This slideshow provides an overview of culturally relevant pedagogy and basic suggestions for examining the role of culture in your own teaching practice. Commitment to Culturally Responsive Teaching pays off in student engagement, ease of classroom management, and the joy of learning!
In undergrad I was taught to use action research to improve the classroom by developing customized solutions. I learned to do “kidwatching,” documenting informal observations regarding the learning and practices of individual students. Doing this, I became familiar with students' interests, as well as their learning processes, strengths, and weaknesses. My undergrad studies also taught me to foster a healthy culture of learning and a strong classroom community, all the while supporting student inquiry and encouraging critical literacy. All of these practices lead to learner-centered instruction, valuing the prior knowledge each student brings to the classroom, and encouraging students to utilize their strengths to address their individual challenges. The use of these methods is, in essence, why Gloria Ladson-Billings says that culturally relevant pedagogy “is just good teaching.”
Still, it's important to understand that there is one significant difference between culturally relevant pedagogy and simply using good teaching methods. In my undergrad "Learn To Teach/Teach To Learn" cohort, 28 pre-service teachers were picked to study in a classroom of an urban public school building, examine our own cultures, assumptions, and biases, and familiarize ourselves with the cultural perspectives of individual students. (If you are familiar with 90's television, think MTV's Real World. The conversations got real.)
This cultural self-awareness is what further distinguishes culturally relevant pedagogy from other attempts at good student-centered teaching practices.