Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Toolkit
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Toolkit
Toolkit collated by Jess Boyd
What is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy?
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy is an approach to teaching that aims to integrate, promote and maintain the cultural background of students in schools. Here’s a brief history of the term and how it has evolved:
In the early 1990s in the United States, Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings coined and defined the term ‘Culturally Relevant Teaching’: teaching that empowers students to maintain cultural integrity while being academically successful. The approach to teaching is based on the cultural competence of the teachers. She wrote that “it urges collective action based on cultural understanding, experiences, and ways of knowing the world.” Since then, this practice has become widely known and accepted widely in the field of Education in America.
Here is a brief summary of what Ladson-Billings’ research concluded as Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (adapted from Dr Gloria Ladson-Billings’ “Dreamkeepers” and “Crossing Over to Cannan”):
- The teacher presumes ALL students can learn and succeed.
- The teacher has clear goals for student learning and achievement and delineates what achievement means to students in the context of their classroom.
- The teacher devotes the majority of class time to teaching and learning.
- The teacher measures academic achievement (student learning) through a variety of means.
- The teacher thinks deeply and critically about what they teach, how they teach and why they are teaching it.
- The teacher knows the context, knows the learner and knows how to teach the content to the learner.
- The teacher supports a critical consciousness towards the curriculum.
- The teacher understands culture and its role in education.
- The teacher takes responsibility for learning about students’ culture and community.
- The teacher uses the students’ culture as a basis for learning.
- The teacher interrogates their own identity, culture, biases and privilege to critically assess and strengthen instructional practice.
- The teacher believes in the individual as well as the collective brilliance of their students.
- The teacher helps students recognise and honour their own cultural beliefs and practices while accessing and learning about the wider culture/world.
- The teacher prioritises creating a community of learners. One where students support one another in their learning and feel responsible for/ invested in each other's learning and success.
- The teacher actively develops their own socio-political consciousness and that of their students.
- The teacher knows the larger socio-political context of the school-community-nation-world.
- The teacher incorporates issues of equity and the local/broader socio-political context into the required curriculum.
- The teacher fosters students’ critical consciousness - developing in students the knowledge and skills to engage the world and others critically.
- A set of beliefs and dispositions that inform pedagogy
- Grounded in a rich, critical multicultural curriculum
- A pedagogy that all teachers can be successful at implementing it they work at it
- Addresses strengths of all students
- About making the classroom space engaging and relevant for ALL students
- A checklist for lesson planning
- A specific curriculum
- Only something non-white teachers can do
- Only for non-white students
- Only about raising the self-esteem of non-white students
- About ‘learning styles’ of students
- Relevant only to students who speak english as a second language
- Seasonal
- A set of specific and discrete strategies
- A check-list or a destination I can arrive at
After almost 20 years of employing this practice, the field has evolved and on the shoulders of Dr. Ladson-Billing and many other scholars have adapted this work. For instance, in 2012 Dr. Django Paris argued that a more appropriate term could be Pedagogy that Sustains Culture: that is, a pedagogy that seeks to value, encourage and perpetuate – to maintain – the cultural backgrounds of students as part of education.
The concepts overlap. One derives directly from the other. In this toolkit, we may also use the term Culture-Based Pedagogy to learn from classroom environments that integrate, respond, value and sustain students’ cultural backgrounds. However, you will see both terms used in the videos and articles.
Also, although you will notice references to an American context, the key ideas of a pedagogy that seeks to build on and strengthen student culture are ancient and found in many parts of the world; intercultural education, culture-based education and pre-colonial educational practices are similar concepts (see the videos later in the toolkit).
Lastly, do keep in mind that each culture has its own values, practices and history. While some examples in this toolkit may not be from your context, we recommend using them as a way to see how valuable Culturally Responsive Pedagogy is and how it can be implemented.
The Diverse Educators’ Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Toolkit
- What is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and how can this practice effectively support students?
- What can Culturally Responsive Pedagogy look like in classrooms?
- What aspects of our school culture and/or classroom practices can be adapted to ensure we are being more inclusive of students’ cultural identities?
Classroom Visits
- Australia: Aboriginal Studies Class - Tennant Creek High School
- Canada: Global Teacher Prize winner (Maggie)
- New Zealand: Warrior Scholars - Decolonising education (Key vocabulary: Maori = indigenous group in New Zealand; Pakeha = whites / Europeans; Pasifika / Tonga = people originating from these islands near New Zealand; Otara = neighbourhood with the majority of Pasifikas residents)
- Philippines: Global Teacher Prize finalist (Jesus)
- Romania: Anca Mezei - Reclaiming identity, culture and community in the classroom
- What are you learning from each class about Culture-Based Pedagogy?
- Can you identify at least two practices that you observed regarding Culture-Based Pedagogy in each classroom?
- What did the teacher do? How did the students respond?
- How does each classroom define success and what does the teacher do to support students in achieving it?
Articles
Blogs
Books
Ladson-Billings, Gloria
But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Paris, Django, Alim, H. Samy
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World (Language and Literacy Series)
Stembridge, Adeyemi
Culturally Responsive Education in the Classroom: An Equity Framework for Pedagogy