Implementing Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices
Literature
Review
The focus of this project and its accompanying unit plan revolves around the importance of integrating culture into the curriculum and the effects it has on students at an early age. The literature below concentrates on four main thesis topics that I researched in order to further my understanding and assist in my project design and process.
Early Childhood Education
The importance of Early Childhood Education (National Research Council, 2001) and creating an environment to stimulate brain development.
Culture
Defining what culture (Ladson-Billings, 2014) is, its role in society, and how culture is present in the classroom setting.
Funds of Knowledge
How Funds of Knowledge (Esteban-Guitart, 2019) plays a role in student learning and achievement especially for students of diverse backgrounds.
Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices
Exploring the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (Gay, 2000) and how its teaching practices can impact the culture of a classroom and the students in it.
Early Childhood Education
Early childhood is considered to span the ages from birth to eight years old. In those ages, it is critical to create conditions that help stimulate brain development cognitively, physically, and emotionally. Children at this age are like sponges, they absorb what's around them and because their development is highly vulnerable, they show the most neurological progression in these years. Responsibility for this progression falls onto the interactions with their surroundings and it can either nurture or hinder growth in which its effects can last a lifetime. "Human relationships, and the effects of relationships on relationships, are the building blocks of healthy development" (National Research Council, 2001)."Early environments matter and nurturing relationships are essential" (National Research Council, 2001).
Pre-Kindergarten to third grade educators have the duty to lay the foundation for children's attitude towards school whether good or bad. As mentioned, children are very impressionable during these ages, so "teachers must first establish ways to authentically demonstrate that they care for our children" (Gunn, 2021). Establishing meaningful relationships leads to igniting the passion for education within students in the years to come.
Early Childhood Education supports these positive interactions and offers effective learning opportunities and experiences to support a child's wellbeing. "Cognitive abilities
and socio-emotional skills, physical and mental health, perseverance, attention, motivation, and self-confidence are important determinants of success" (Kaufman, 2016). Educators strive to establish a working partnership with the student's stakeholders because it sets a standard for their future involvement and promotes a successful future for their child.
During the designing, implementation, and data analysis stages of this project, it was crucial that I continue to understand how to support their cognitive abilities of my students. Because I am working with Kindergarteners, it is essential that I am constantly conscious of their developmental stages and how to enhance their progression during this critical year of school. I am aware of the relationships that needs to be fostered throughout the school year to produce a positive learning environment. So I made it a priority to integrate aspects of their home life and build pilina (relationships) with their families to help bridge the gap between home and school life as well as making sure that the concepts are relevant and significant to the student's lives. This in done in hopes that the project and unit plan leaves a lasting impression, sets the tone for their attitude towards academics, and builds a strong foundation for their comfortability in the school setting.
Culture
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines culture as "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also, the characteristic features of everyday existence (such as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time." Similarly, culture is defined as "an amalgamation of human activity, production, thought, and belief systems" (Ladson-Billings, 2014).
Various communities are created through culture that consists of people with common characteristics and/or interests. As a society, we gravitate to those who we find similarities in because it is easy to create relations with those who we can relate to. Examples of culture that are present in today's society is youth culture, traditional culture, media culture, internet culture, western culture, and so on (Drew, 2023).
Elements that illustrate culture includes religion, race, location, and time as defined by Merriem-Webster. Additionally, elements such as language, sexuality, values, beliefs, traditions, and customs are also cultural factors. For the purposes of this project, I am focusing on the students' culture in relation to their ethnicity and/or location (i.e. local culture.) "Ethnicity is similar in concept to race. But while races have often been distinguished on the basis of physical characteristics, especially skin color, ethnic distinctions generally focus on such cultural characteristics as language, history, religion, and customs" (Montagu, 2001).
Hawaiʻi is considered a melting pot of many different ethnicities due to its history and location. Historically, Hawaiʻi was previously its own sovereign nation but was then forever impacted by the introduction of missionaries who settled in the islands and instilled their religious beliefs and Western way of life (Keehne, 2018). Fast forward, descendants of the missionaries became businessman and brought on plantation workers which further added to the variety of ethnicities in Hawaiʻi. Additionally, the islands are a central point of the Pacific ocean and can serve as a midpoint between larger land masses like the United States to Japan. In modern times, Hawaiʻi is exposed to many outsiders who either come seeking a "island" way of life or travel here for business. This often results in acquisition of residence thus adding to the various cultures already present in the islands.
In an educational setting, many cultures are present within the school system such as an overall school culture, classroom culture, a parent/community culture, etc. Students already come into the school setting with their own experiences of what they are exposed to with their family's culture, also known as Funds of Knowledge (as explained below.) This projects analyzes the practice of utilizing students' culture to benefit and enhance their learning experiences. I designed this project to integrate and welcome culture into the classroom in a way that mirrors the welcoming characteristic of Hawaiʻi.
Culturally responsive pedagogy is referred to by many different names such as culturally relevant, sensitive, centered, congruent, reflective, mediated, contextualized, synchronized, and responsive. However, Geneva Gay defines Culturally Responsive Teaching as “using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them” (Gay, 2000). Similarly, Gloria Ladson-Billings defines culturally relevant pedagogy as “the ability to link principles of learning with deep understanding of (and appreciation for) culture” (Ladson-Billings, 2014).
For the purpose of this study, I will refer to this pedagogy and its practices as Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices (Banks, 2021) or CRTP as this research focuses on connecting student culture as a means to increase rigor, relevance and engagement in student learning. By incorporating CRTP, teachers will be able to create a classroom environment that “promotes conversation, encourages multiple perspectives, builds relationships, and fosters authentic experiences” (Gunn, 2021). The goal for these practices is to nurture academic success for students of all backgrounds while also instilling the importance of their identities and values. This also helps establish a sense of community in the classroom and promotes a student to teacher a relationship based on a foundation of trust and understanding. CRTP focuses on “all children experiencing academic and personal success; building relationships between family, home, and community; celebrating diversity; and making the curriculum relevant to children’s lives” (Gunn, 2021).
There is research that focuses on culturally responsive instruction through the study of implementing culturally relevant literature and instruction at urban elementary charter schools in the northeastern US after "children of color have failed to find a reflection of their identity in school materials" (Ciampa, 2021). The results of this study observed an increase in literacy achievement after integrating "ʻmirror booksʻ which are texts in which readers see a reflection of their identity and experiences" (Ciampa, 2021).
Similarly, in a study by Chelsea N. K. Keehne, M. Waiʻaleʻale Sarsona, Alice J. Kawakami, and Kathryn H. Au follows Hawaiian-focused charter schools and their implementation of culturally responsive instrction. Authors combined the indigenous framework and elements of culturally responsive instruction to promote literacy learning and exploration of cultural identity. Their research found that students must attain high levels of literacy to "understand their cultural identity, gain academic knowledge, and advocate for their communities" (Keehne, 2018). They also learned that "students are motivated to demonstrate cultural and academic proficiency because audiences are composed of family, community members, and content experts." (Keehne, 2018)
Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices
While these studies play as inspirations to this project, I chose to incorporate CRTP into my classroom because there is an absence of research done with the students currently in the Hawaiʻi public school system. With the rollout of Nā Hopena A‘o (“HĀ”), the Hawaii Department of Education created a framework that utilizes and recognizes the unique context of Hawaiʻi and honors the qualities and values of the indigenous Hawaiian culture. “With a foundation in Hawaiian values, language, culture and history, HĀ reflects the uniqueness of Hawaii and is meaningful in all places of learning”(Hawaii DOE, 2015). This reflects the styles of CRTP and can help build upon my students’ understanding and appreciation of their cultures and the cultures around them. "Educators with these strong connections [to community] are central to network schools’ ability to maintain an outward-looking, action-oriented focus." (Keehne, 2018)
By doing this, I will be implementing a Unit Plan that encompasses a CRTP framework thus “linking teaching and curriculum to students’ experiences at home and in their communities” (Howard, 2021). This will provide students with the opportunity to become experts' of their culture, enhance literacy skills, and gain confidence in engaging in conversations with their families, peers, and community. The aim for this research is to identify the best possible approaches, strategies, techniques, and tools that would support my teacher development of a culturally responsive pedagogy.
Implementation of CRTP is based on the framework from James A. Banks’s Transforming Multicultural Education Policy & Practice, Chapter 6 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy by Tyrone C. Howard, 2021. The framework displays five standards as listed:
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Teacher and students producing together through joint activity
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Develop language and literacy competence across the curriculum
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Connecting school to students’ lives by linking teaching and curriculum to students’ experiences at home and in their communities
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Teaching complex thinking
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Teaching through conversation, in particular engaging students in instructional conversations
By integrating a culturally responsive framework into the classroom, this research hopes to determine what kind of impact, if any, that CRTP provides.