Culturally Responsive Teaching – What is it?

Our culture is central to our learning. Take a minute to think of a lesson or unit that you have taught over the years. Make a list of the parts of the lesson/unit that are examples of your culture embedded in it. For a math lesson, it might be the actual process that you teach to solve a problem. Even the way you communicate the instructions to the students will be based in culture. Examples used to help students understand a concept are probably based in your culture. Books used throughout the curriculum are usually predominantly written by authors from the culture where the school resides. When we realize the different ways that we can adapt how we teach to include aspects from the cultures in the class/school, how much richer the learning and how it shapes the thinking processes of all the students, giving them something to which they can relate.

So, what do we mean by Culturally Responsive Instruction? In a classroom which has culturally responsive instruction, the content in the curriculum will reflect the diversity of nationalities represented in the class. When this happens, students from different backgrounds will see themselves and their experiences in the curriculum. Any good teacher will build on their students’ prior knowledge, but in culturally responsive instruction, this will include their culture and language. There is strong evidence that cultural practices shape thinking processes so culture needs to be central to the curriculum and student learning.

There aren’t a lot of helps out there to know now to integrate culture into your classroom, but it is mostly developing an attitude.

Suggestions for integrating culture into your instruction:

You need to understand that teaching is only part of the picture here. You need to be ready to learn new ways, learn what you can about the various cultures represented in your classroom.

Examples:

The examples come from teachers teaching in schools away from their home country.

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