Why educators need to be culturally responsive in today’s classroom

Today’s classroom looks very different from past. Diversity is a new reality. Students in our classroom come from a multitude of cultures and backgrounds. In additions, students interact with diverse people on daily basis. Research tells, and we experience on a daily basis that technological innovations and bridging social economic disparities have historically made diversity a new reality.

In a classroom of 25 students, 3-4 students require specialized intervention, 3-4 students are living in poverty, 4-5 are ELLs, 1-2 are gifted or talented, 2-4 are experiencing challenges at home or in their communities or some combination of them- each of whom needs personalized approaches to learning (Differentiated Instruction).

Therefore, it’s important to understand how individual learners learn best and actively engage, motivate, and inspire our students with right resources at the right time, in the right medium, and at the right space. It’s important for us to understand and realize, we need to stop treating all students if they’re the same, even when the intention is to ensure equality. In fact, a better path for us to adapt to fairness is equity, which we define as providing every learner what he or she needs to be successful. We need to seek knowledge and build an understanding of diversity.

When it comes to our classrooms, we visualize diversity as understanding each student brings unique experiences, strengths, and ideas to our classroom. These differences can be along dimensions of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, socio-economic status, age, ability, religious or political beliefs, or other different ideologies. Diversity is the exploration of incorporation of these differences to enrich learning in our classrooms.

How do I incorporate diversity into my classroom? Setting a positive tone. Greeting students on the door. Smile. By being a role model that they can trust and respect. Sending a message. You are valued. We are here to learn. Take interest. Listen. Be there. Incorporate diverse perspectives, ensuring classroom is the welcoming, respectful and safe environment for all to take a risk in learning. Recognizing students learn in different ways and have valuable perspectives to bring to the content being learned. Providing students variety of opportunities to share what they know. Create a collaborative learning environment. Assigning groups so that classmates get to work with students they don’t know very well. Setting ground rules of teamwork. Teaching students how to work together. Connect students with an opportunity to nurture their unique gifts by connecting to community-based resources. Hold positive views of all students of background and have high expectations of all. Take into account individual learning styles. When students know their learning style they improve swiftly.

I believe, there is no magic formula. It’s just the right combination of all above strategies and many more that I’m learning every day from my students and colleagues. What matter is how well, we are equipping our students for the journey that begins after they leave school. We must incorporate life lessons into daily interactions: compassion and empathy, respect and responsibility, humility, flexibility, trustworthiness, teamwork, and creativity. Practice what we preach. Bring consistency in action with values. We can together do better.