Goal:
- Shift your pedagogy towards culturally responsive teaching to cultivate racially aware and equitable classrooms.
Reason:
- Research shows that our implicit biases impact our classrooms, even when we don't intentionally try to.
- 80% of American teachers are White while nearly half of our students are youth of color, and this population is growing. This means that the a huge number of students do not share their racial identities with their teacher. As a result, it’s extremely important that white teachers work hard to better understand and appreciate the lived experiences and cultural identities of their students of color.
Action:
- Culturally Responsive Teaching recognizes the importance of culture in learning and works to include relevant cultural references and context in every detail in the classroom.
- This includes that teachers reflect on their own racial identity and not simply focus on the races of the students.
- Get informed. Read literature on culturally responsive teaching, looking to Geneva Gay, Beverly Daniel Tatum, and Gary Howard for a great place to start.
- Share! Blog or write about your success and use of creativity to make real connections with your students in a race conscious classroom (while being open to critical feedback) so that we can all learn together.