. Research back this idea. For instance, in one study of roughly 1,400 San Francisco high school students, researchers discovered that participating in an ethnic studies course that emphasized …
Cultivating Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills
- Research on culturally responsive teachers reveals that, beyond foregrounding students’ culture in the classroom, these teachers build students’ awareness of social justice issues encountered in their daily lives and communities through rigorous, project-based activities. For example, one case study of seventh- and eighth-grade math classrooms, Latinx students used traffic stop data to u…
Strengthening Students’ Racial and Ethnic Identities
- Because culturally responsive teachers center students’ identities in the classroom, they support the development of students' racial and ethnic pride. According to one study of 315 middle and high schoolers, for instance, students who reported experiences with culturally responsive teaching practices expressed a deeper sense of racial identity. A ...
Promoting A Sense of Safety and Belonging
- Research shows that a sense of belonging, safety, and support in school is critically important for learning. Case studies of culturally responsive practitioners have shown that these teachers cultivate such feelings through various strategies, such as by demonstrating care, encouraging socialization among students, and establishing respectful relationships with learners. For exam…