Culturally responsive teaching is an instructional approach where teachers integrate multiple cultures, perspectives, and beliefs into their curriculum and classroom. To begin, a culturally responsive teacher encourages students to think about their own cultural context in relation to others. Secondly, teachers can follow these suggestions to plan a curriculum that is responsive to all of the cultures within their own classrooms. Thirdly, They can guide students into a depth of understanding about other cultural contexts. Keep reading to learn how to spend your planning time to be the best culturally responsive teacher you can be.
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A Culturally Responsive Teacher
Culturally responsive teachers recognizes the intersections that occur in their classrooms.
- When planning a culturally responsive curriculum, think about whether your materials include the global perspective. Do your lessons incorporate relevant events that are happening in the world?
- Your curriculum should include the community narrative, meaning what cultures exist within your community? What preferences or prejudices do people in your school’s community have?
- Be sure to reflect on the classroom culture, which may include school culture, your culture, and the cultures of your students. Ask yourself, what cultures are interacting within my school?
- Finally, reflect on the home life of your students. How will their lives at home influence their understanding of your teachings?
- Continue reading for four straightforward tips to plan a culturally responsive curriculum.
Incorporating the important holidays and festivals that your students celebrate will show your commitment to their whole being.
Annie Wilcox
Holidays and Festivals
Reflect on the population of students that you teach. Do your students come from a singular culture or do you teach a multicultural community? Incorporating the important holidays and festivals that your students celebrate will show your commitment to their whole being. Even if you teach within a singular culture, challenge yourself to incorporate other cultural celebrations. This will prepare your students to live in a globalized world.
Classroom Decor
Post classroom decor that teaches about cultures and heritages. Students can use their free time to explore your bulletin boards and posters to learn new things. January is a fantastic month to teach about the many Asian cultures that celebrate the Lunar New Year. February is an important month to display the Diaspora, cultures, and histories of Black people in the United States. Each month has a special opportunity for you to provide your students with culturally responsive materials to explore within your classroom.
Emphasizing Holidays
Think about how you decorate your classroom around major holidays. Do you focus on one holiday celebration or does your classroom represent many world holidays? Ask yourself if you emphasize one religion’s holidays more than another. For example, when planning around the holiday season, avoid showing preference to one holiday. Celebrate the abundance of holidays celebrated around the world in December.
Ask, Explore, Share
Whenever possible, create opportunities to ask questions, explore beliefs, and share stories. For instance, when students grapple with their understanding about the world, they gain a clearer sense of their personal beliefs in relation to the people around them. Modeling how to ask kind, thoughtful questions will create a wonderful classroom environment where students feel free to explore big questions about the world. Allowing your students to share their stories connects your culturally responsive teaching to their lives.
If you are looking for some guidance on integrating culturally responsive teaching into your curriculum, check out the Cultural Diversity Calendar, which includes over 500 holidays, celebrations, and festivals happening around the world this year. Each month includes an excerpt on the major world religions and heritage months. The calendar is a great tool for developing a culturally responsive curriculum that lives in your classroom all year long.
Follow these simple recommendations to become a culturally responsive teacher, and create a Global Classroom.
Which tips are you excited to implement?
~ annie