Welcoming and Learning from Diverse Perspectives
Podcast Roundup: Culturally Responsive Teaching Series
October 21, 2024
Earlier this year and last year I interviewed (for my podcast To the Classroom) some of the most important thought leaders about their work around culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining teaching practices. Interviews with nine educators across two seasons included scholars whose research is shaping how we define culturally relevant teaching and whose recommendations can help us make sure all students feel empowered, honored, and welcomed in our classrooms. In this, the first of a three part blog series round up, I offer some highlights, though I hope you check out the full episodes!
Celebrating a Full Language Repertoire (Episode #13)
In their book En Comunidad, authors Carla España and Luz Yadira Herrera discuss the importance of moving beyond traditional language boundaries to welcome different languages and different ways of speaking in our classrooms. This practice of translanguaging recognizes the rich language repertoire and dynamic language practices that help all students, even those who speak only one language, make meaning and connections. And this is really a student-centered way of thinking about multilingual learners and their deep knowledge and broad cultural experiences that can enrich classroom learning.
Taking It to the Classroom
Tap into free advice. Carla and Luz have created six translanguaging collections – identify, place and change, intergenerational connections, migration and immigration, community, and changemakers – which include picture books, early readers, middle grade chapter books, and young adult novels.
Position yourself as a co-learner. Recognize your students as experts on their community and language practices and affirm that they should use all of their language skills when reading, jotting notes, and talking to each other.
Building on What Students Know (Episode #26)
In his book The Race Card, Dr. H. Richard Milner flips the discussion from what is all too prevalent in classrooms – figuring out what student don’t know—to building on the foundation of the rich knowledge students bring with them to the classroom. Milner talks about five components of teaching with an assets-based mindset:
1. Curriculum: Amplify what your students know and are interested in.
2. Instruction: Convey your lessons from an assets-based perspective
3. Relationships: Focus on the strengths your student brings to the classroom to build an inclusive classroom community.
4. Assessment: Reinforce what students have learned and help them identify areas for growth.
5. Community: Tap into family and community strengths and showcase these assets in the classroom.
Taking It to the Classroom
Be a critical consumer. Consider if and how materials represent different races and cultures. Who’s present, who’s missing? Is the material accurate? Is it representative and respectful of different perspectives?
Motivate, motivate, motivate. Dr. Milner’s research shows that motivation and engagement are deeply connected with meaning making. Well-structured literacy instruction can and should include joy and motivation and student agency, voice, and choice.
Meeting Students’ Needs (Episode #33)
Dr. Leigh Patel, the author of the essay “What I Learned from Debating the Science of Reading More than 20 Years Ago is Still True,” discusses racial capitalism has set up an education system where black and brown and other marginalized groups are often measured as remedial, at risk, or in some way inadequate. Dr. Patel asserts that recognizing the impact of racial capitalism in schools is the first step toward changing the dynamic and set us on the path to creating classrooms where we recognize that people are literate in many ways and that there are multiple paths to literacy.
Taking It to the Classroom
Explore the whole story. Standardized assessment can only give us a partial understanding of any student’s story. Listen, observe, and read student work closely as this type of street data gives you a much deeper picture of what a student truly knows.
Encourage questions. Many of your students will come from a different background than yours and may question rules or conventions that don’t make sense to them. This is a great opportunity for you to explore “the why” together.
To learn more about these esteemed educators’ research and ideas, listen to the full podcasts.