Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Definitions and Directions

The concept of culturally responsive pedagogy has gained increased attention during the past 2 decades as a way to rethink instructional practices to improve the educational outcomes of African American, Latino, Native American, and Asian American students. The merger of culture and pedagogy is a complex and intricate set of processes that many practitioners and researchers have suggested may improve student learning. Designing culturally responsive pedagogy involves developing a comprehensive and informed set of knowledge and skills to engage diverse students in the teaching and learning process. Some theorists and researchers suggest that the cultural dissonance between students and teachers is one of the contributing factors to the widespread academic disparities between many students of color and their White counterparts. Culturally responsive teaching can serve as a bridge between students' and teachers' ways of knowing.

Culturally responsive pedagogy is more than just a way of teaching, or a simple set of practices within curriculum lessons and units. Culturally responsive pedagogy entails a professional, political, cultural, ethical, and ideological disposition that supersedes mundane teaching acts, but is centered in fundamental beliefs about teaching, learning, students, their families and communities, and an unyielding commitment to see student success become less of a concept and more of a reality. Culturally responsive pedagogy is situated in a framework that recognizes the rich and varied cultural wealth, knowledge, and skills that diverse students bring to schools, and seeks to develop dynamic teaching practices, multicultural content, multiple means of assessment, and a philosophical view of teaching that is dedicated to nurturing students' academic, social, emotional, cultural, psychological, and physiological well-being.

Culturally responsive teaching operates from a framework that assumes that much of the curriculum, instructional approaches, and assessment mechanisms that are used in U.S. schools are steeped in mainstream ideology, language, norms, and examples that often place culturally diverse students at a distinct educational disadvantage. Hence, students whose cultural knowledge is most congruent with mainstream ways of knowing and being are more likely to experience cognitive comfort and better educational outcomes in schools. Gloria Ladson-Billings, who was one of the first scholars to define cultural responsive teaching, states that culturally informed teaching is a way of teaching that enriches students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically in ways that are connected to their own ways of knowing.

Rejection of Deficit-Based Ideology

Culturally responsive teaching rejects the deficit-based beliefs that some teachers may hold about culturally diverse students. It recognizes student strengths and seeks to build on them. Deficit-based explanations view low-income students and students of color as lacking the necessary knowledge and skills to be successful in school and coming from a culture of poverty that is incompatible with academic success. These students are also viewed as having an oppositional culture, having a disdain for academic achievement, or having parents who lack concern for their children's academic aspirations. These deficit-based accounts of students have also criticized students' primary language as being deficient because of its variation from academic English or standard English. Deficit theorists have advocated seeking ways to change student knowledge, language, culture, and behavior in ways that are more consistent with mainstream ways of being. These efforts are often met with student resistance, disengagement, and ultimately educational disenfranchisement for many low-income and culturally diverse students.

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