Equity Minded Practices

CED DEI shared language and knowledge resource

Culturally Responsive (Gay, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1995), Affirming (Moll et al., 1992; Yosso, 2005) and Sustaining (Paris & Alim, 2014) pedagogies are frameworks that acknowledge and recognize the centrality of culture in learning processes, and the importance of teachers’ response, affirmation, and work to sustain culture as a part of their curriculum, instruction, and relationships with their students. The references here encompass a variety of culturally informed pedagogies.

  • Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is an instructional pedagogical strategy meant to provide equitable education outcomes for all students. Culturally responsive educators develop a cultural diversity knowledge base, design culturally relevant curricula, and demonstrate cultural caring (Larke, 2013).
  •  Culturally responsive teaching is an effective teaching tool that can enhance teaching in areas of cultural competence and understanding, critical consciousness, and academic success (Larke, 2013).
  •  Educators should investigate their level of cultural competency by asking, “Am I culturally competent?”, “Do I analyze social constructions?, and “Am I undergoing transformation as an educator?” (Jenkins, 2018).
  •  When creating a culturally responsive curriculum consider incorporating current research from the Council for Exceptional Children and the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence. One can utilize their diversity standards and evaluation methods while creating course objectives, syllabi, rubrics, matrices, etc. (Baumgartner et al., 2015; Yamauchi, Taira, & Trevorrow, 2016). Also include members of the community and experts from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds as guest speakers (Baumgartner et al., 2015).
  • Include and validate the cultural knowledge that candidates bring to the course through personal histories (Baumgartner et al., 2015) and include examples, readings and models that reflect their unique experiences. At the same time, do not expect graduate students of color to serve as the racial expert in the classroom (Fitchett, Starker, Salyers, 2012; Linder et al., 2015). Further, faculty should take responsibility for facilitating discussions related to race and racism and intervene in instances of microaggressions (Linder et al., 2015).
  •  Incorporate “interim points”, a term used to describe the intersection between academic content and students’ lives (Castillo-Montoya, 2019). Strategies to incorporate interim points include bringing up culturally and socio-politically relevant concepts, examples, and questions, facilitating classroom discussions, and integrating experiential learning (Castillo-Montoya, 2019).

Inclusive Learning Environments

  • Teacher educators play an important role in shaping teachers who will potentially be better prepared to model culturally responsive teaching in their own practice.
  •  Faculty can foster this development of future teachers by creating a supportive classroom climate, using student-centered teaching techniques, understanding students’ values and experiences, and using performance-based assessments to guide students’ professional growth (Baumgartner et al., 2015).
  • Preservice teachers exposed to culturally responsive teaching were more confident in their ability to teach using these same practices (Fitchett, Starker, & Salyers, 2012). Similarly, when faculty focus on teaching efficacy, attitudes toward inclusion, and socio-cultural diversity there is a positive association with their students’ attitudes toward inclusion and socio-cultural diversity (Gao & Mager, 2011).
  •  A study examining teach candidate experience in teacher education programs utilized structural equation modeling to show significant associations between experiences in teacher education programs and discomfort with student diversity, endorsements of mastery- and performance-oriented practices, and reluctance to adjust instruction to culturally diverse student needs. Further, the number of multicultural education courses negatively predicted preservice teachers’ stereotype beliefs (Kumar & Lauermann, 2018).
  • Explicit teaching on perspective taking has been shown to prepare future teachers to make professional decisions that are influenced by culturally responsive pedagogy (Warren, 2018).
  • Therefore, faculty should address critical issues such as color-blindness, cultural conflict, meritocracy, deficit conceptions, and expectations into their curricula and instructional practices (Milner, 2010).
  • Faculty can enhance the knowledge of preservice teachers working with English Learning students by encouraging contact and collaboration with diverse ethnolinguistic communities. Preservice teachers should build an understanding of EL communities and the dynamics of language in students’ lives and communities (Garcia et al., 2010).

Inclusive Teaching 

  • Faculty can set the tone for inclusive classrooms that respect and value the knowledge and experiences of all students. They can also utilize targeted interventions and course design that supports students of color.
  • Recommendations for developing inclusive and responsive classrooms include: 1) Making your stance and pedagogical rationale explicit 2) Making expectations (professor and student) explicit 3) Getting to know students 4) Sharing your own experiences 5) Providing various forums for participation 6) Using multiple, inclusive examples and illustrations 7) Analyzing the role of silence in classrooms 8) Being allies and advocates (Cook-Sather & Des-Ogugua, 2019).
  •  Faculty can utilize critical race-gendered epistemologies like critical race theory and Latina/Latino critical theory which recognize students of color as holders and creators of knowledge (Bernal, 2002). In order to create a space in which all students can be successful, higher education pedagogy should recognize the “funds of knowledge” of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students (Daddow, 2016). At the same time, students of color should not be expected to do the heavy lifting in conversations around race and racism (Linder et al., 2015).
  • Sense of belonging plays a role in academic success and specific social belonging interventions for first year students have been shown to improve the academic and health outcomes of students of color (Walton & Cohen, 2011). Further, faculty should ensure that elite academic codes are made explicit (Daddow, 2016) to make academia a space for all learners.
  •  Additionally, courses can be designed in a way that best supports and engages culturally and linguistically diverse students. For example, research shows that changing course structure to “moderate-structure” (defined as a having a preparatory/review assignment due once per week and students talking in class for 15-40% of the course time) increased performance for all students, and especially for Black and first-generation students (Eddy & Hogan, 2014).
  •  Inclusive classroom environments are a general best practice to support and engage all students (Daddow, 2016).

Inclusive Learning Environment 

Inclusive Teaching

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