The Promise of Cultural Responsiveness
Strengthening the connections amongst schools, students and families is a powerful way to increase engagement, spark learning, and improve outcomes. Culturally responsive schools work productively with children, families, and communities from a wide range of backgrounds by understanding cultural distinctiveness, recognizing and addressing potential biases, and creating a nurturing and inclusive school environment for all education partners. These schools empower youth, both intellectually and emotionally, and engage them in positive situations that affirm their cultural background and celebrate their capabilities. By increasing school efforts to better understand and reflect students’ backgrounds, family cultures and community connections, educators will be better equipped to support the distinct academic, social, and emotional needs of all their students.
Culturally responsive schooling encompasses many aspects of the schooling experience, including the school’s environment and culture, school leadership, teaching practices, and community relationships. Culturally responsive school leaders develop and support their school staff and promote a climate that makes the whole school welcoming, inclusive, and accepting of minoritized students and families (Khalifa, Gooden & Davis, 2016). Culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy emphasizes the cultural knowledge, past experiences, and learning styles of students of various ethnic groups to make learning more relevant to and effective for students (Gay, 2010). Culturally responsive teachers have affirming views of students from diverse backgrounds, understand how learners construct knowledge, and see themselves as capable and responsible for bringing about change (Villegas & Lucas, 2002).
How Cultural Responsiveness Can Improve Students’ School Experiences and Learning Outcomes
According to the Spencer Foundation (2024), “a growing body of research shows students learn best when they feel a sense of belonging and when teachers recognize and draw on cultural and community-aligned ways of thinking, doing, and learning” (p.2). Several key studies highlight the positive impact of cultural responsiveness:
- In a rigorous evaluation of an ethnic studies course in San Francisco, schools enrolled students with eighth-grade GPAs below 2.0 into the course, which emphasized culturally relevant pedagogy. Participation in the course increased ninth-grade attendance by 21% and GPA by 1.4 grade points compared to similar students with GPAs just above 2.0 cutoff who did not attend the course (Dee & Penner, 2017).
- Byrd (2016) surveyed over 300 secondary school students across the United States about culturally relevant teaching experiences, including opportunities to learn about other cultures and racism. She found that students who reported more culturally relevant teaching experiences had significantly higher grades and stronger ethnic and racial identity development.
- In New York City, a culturally responsive curriculum called Fresh Prep was designed to help high school students who had previously failed courses and were identified as at-risk of failing state exams in history and ELA. After training teachers to implement the curriculum, evaluators examined participating students’ performance compared to that of a matched comparison group of students and found that the Fresh Prep students had significantly higher scores and pass rates on State English Language Arts and history exams than did the comparison group students (Cherfas, Casciano, and Wiggins, 2021).
- In a study of about 400 teachers in both urban and suburban schools in Malaysia, Kadir and colleagues (2022), surveyed teachers about their school leaders’ culturally responsive leadership practices and found that the leadership practices were significantly correlated with positive school instructional climates.
- In a nuanced qualitative case study of culturally responsive teaching practices, including building on students’ experiences and existing knowledge, integrating music and dance, and utilizing familiar communications styles, Cholewa et al. (2014) found that the practices functioned as a psychological intervention that decreased students’ psychological distress and increased the psychological well-being of students of color.
While these studies, and many others, point to the contributions of strong culturally responsive practices as integral elements of educating the diverse populace of today’s American students, they should be viewed as companions to other foundational elements of excellent education, including adequate funding, adoptions of the latest curricular and pedagogical practices, and innovative technological adaptations. They fulfill the vital need to connect school more closely to the inner lives of students that is an essential part of helping today’s youth to become contributing adults to the nation’s future.
References
Byrd, C. M. (2016). Does culturally relevant teaching work? An examination from student perspectives. Sage Open, 6(3), 2158244016660744.
Cherfas, L., Casciano, R., & Wiggins, M. A. (2021). It’s bigger than hip-hop: Estimating the impact of a culturally responsive classroom intervention on student outcomes. Urban Education, 56(10), 1748-1781.
Cholewa, B., Goodman, R. D., West-Olatunji, C., & Amatea, E. (2014). A qualitative examination of the impact of culturally responsive educational practices on the psychological well-being of students of color. The Urban Review, 46, 574-596.
Dee, T. S., & Penner, E. K. (2017). The causal effects of cultural relevance: Evidence from an ethnic studies curriculum. American Educational Research Journal, 54(1), 127-166.
Gay, G. (2010). Acting on beliefs in teacher education for cultural diversity. Journal of teacher education, 61(1-2), 143-152.
Kadir, M. A. S. A., Mansor, A. N., Jamaludin, K. A., & Idrus, R. M. (2022). Culturally responsive leadership among school leaders and school instructional climate. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 3331-3344.
Khalifa, M. A., Gooden, M. A., & Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature. Review of educational research, 86(4), 1272-1311.
Spencer Foundation (2024). White Paper Series on Culturally Sustaining and Relevant Education Approaches, Executive Summary. Chicago, IL, Spencer Foundation.
Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers: Rethinking the curriculum. Journal of teacher education, 53(1), 20-32.