Education Commons^™

Asset-Based Teaching; Uncover, Cultivate, And Empower Students’ Uniqueness, Stephanie K. Knight, Marjaneh Gilpatrick, Tracy Vasquez

Journal of English Learner Education

As instructors who are in tune with their learners learning and communication styles as well as their family and cultural backgrounds, it makes sense that they view their students’ skills and abilities from an asset-based lens. This article provides the readers with some tactics on how to develop and nurture that growth mindset.

When we consider the assets students bring to individual classrooms, the teaching becomes more personalized and relevant to their learning needs. By implementing these teaching practices, instructors are uncovering, cultivating, and empowering their students’ unique abilities. Ultimately students are able to apply their knowledge, skills, and abilities …

Exploring Representation In Microbiology Introductory Courses Can Encourage A More Inclusive And Inspiring Environment For Students And Instructors, Jill A. Mikucki, Elizabeth Fozo

Feminist Pedagogy

Microbiology has a relatively brief history where significant discoveries are often linked with major events in human history - from disease outbreak to industrialization to climate change. The founders of key microbiological principles span across continents, genders, ethnicities, and socioeconomic status. However, the portrait described in many introductory textbooks center around a lone, typically white male scientist. Such narratives not only are misleading regarding the development of key principles in microbiology but can also reinforce inappropriate stereotypes as to whom belongs in microbiology. In our introductory microbiology course, we designed group work for Zoom break-out rooms to help engage students …

Shifting Educational Paradigms To Match Learners: Sustaining Cultures, Languages, And Paradigms Through Educational Sovereignty, Lona R. Running Wolf

The Montana English Journal

The U.S. system of education was developed by visionary forefathers that knew American democracy would be stable only through educated citizens. The system was developed to produce citizens that would carry on the new world's vision and values. The educational system was built within that paradigm. Simultaneously, Indigenous tribes in America were being stripped of their traditional educational systems whose purpose was also to develop productive citizens of their communities and carry on their values. Traditional educational systems among tribes developed children with positive self-identity carrying the pride of their culture, language, and paradigm. That is not the case for …

Why Poetry Comics? An Overview Of The Form's Origins, Creative Potential, And Pedagogical Benefits, Mara Beneway

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Abstract: Poetry comics are a subgenre or hybrid form that appropriate elements and techniques from its foundational genres: poetry and comics. A form that braids literary traditions with visual art, poetry comics’ rich history and metaphorical possibility make for innate and deep engagement. This paper offers a brief history of visual poetry, an explicit definition of poetry comics along with theoretical context for engagement, and pedagogical approaches to using poetry comics in the creative writing classroom. In a discussion focused on interpretation and individual meaning-making, I reference Bianca Stone’s creative work, Sarah Minor’s scholarship on “textual reading” vs. “visual seeing,” …

Book Review: Equity Does Not Mean Equal In Culturally Responsive Teaching, Christina Gabaldon

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The ideas, tools, and example lessons found in the book will appeal to teachers, administrators, and pre-service teachers. The book stresses the importance of equity for all students in the classroom setting. The examples are applicable whether the instructor is in the hybrid, virtual, or face-to-face classroom setting. Dr. Stembridge’s purpose for writing the book is to communicate why culturally responsive education is the framework for equity, why equity and pedagogy should be the central focus of schools, and to describe specific elements found within culturally responsive education. The book continues along the lines of Geneva Gay’s research (2000) that …

Supporting Preservice Teacher Development Of Culturally Responsive Reading Instruction Through A Cross-Course Assignment, Brittany Adams, Annemarie Bazzo Kaczmarczyk

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This article describes design-based research undertaken by two teacher educators to support elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) in integrating culturally responsive teaching practices with reading methods. The study described was motivated by calls for teacher preparation programs to be more intentional about supporting PSTs in synthesizing their learning across courses, especially when it comes to culturally responsive reading pedagogies. This article focuses on an activity that tasked PSTs to select culturally authentic children’s texts and design interactive read-alouds that engage elementary students in conversations around social justice topics while simultaneously meeting English language arts standards. Analysis of the lesson plans revealed …

Sugarcoated History: Turning The Spotlight On "Woke" Books To Expand The Narrative, Marguerite Penick, Katrena Leininger, Chelsea Faase

The Reading Professor

Opponents of books in schools that depict racial and LBGTQ+ histories and narratives argue that education should be raceless and avoid political advocacy. These sentiments are succeeding in states across the country. The result of their success is the loss of an empowering and comprehensive education for all the children in the United States. Educators, who are well informed on the diverse histories of our nation and are armed with a plethora of well-written and factually sourced information, are prepared to face rampant misinformation and culture war rhetoric in our society today. The purpose of this article is to share …

Culturally Responsive Teaching In Higher Education, Andrew P. Johnson

The International Journal of Equity and Social Justice in Higher Education

One of the major tenets of culturally responsive teaching is that students’ current culture is used as a necessary starting point for learning. Here, Students’ linguistic tools, their ways of seeing and being, and their background knowledge are used as a foundation for learning. Culturally responsive teaching consists of three interconnecting elements: (a) high academic standards that focus on students’ total intellectual growth, (b) cultural competence and inclusion, and (c) critical or sociopolitical consciousness. These elements are interdependent. Meaning that culturally responsive teaching is found at the intersection and interconnection of all three. This article ends by describing some strategies …

Teaching And Designing Culturally Responsive Experiences Using Cross-Media Film In Higher Education, Edward Cromarty, Mary Alice Young, Simone Elias

Journal of Research Initiatives

This paper examined the pedagogical use of cross-media film in higher education, as it highlighted cross-media in implementing a Culturally Responsive approach to enhance social justice learning in the classroom. The findings demonstrated the potential of cross-media film to engage learners through cultural relevance for the 21st century. The findings also considered that the Culturally Responsive approach may constitute a fourth pillar of the three epistemologies through research and suggestions for culturally responsive teaching practices.

Culturally Responsive Language Arts Teaching: Refiguring Curriculum With Counternarratives, Claire A. Breiholz, Rebecca Smith

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This paper offers culturally responsive teaching methods for secondary English Language Arts educators to reform curriculum to honor and integrate counternarratives. We provide a sample Herstory unit plan framework for teachers to use as a model for revisioning curriculum to better meet the needs of all students. We offer examples of both traditional canonical and contemporary texts teachers can use to teach counternarratives.

Initiating Courageous Conversations About Race And Racism With Read-Alouds, Brittany Adams, Annemarie Bazzo Kaczmarczyk

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

This article describes a classroom activity developed by two teacher educators to support pre-service teachers in integrating culturally responsive teaching practices with reading methods instruction. The activity tasks pre-service teachers to select culturally authentic children’s texts and design read-alouds that engage elementary students in conversations around race and racism while simultaneously meeting English Language Arts standards. This reimagined classroom practice will be of interests to educators who are seeking resources on how to address culturally relevant topics, such as race and racism, in the classroom.

Technology Of Story: Documenting Culturally Sustaining Anti-Racist Teaching, Frances Vitali

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Our education system, an extension of our society, has created a monster of historical sociocultural and linguistic inequities, traumas, structural racism, and oppressions. Culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy honor students’ funds of knowledge as their authentic power and voice. The oral family stories became vehicles to navigate and facilitate educational partnerships in becoming more culturally responsive for these teacher candidates. Oral stories, as documents, became the content within the context of the writing workshop process. These documented stories became the technological bridge that supported students’ home experiences with academic language and content to meet curricular goals.

During the writing process, …

In This Spirit: Helping Preservice Teachers Thrive During The Pandemic Through Adaptation And Change, Novea A. Mcintosh Ed.D, Rochonda L. Nenonene Ph.D.

Journal of Catholic Education

“New times demand new methods”, William Joseph Chaminade. These words reflect the lived experiences of two faculty women of color, identified as Afro Caribbean and African American scholar practitioners in education at a Marianist university. We share our different narratives of the experience from the dual lens of social emotional learning and culturally responsive pedagogy with our classes and students as they thrived during a pandemic. Included in these narratives will be a discussion of the continued community building process, exploration of efforts to learn more about the teaching profession, social justice and advocacy as we learn about others, and …

Theme For English H: Identity Poems In A Multicultural English Class, Annie Yon

New Jersey English Journal

With many school districts nationwide experiencing rapid growth in the number of students of color, culturally diverse students, and students of low-income families, it is important for teachers to plan culturally responsive activities that cater to a heterogeneous group and to create an inclusive space for students' diverse backgrounds, identities, and voices. In my class, writing and sharing identity poems give students an opportunity to feel recognized and celebrated for their differences.

Multicultural Teacher Education Matters, Reginald Todd, Jacqueline Smith

The Journal of the Research Association of Minority Professors

This article focuses on the impact the demographic change in the student population in current K-12 classrooms has had on teacher education programs as it pertains to the preparation of culturally responsive preservice teachers. There exists an extensive body of literature that posits that the increase of cultural diversity in our current classrooms should be understood as a call for new teaching approaches that promote multicultural awareness among teacher educators to develop preservice teachers who exhibit culturally responsive teaching practices, behaviors, and attitudes. This comprehensive review of literature explored the current research on multicultural teacher education programs, and more specifically …

Educators, Question Your Level Of Cultural Responsiveness, China M. Jenkins

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Institutions of higher education are becoming increasingly diverse, while faculty of these institutions generally lack the diversity of the student population they teach. This imbalance necessitates educators implement culturally responsive teaching within their classrooms. The intent of this article is to guide educators in determining whether they practice and implement culturally responsive teaching within their classrooms. To make this examination, I present questions that educators should ask themselves to determine their level of cultural responsiveness. In response, educators should look to investigate their level of cultural competency, analyze social constructions that reflects growth in cultural responsiveness, and verify their transformation …

Exploring Culturally Responsive Teaching And Student-Created Videos In An At-Risk Middle School Classroom, Hannah Mackay, Martha J. Strickland

Middle Grades Review

As the United States public school classrooms encounter notable shifts in student demographics and increased access to technology, teachers face the dual challenges of cultural and digital differences as they attempt to build relationships with students and develop responsive and relevant instruction. Framed by culturally responsive teaching, this qualitative study explored how one middle school teacher and his students in two summer school English classes interacted with and responded to novel technology-based instructional approach that sought to connect the students’ lives outside of school to the classroom. The findings suggest that involving the students within this culturally responsive teaching approach …

The Student Centered Approach Storied: What Students Have To Teach Us, Taylor A. Norman

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

In this paper, the pedagogical method known as student centered instruction is storied. Classroom narratives, called pedagogical stories, are shared to inform the collective practice of teaching. Together, stories of classroom experiences speak in one voice (Coles, 2004). A voice that tells preservice teachers stories of what they might encounter when applying their learned methods to classroom practice; stories of classroom situations that aim to inform theory and method with practice. Through the use of classroom narratives, the author suggests that the student centered approach has a responsibility to culturally responsive teaching, especially in the language arts classroom.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Use Of Multicultural Literature, Salika A. Lawrence, Tabora Johnson, Mirna Baptiste, Asfa Caleb, Camille Sieunarine, Clorene Similien

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This qualitative study examines how pre-service teachers in urban elementary classrooms develop student literacy with multicultural literature. By evaluating the action research reports of three pre-service teacher candidates, the authors determine how reading experiences with texts align to Bloom’s Taxonomy and expectations for Common Core State Standards. Findings indicate that multicultural literature engages students with authentic connections to learning. Results also show that teachers relied on guided questioning to measure reading comprehension, though the types of questions varied. The implications of this study for teachers to consider are: how to incorporate multicultural texts into the curriculum to encourage critical thinking, …

Entitled Or Engaged?, Kate Collins

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

Recent student activism on campus, particularly around safe spaces, trigger warnings, and microaggressions, has led to rising criticism lobbied against millennials as a generation unwilling to engage opposing beliefs or challenging discourse. Yet, taking into consideration all that young adults navigate to pursue higher education, their dissident presence on campus does more to reveal how they actively participate in the world, including their education.

Why Black Lives (Must) Matter At Uk, Nicole Martin

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

As a university committed to creating inclusive learning environments, we must remember that our pedagogical practices and philosophies are not crafted in insolation from our social, political, and cultural environments. The psychic and emotional injury spurred by the events of the summer of 2016 will continue to reverberate across campus as we move into the fall semester. When we boldly address the lingering effects of trauma through our pedagogical practices, we demonstrate how the campus actively creates space for the civic development of students, staff, faculty, and administration.

Diverse Experiences And Complex Identities: A Resource Archive Of Artists’ And Educators’ Works, Vivian Maria Poey, Berta Rosa Berriz, Amanda Claudia Wager

Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice

This concluding article builds on the ideas developed throughout this special issue by providing a wide range of resources to enrich arts-based work within the field of literacy development with families and communities of emergent bilinguals. We include a bank of resources that may serve as the beginning of an archive. Coming from three different fields, with varying professional experiences, the sources we find helpful intersect and diverge. To honor this range of possibilities, we have taken an expansive approach that includes poets, visual and performing artists, arts and cultural organizations, literary associations, language learning standards and anti-bias and critical …

Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy, Audrey Lingley

Democracy and Education

Spirituality has been identified as an important component of democratic education by influential scholars such as Dewey, Freire, hooks, and Noddings. However, many teachers in the United States do not engage openly with a framework for understanding, organizing, and integrating pedagogical knowledge of spirituality within the context of culturally conscious social justice education. Drawing from an analysis of the works of Dewey, Noddings, Freire, and hooks and using a critical construct of spirituality that emphasizes inquiry, practical experience, meaning making, and awareness of interconnectedness, I argue that spiritually responsive pedagogy is a vital element of emancipatory, culturally responsive education in …

Effective Teaching Practices For Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Students: A Review Of The Literature, Natalie J. Lloyd, Brian Ellis Lewthwaite, Barry Osborne, Helen J. Boon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper presents a review of the literature pertaining to the teacher actions that influence Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander student learning outcomes. This review investigates two foci: the identification of teacher actions influencing learning outcomes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students and the methodological approach to how the influence of teacher behaviours on student learning has been determined. The literature review identifies that published literature in the effective teaching area is predominantly in the ‘good ideas’ category; that is assertions are made by authors with no research-based evidence for supporting such claims, especially through quantitative research which seeks …

Lessons Learned: Insights Into One Teacher’S Experience Working With Karen Refugee Students In The United States, Daniel J. Gilhooly

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This study is informed by funds of knowledge and culturally responsive teaching studies that aim to explore and legitimize the cultural knowledge immigrant children bring to their communities and schools. Consequently, this paper specifically addresses issues related to the educational experiences of Karen children and their parents from one American teacher/researcher who has worked with the Karen for the past four years. In aggregate, this paper addresses issues germane to Karen education including; (1) background information on Karen educational experiences prior to resettlement, including a review of their journey from Thailand to the U.S.; (2) important characteristics of Karen culture; …

Culturally Competent Common Core Practices: A Delphi Study, Katherine Sprott

Journal of Research Initiatives

Research has shown that standards and benchmarks lack guidance for diverse learners with regard to the lesson planning and practice. The Common Core Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics, a national state-led crusade, seeks to safeguard rigorous grade level content to prepare all students for college and career readiness. This study identifies five Culturally Competent Common Core Practices that can provide anchors for informing the instructional process in culturally contextualized ways. The Delphi study shows that the educator’s self-awareness fosters the level of cognitive consciousness that facilitates effect interaction with diverse populations.

A Call To Action: Why We Need More Practitioner Research. A Response To "A Teacher Educator Uses Action Research To Develop Culturally Conscious Curriculum Planners", Kimberly H. Campbell

Democracy and Education

As teacher-educators we need to embrace practitioner (action) research of our own classroom practice. Such research serves to improve our practice, inform the teaching profession, and serve as modeling for future teachers to become practitioner researchers in support of their efforts to meet the learning needs of the students with whom they work as well as have a voice in policy decisions that impact their professional lives.

Cultural Immersion And Mathematics Teacher Education: Explorations In Morocco And South Africa, Kori L.H. Maxwell, Iman C. Chahine

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

This article examines the first author's personal experiences as a mathematics educator studying ethnomathematics and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) through immersion in indigenous cultures. In describing these encounters, we highlight the importance and impact of cultural immersion experiences on educators' perspectives regarding the nature of mathematical knowledge. We argue that cultural immersion not only builds a well-rounded individual, but also provides educators with the necessary tools to maintain relevance in the diverse and constantly evolving landscape that is the classroom. Insights gained from this study have direct implications in our teaching practices as they remind us to be mindful of …

Let’S Produce Culturally Responsive Pedagogues On Deck. A Response To "There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective", Christopher C. Jett

Democracy and Education

In this response, I extend the conversation started by Hayes and Juárez (2012) by highlighting how culturally responsive teaching is spoken in one teacher education program where I worked and served in the preparation of middle-level teachers. I also share my reflections concerning this idea and pose questions for critical thought, dialogue, and action. Finally, I challenge teacher-educators to speak, enact, and work to produce culturally responsive teaching/teachers in their teacher preparation programs.

There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective, Cleveland Hayes, Brenda Juarez

Democracy and Education

In this article, we are concerned with White racial domination as a process that occurs in teacher education and the ways it operates to hinder the preparation of teachers to effectively teach all students. Our purpose is to identify and highlight moments within processes of White racial domination when individuals and groups have and make choices to support rather than to challenge White supremacy. By highlighting and critically examining moments when White racial domination has been instantiated and recreated within our own experiences, we attempt to open up a venue for imagining and re-creating teacher education in ways that are …