\u201cThe quickest way to define what implicit bias is [is] to say it is the thumbprint of the culture on your brain.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For educators, this means our internalized notions of what good teaching looks like emerge from our own experience.<\/p>\n
Our task then is to think outside of our own ways of knowing, being, and learning in order to meet the needs of our students and build on their cultural ways of knowing, being, and learning.<\/p>\n
Hold up\u2026 let\u2019s make sure we are on the same page. What do we mean by other ways of knowing, being, and learning? Jamila Lyiscott provides a powerful explanation<\/a> (video).<\/p>\n Now let’s explore some of the ways we can expand our methods so that all students can exercise and grow their genius.<\/p>\n We are going to use four themes from the research literature on Culturally Responsive Pedagogies to look more closely at instruction and assessment:<\/p>\n Each theme will allow us to tease out culturally responsive practices and examples for consideration as you plan instruction and assessment.<\/p>\n In her seminal book The Dreamkeepers<\/em>, Gloria Ladson Billings noted, \u201cAll instruction is culturally responsive. The question is: to which culture is it currently oriented?\u201d<\/p>\n Unless teachers are intentional, classrooms are likely to parallel the dominant culture. As institutions, schools have embedded and unquestioned structures (the \u201cgrammar of schooling<\/a>\u201d) that traditionally have not centered the needs and assets of students, especially students from historically marginalized populations.<\/p>\n Since most teachers experienced some form of traditional schooling, culturally responsive teachers often seek to look beyond their own experience. They constantly ask themselves \u201cWhose ways of knowing am I centering? How might I incorporate different ways of knowing?\u201d<\/p>\n It is a safe assumption that every classroom represents a range of learner types and dispositions at any given moment. And most youth cultures value novelty. The Education Alliance at Brown University\u2019s site on culturally responsive teaching<\/a> notes that \u201cinstruction is culturally mediated when it incorporates and integrates diverse ways of knowing, understanding, and representing information.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus a hallmark of culturally responsive classrooms is variation in instructional format – independent work, small group learning, direct instruction, self-paced activities, student-directed workshops, whole group discussion, etc. These formats are not used willy-nilly, though. They are carefully chosen for purpose and embedded in routines. A good example is Team Quest at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Vermont, who revamped their schedule to increase student voice and choice.<\/a> The two-person team transformed their approach based on the perceived needs and input of their learners.<\/p>\n Assessment validity refers to accuracy. Just like instruction, if the assessment process is a mismatch for a student\u2019s culture, it\u2019s not going to accurately measure what students know and can do.<\/p>\n Trumbull & Nelson-Barber explain it this way in their article The Ongoing Quest for Culturally-Responsive Assessment for Indigenous Students in the U.S.<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cAchieving cultural validity in assessment means, first, recognizing that tests and assessments are cultural artifacts and that the ways in which students respond to them are affected by their cultural knowledge and experiences. It means accounting for students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds, epistemologies, educational experiences, communication styles, and socioeconomic situations in the processes of assessment development and implementation\u201d (para 12).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The article includes an excellent list of research-based questions that teachers can ask themselves at each phase of the assessment process. The overarching idea here is intentionality. Teachers must keep culture at the forefront of their instruction and assessment practices. Otherwise they will default to their own acculturation and biases.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are good enough. I appreciate you and care for you unconditionally.\u201d A teacher who carries and lives this sentiment embodies culturally responsive practices. These educators are what Lisa Delpit calls \u201cwarm demanders<\/a>,\u201d and they inspire young people to reach their full potential.<\/p>\n In an interview titled \u201cAntiracist grading starts with you<\/a>,\u201d Cornelius Minor points to three harmful beliefs (what he calls \u201cpernicious ideologies\u201d) in assessment that get in the way of appreciating students.<\/p>\n These ideologies are huge barriers to appreciating where students are and focusing on how to help them grow. Growth-oriented systems such as proficiency-based education (PBE) can help teachers move away from these problematic ideologies. The <\/span>TIIE toolkit<\/a> on PBE, for example, includes this core belief: \u201cThe goal of education is not to sort and rank learners, rather to help ALL learners grow towards their potential.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n By being appreciative we build student agency. As put in the report Equity and Assessment: Moving Toward Culturally Relevant Assessment<\/a>, \u201cOur assessments approaches\u2014 how we assess and the process of assessment itself\u2014should align with the students we have, empowering them with narratives to share and document their learning journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Culturally responsive instruction and assessment uses assessments that let students author their own narratives, such as portfolios, personalized learning plans, and student led conferences. Students can use multimedia tools to tell the story<\/a> of their growth from their own perspective. The appreciative stance firmly takes hold when students are supported in appreciating their own learning.<\/p>\n Rudine Sims Bishop developed the metaphor of mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors to help us understand the importance of diverse representation in literature. This metaphor can also guide us to more culturally responsive pedagogy. It can remind us to make certain that students see their own ways of knowing, being, and learning mirrored in our classroom.<\/p>\n If our instructional practices are only mirrors of the way we learn best they are most certainly not culturally responsive. If, on the other hand, they are intentionally varied, they provide mirrors for all kinds of learners to see their strengths.<\/p>\n As educators we can position ourselves such that our work with students allows us to learn from the windows they provide for us, thus better informing our instructional practices.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most straightforward way for teachers to benefit from student perspectives is to ask them directly. Conferencing allows feedback from students about what is working and what could improve along with direction from teachers about next steps for students. CRP teachers survey their classrooms regularly to check in about the extent to which students feel they belong or how the teacher\u2019s instruction affirms cultural identity (see, for example, the Copilot-Elevate measures<\/a>).\u00a0 Teachers may also employ more targeted data gathering through action research<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other pedagogical approaches, like formative assessment<\/a> and negotiated curriculum<\/a> , provide the opportunity to learn more about our students. They provide windows into the cognitive processes of our learners, allowing us to inform our instruction.<\/p>\n While we definitely want to get to know our students well, we don\u2019t need to know everything about them in order to plan instruction. It is a both\/and. Yes, our students provide us with windows into their world, which helps us make our instruction culturally responsive. AND we don\u2019t need to know everything about their lives (or deserve to) in order to plan instruction that is relevant and meaningful to them.<\/p>\n Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to designing instruction that is accessible and engaging for all learners. It specifically asks educators to identify and remove barriers to learning. This UDL tool (.pdf)<\/a> for example, pairs barriers with instructional strategies to engage all learners.<\/p>\n Another pedagogical approach that should be adopted outright is trauma-informed practice.<\/p>\n It is safe to assume, no matter where you teach, that some of your students will have experienced trauma. This doesn\u2019t mean you need to know the specific traumas young people have suffered. You should plan for trauma no matter what.<\/p>\n Being trauma-informed means you understand you do *not* have a right to anyone's story, you will *not* ever fully know which of your students have experienced trauma, and you commit to *not* being a "trauma detective."<\/p>\n — Alex Shevrin Venet (@AlexSVenet) November 18, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nCulturally Responsive Instruction and Assessment<\/h4>\n
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1. Be transparent and intentional about culture<\/h4>\n
Cultural validity in assessment<\/h4>\n
![\"culturally](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/feduc-04-00040-t001-1024x414.jpg\")
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2. Take an appreciative stance<\/h4>\n
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3. Provide mirrors and windows<\/h4>\n
Look at the view from the windows in your classroom<\/h5>\n
Not all windows are transparent<\/h5>\n
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