Culturally Responsive Teaching

The authors argue that an industrial model of teaching is outdated in a culture that is now realizing fundamental changes in the areas of inquiry, the natural sciences and social dynamics. Conditions in the society in which a person lives help to shape how that person uses language, interacts socially and perceives the world and other people. Teachers and teachers' supervisors must be aware that it is not necessarily what information they present, but how they present it that determines whether their audience internalizes it. The authors of this book propose a culturally responsive model of teaching - one that attends to the influences of a person's "primary" culture - in which the classroom is seen as an ecology of language and cultural patterns. While emphasizing the immediate, practical applications of this model in the classroom, the authors also focus on such new areas of awareness in the teacher as observing students' behaviour and performance through culturally attuned eyes, and striking a balance between instructors' authority and solidarity with students.
The book concludes with 11 sets of guidelines to help the educator recognize and respond to cultural stereotypes in the teacher and in the student. These guides list the important points to be considered and include helpful examples of patterns that appear in the classroom. Eight of the guides focus on specific aspects of the mental and social ecology of the classroom, including nonverbal communication, metaphor, gender bias, student participation, and other sensitive areas of teaching diverse students. Two guides address subject areas - science and mathematics - that have typically (and mistakenly) been considered free of cultural bias by virtue of their being more content-oriented. Also included is an analysis of the structure of the lesson that provides a more gestalt view of teaching. All pre- and in-service teachers and supervisors/educators of these individuals, should benefit from the model this book encourages.