Culturally Responsive Instruction: Resource List

Young boy in classroom

Perhaps you have come across the term "culturally responsive teaching" in your work as an educator. Many schools and districts around the country are encouraging their teachers to become more familiar with culturally responsive teaching. There are lots of great resources out there to help you learn more about the what, why, and how of culturally responsive teaching – and how you can get started!

Culturally Responsive Instruction

Culturally responsive teaching is a research-based approach that "invites students to bring their expertise to the table" (Fleming, 2019) by identifying and harnessing the assets of students who have historically been underserved in schools. Here are some resources providing an overview to CRT.

Overviews: Research & Resource Guides

Overviews: Articles, Blogs, and Tools

Resources from Zaretta Hammond

Books

Videos and Podcasts

Voices from the Field

"In culturally responsive pedagogy, the classroom is a critical container for empowering marginalized students. It serves as a space that reflects the values of trust, partnership, and academic mindset that are at its core."

— Zaretta Hammond (2015, p. 143)

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Key Concepts

Funds of Knowledge

Cultural Orientation: Collective vs. Individual

Building Relationships and Classroom Community

Classroom Vignettes

Funds of Knowledge

A teacher in Arizona learned that some of her families had expertise about ranching. She encouraged students to tap into their own funds of knowledge about horses and ranching to create research-based inquiry projects about topics such as:

  • the history of horses in the Americas
  • anatomy and gestation (science)
  • horseracing (math).

Parents and community members were also invited to share their expertise in animal management and give interviews. This opened the door to a stronger partnership between families and the school. (Fleming et al, 2015)

Collective vs. individual orientation

A teacher struggled over whether to use a student star chart to show mastery of multiplication tables because she didn't want any student to feel excluded. When she asked the class for their input, the students, who were mostly Latino, decided that it would be a great accomplishment for the whole chart to be filled in with stars because it would mean that everyone in the class had learned their times tables. The students took the challenge upon themselves and created a buddy system to tutor classmates who were struggling. The results were so successful that the students learned even more sets of multiplication tables than originally planned. (Rothstein-Fisch and Trumbull, 2008)

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Classroom Resources

Culturally Responsive Books

Academic Language & Literacy

Inquiry and Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Making Local Connections

Voices from the Field

"The goal during this process is that teachers understand how their own experiences and backgrounds impact their day-to-day practice in the classroom and how they can utilize this to embrace and accept all students. The teacher can then leverage students' cultural identities to create units and curricula that reflect students' passions. Additionally, teachers will begin demonstrating cultural caring and building a strong learning community. Educators must gain and demonstrate a strong understanding of how relationships are the cornerstone of culturally responsive teaching and personalized learning."

— Karla Vigil, Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Classroom: Where to Begin

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Student Populations: Resource Collections

American Indian/Alaska Native Students

English Language Learners (ELLs)

Students with Special Needs

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Voices from the Field

"I felt so humble. These boys knew a lot more about math than I had given them credit for. I had failed to activate their prior knowledge, and in the process had almost given up."

— ESL teacher after connecting a math concept to Vietnamese students' experiences navigating rafts as they fled their home country

(Hamayan, Marler, Sánchez-López, and Damico, 2013, p. 116)

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Professional Development and Reflection

Equity Issues

Bias

Race

Voices from the Field

"In order to understand our students, we must understand our own identities. It includes acknowledging that our life experiences, values, assumptions, and identity influences the way we see the world around us. It is during this process that teachers have the opportunity to self-reflect to gain a deeper understanding of how their identity impacts their own attitudes and teaching practices. Once a teacher can understand their own culture, they can develop the characteristics needed to effectively teach their students who may have a different cultural background."

—Karla Vigil (2019)

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Culturally Responsive Family Engagement

References

Fleming, J. Personal communication. October 15, 2019.

Fleming, J., et al. (2015). More Mirrors in the Classroom: Using Urban Children's Literature to Increase Literacy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Hamayan, E., et al. (2013.) Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners. Delivering a Continuum of Services. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.

Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. and Trumbull, E. (2008). Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students' Cultural Strengths. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Vigil, Karla. Personal communication. November 1, 2019.

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