At their heart, Culturally Responsive Practices (CRP) are about teaching the way students learn. It is an unfortunate truth of being human that we are biased by our own experiences. As Mahzarin Banaji, a professor of social ethics at Harvard University says,<\/p>\n

\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

Culturally Responsive Instruction and Assessment<\/h4>\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

\n
1. Be transparent and intentional about culture.<\/li>\n
2. Take an appreciative stance.<\/li>\n
3. Provide mirrors and windows.<\/li>\n
4. Educate about and for social justice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   Each theme will allow us to tease out culturally responsive practices and examples for consideration as you plan instruction and assessment.<\/p>\n

   1. Be transparent and intentional about culture<\/h4>\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

   Cultural validity in assessment<\/h4>\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

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