Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Today's Classroom

by Zoha Munir

Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centered approach to teaching that uses the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more appropriate and effective for them. It is designed to engage learners whose experiences are traditionally excluded from mainstream educational settings. For example, when culturally responsive pedagogy is in place all students feel welcomed and the learning is in place in such a way that it meets the needs of all students. Also, the teacher plans ahead by already knowing her students where she plans to meet their needs in her planning rather than reflecting back after the lesson. In the text Ladson Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The-‐case for culturally relevant pedagogy. It states “ It has attempted to locate the problem of discontinuity between what students experience at home and what they experience at school in the speech and language interactions of teachers and students. These sociolinguists have suggested that if students' home language is incorporated into the classroom, students are more likely to experience academic success.” This shows that when teachers think of a culturally responsive classroom they must also think about how they are including all the students in the classroom. When students feel included they are shown to progress and show results of academic success because the classroom becomes a space where they feel safe. This is highly important if teachers want to have a vision of a classroom where the learning is in the hands of the students.

If the teacher has created an environment where students don’t feel safe or that they might be judged negatively about the opinions they might hold. Or even as far as thinking that they might get punished for speaking of the wrong answer. In this environment , it may become difficult for the student and the teacher because they both will not benefit. The student will have an environment in which they don’t feel a part of the learning process and the teacher might feel frustrated that she didn’t have a successful outcome of an enriched class where students learn from each other. It is highly important for a successful culturally responsive classroom to allow for mistakes and also allow for students to become the facilitators of education. Students must feel it is allowed to make mistakes and they may only learn from this, The term "culturally relevant pedagogy" was coined by educational theorist Landson-Billings in the early 1990s. In her landmark 1992 teaching, later culminating in her influential 1994 and 1995 work she studied successful teachers of African American students to develop this framework. In the article, it says “They contend scholars and practitioners must focus on intersecting forms of oppression, including those that tacitly or explicitly condone either racism or ableism.” This statement from the article Alim, H. S., Baglieri, S., Ladson-Billings, G., Paris, D., Rose, D. H., & Valente, J. M. (2017) argues that academics and professionals must stop looking at discrimination in as the only importance and instead examine how different forms of oppression specifically racism interconnect. Teachers must also focus on the fact that students do not experience their identities in silos. A student is not just Black or just a student with a learning disability; they hold both identities simultaneously.

A teacher must know how to lead her classroom in a way that students feel a part of the community of the classroom. This will also benefit the teacher and the student because both will feel safe to teach and to learn. When you feel welcomed, that is when you are ready to learn. In the text Responding to “Cross-Pollinating Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning: Toward an Inclusive Pedagogy That Accounts for Dis/Ability” , it also says “pedagogy (CSP) to join with dis/abilities scholars in their work. Through a "loving critique" of both CSP and universal design for learning (UDL), Waitoller an Thorius aim to show how these two pedagogical approaches go far, each in it own way, in their attempts at creating meaningful learning opportunities for different kinds of learners, but that each could benefit from cross-pollination.” This means applying UDL's "multiple means of representation, action, expression, and engagement" to ensure that classroom materials are not just culturally relevant, but also accessible to students with diverse abilities. If a teacher goes by the saying “ One shoe fits all”. She will never be able to reach all of her learners. Teachers as facilitators must understand that there is a variety of learners in her classroom. To reach all of these diverse learners teachers must also incorporate the UDL model to meet the needs of all her students. For example, some students might be ENL, the teacher must use simplified language and also provide visuals and sentence stems to meet the needs of these students. This will benefit the ENL (english new language) students because they will be able to see visuals that might help to connect with what the class is learning. Additionally, a teacher might use dance or movement in her lesson to reach students in her class that learn through movement or music. Many students don’t learn through explicit teaching but rather are able to retain information if it's through dance or movement.

In today's classroom, we see culturally responsive pedagogy in which students are used as assets. For example, educators create opportunities for students where they bring in their own knowledge which allows for students to bring from home into the curriculum. Also, students are able to incorporate their own community into the school life. such as environmental justice issues affecting their neighborhood, rather than sticking only to standardized textbooks that generalizes for everyone. In the text, it says “ significant challenge for educators and educational research is actually seeing the fugitive acts of learning and being able to differentiate those moments of unruly rupture from the seductive mollification of school-based achievement.” This shows Culturally responsive, asset-based pedagogy transforms classrooms by increasing student experiences for example, if we have a topic such as local environmental justice. When discussed in class the teacher can drive away from believing that all students will have the same opinion or same approach to this topic. She should ween away from it being one-size-fits all. Once a teacher embraces this approach it requires that she identifies where her students are most engaged. Many times it is through student-led disruptive learning where they are discussing many new ideas and sharing their own opinions about the topic.

I believe culturally responsive pedagogy should be implemented in today’s classroom. For example, when we combine culturally responsive pedagogy with the udl method. It will build educators to plan ahead for the student engagement. Learning will also be in the hands of the students. The teacher will become the facilitator of their learning. UDL allows that rather than modifying instruction for individual students after they struggle, UDL encourages educators to anticipate diverse needs and build flexibility into the curriculum from the beginning. Teachers anticipate the struggles the students may have and build from it to better plan for her students.

Educators should use culturally responsive pedagogy in today's classroom combined with the UDL method. This will only enhance the learning for the students because it will drive away from the factor of “one size fits all”. The learning will be in the hands of the students and the teacher will be the facilitator of their learning. I have used the UDL model in my classroom. In my ICT classroom, I saw many students as different learners. I wanted to meet the needs of these students. When we focused on one anchor chart. Many students struggled to see all the information at once. To battle with hardship for my students. I used hexagonal thinking. I cut 6 different hexagons and in each hexagon I wrote down one thing that will connect to the skill. For example, if the students needed to learn about the literary elements, instead of having all the students look at one big anchor chart. I decided on chunking the information into hexagons. I gave students 5 mins in the beginning of each lesson to discuss how the hexagons might fit together or how one might connect to another hexagon. There was no wrong answer. All the hexagons could fit together. What I learned from this was that instead of my reading off an anchor chart students are now discussing the anchor chart. This will help them to retain a lot of information from the anchor chart when they apply to the reading. A counter argument many will have is that, this will be a lot of planning intensity. The teacher would have to cut all the hexagons with the writing and have them ready for each day. This might become a burden for many teachers. This also requires a lot of classroom management. For example, if students are not monitored some might play and this activity might not lead to the success it is intended for. The teacher must monitor that students are having rich conversations about the skill so they can later apply it to their reading.

Integrating Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning shifts the classroom from a teacher-centered lecture to a student-driven ecosystem. The hexagonal thinking activity proves that moving away from a "one-size-fits-all" anchor chart transforms passive listeners into active intellectual collaborators. To push this framework further, educators must consider how they can create different strategies that will help students to be learners for a lifetime. Students must move away from the dependency of the teacher to give answers to rather a mind of curiosity of asking questions to find the answers they need. A question we must ask ourselves when we enter a classroom to educate the learners is what have we done as educators to meet the needs of all learners. Doing so will help the teacher think about the variety of students she has in the classroom and what she can do to help them achieve their learning target. There are many activities a teacher can do to meet the needs of her students; however, every classroom is different. It is the job of a teacher to truly understand what her students will benefit from the most. Moreover, Students show higher engagement and motivation when learning materials are relevant to their personal lives and at a level in which it is accessible to them. It is important because it helps students develop critical thinking skills and self-confidence.