Culturally Responsive Teaching
Theorists: Gloria Ladson-Billings, Geneva Gay, James Banks, Sonia Nieto, Zaretta Lynn Hammond
Ladson-Billings was the first to introduce culturally relevant pedagogy to bring educators’ attention to engaging students whose cultures and experiences are often excluded from the mainstream setting. In this book, Ladson-Billings examines the stories and experiences of eight successful teachers of African American students. Although the eight teachers have diverse teaching styles and methods, they all share a culturally relevant ch that empowers cultural identity in African American children and other ethnically diverse students.
Geneva Gay is one of the main theorists who advocate for culturally responsive teaching. In this book, she addresses the theory, research, and practices of culturally responsive teaching. In her book, Gay encourages educators to utilize culturally responsive teaching to better support underachieved minority students. In this book, culturally responsive teaching is described as a teaching approach that filters teaching practices through students’ cultural experiences and references.
In this article, Geneva Gay discusses some of the major issues and attributes of culturally responsive teaching. Gay describes the approaches that she takes in introducing culturally responsive teaching to readers. She also shares essential actions in implementing culturally responsive teaching such as restructuring teachers’ attitudes towards culturally responsive teaching and shining the light cultures and differences in teaching practices.
Banks is known for introducing multiculturalism in education and he has written many books on the subject of multiculturalism and cultural integration. In this book, Banks describes multiculturalism and what it can mean to pre-service and in-service teachers. Therefore, Banks discusses ways for educators to design and implement strategies that serve ethnic and cultural diversity as he focuses on curriculum and reform.
As the population of students in public schools continues to be more culturally diverse, Sonia Nieto explores teachers’ roles in utilizing culturally responsive teaching. In this book, Nieto interviews 22 teachers with diverse backgrounds to share about how culturally responsive teaching looks like in the real world. The teacher’s stories and experiences carry experiences of success, failure, frustration, and hope and they will provide readers a deep understanding of how to serve underrepresented students.
Culturally responsive teaching has been a powerful approach to bridge the achievement gap that often appears among culturally and linguistically diverse students. However, the implementation of culturally responsive teaching has been challenging for teachers. In this book, Hammond helps educators by discussing research-based approaches for educators to implement in their practices. Hammond discusses how the brain and culture are interconnected in a way that affects learning. She also addresses approaches to build learners’ autonomy and self-reflection skills.
Sharroky Hollie (2011). Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning.
In this book, Hollie provides culturally responsive practices and evidence-based teaching strategies for educators of all grade levels. The book holds many valuable tools for teachers to use right away to build a culturally responsive classroom. The pedagogical framework in this book can work for inexperienced and experienced teachers and it also addresses various skills such as academic literacy, academic vocabulary, and classroom management.
In their study, Daniel and Zybina look into culturally responsive teaching from the experiences of refugee youth during the first years of resettlement. In this study, refugee students address their learning style, their perception of instruction in the U.S. and the teacher support that they need. In their study, Daniel and Zybina found that not only teachers have a role in implementing culturally responsive teaching (CRT), but also students have their own roles in the implementation of CRT.
Ford addresses the importance of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and its possible impact on gifted education. By examining the components of culturally responsive teaching, Ford addresses the roles of CRT philosophy, learning environment, curriculum, instruction and assessment. Ford also addresses the importance of the implementation of CRT as it will provide culturally and linguistically diverse students more opportunities to be recruited in gifted education.
Two major premises are developed in this discussion. One is that many students of color are disproportionately assigned to special education because educators lack knowledge about or appreciation for their cultural values and socialization, and how these a€ect learning behaviors. The other premise is that the educational quality of students of color in both special and regular education can be improved signi®cantly by using instructional programs and practices that reflect their cultural heritages, experiences, and perspectives.