Developing Culturally Responsive Educational Systems, Resources, and Practices

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Developing Culturally Responsive Educational
Systems, Resources, and Practices
National Center for Culturally Responsive
Educational Systems
Shelley Zion August 16, 2005 Wisconsin Summer
Institute
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NCCREStNational TA D Center

• Provide technical assistance and professional
  development to
• close the achievement gap between students from
  culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
  and their peers, and
• reduce inappropriate referrals to special
  education.

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Outcomes
? the use of prevention and early intervention
strategies, ? inappropriate referrals to special
education, and ? the of schools using
effective literacy and behavioral interventions
for students who are culturally and
linguistically diverse.
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Features of Culturally Responsive Educational
Systems

• Culture, language, heritage, and experiences of
  ALL students and families are
• valued
• respected and
• used to facilitate learning and development.

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Features of Culturally Responsive Educational
Systems

1. Practitioners and Administrators assume
   responsibility for the learning of ALL students
   from ALL cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
2. Every student benefits academically,
   socioculturally linguistically.
3. Access to high quality teachers, programs,
   curricula, and resources is available to every
   student.

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Whats in an Educational System?

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What is Systemic Change?

• SimultaneousRenewal in Multiple Layers of the
  System

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Changing the vision

• Eliminating disproportionality is an adult
  issue. (Joseph Olchefske, Superintendent of
  Seattle Schools)
• We must change the way we think about ability,
  competence and success and encourage schools to
  redefine support so that the need to sort
  children is reduced. (Testimony before the
  Presidents Commission, 2002)

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Why Culturally Responsive Educational Systems?

• Access
• Participation
• Equity

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Questions-

• What do you see as barriers to access,
  participation, and equity in your systems?
• What are you doing that is assisting with the
  removal of those barriers?
• What do you need to continue to create
  opportunities for access, participation, and
  equity?

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Building Culturally Responsive Systems

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Engaging People
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Questions-

• What works to ensure presence, participation, and
  emancipation?
• What challenges exist?

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Examining Policies
Federal

• Educate
• Inform
• Equitable
• Emancipate
• Create Access

State
District
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Questions-

• Think about a current policy that you are
  implementing in the district/school- what have
  you done to educate? Inform? Ensure equity?

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Examining Practice

• Discourse
• Tools
• Collaboration
• Evidence

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Questions-

• Choose an area of your practice- think about the
  tools you need, the opportunities for
  collaboration and discourse, and the evidence
  that this is an effective practice

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So What Should be the Focus of Change?
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How do we know what to change or where to begin?
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Data about People

• Who are our students?
• What are their concerns?
• How are they doing?
• Are different groups of students experiencing
  different levels of success?
• What do we know about their school experiences?

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People

• Students- who is achieving? Who is not? Who is
  in what programs?
• Families- What is involvement? Who is involved?
  Who is not?
• Communities- Have you identified community
  assets? Are community partners represented in
  all conversations?
• Practitioners- Do practitioners have time to
  work together? Do practitioners receive support,
  resources, and training? Is there a plan in
  place to recruit diverse practitioners? How do
  practitioners become aware of the importance of
  culture- their own, and others?
• Administrators- Do administrators come together
  to share successes and challenges? Do they have
  support, resources, and training? Are
  administrators committed to leading in a
  culturally responsive educational system?

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What do we know about practices?

• What is being taught and how?
• What is being learning and by whom?
• What are the contexts for learning?
• Do they differ from classroom to classroom?
• From school to school?
• Why?

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Practices

• Curriculum
• Instruction
• Assessment
• Pre-referral and referral processes
• Discipline
• Graduation and post-secondary supports

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What do we know about policies?

• How do classroom policies affect different kinds
  of learners?
• How do school policies affect different kinds of
  learners?
• What about district or state policies?
• What policies help practitioners reach out to
  their students?

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Policies

• Explicit
• Flexible
• Equitable
• Evaluated
• Revised

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Culturally Responsive Practices What are they?
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Personal

• Individuals value cultural diversity as well as
  cultural similarities, holding respect for the
  unique characteristics of each individual, and
  acknowledging the similarities we all share as
  well.
• Individuals believe in the relevance of learning
  about and valuing customs, traditions and beliefs
  he or she is unfamiliar with, in order to
  understand and appreciate cultural diversity
  better.
• Individuals see themselves as agents of change,
  assuming the role and responsibility of providing
  students with empowering instruction, being
  committed with the political nature of their
  work.
• Individuals are aware of the influence cultural
  knowledge that children bring to school has in
  their way of thinking, behaving, being and
  learning.
• Individuals are interested in knowing about the
  lives of their students, getting to know more
  about students experiences outside school.

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Personal

• What needs to happen in order for educators to
  develop these beliefs?

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Professional Practices

• Values individuals cultural and linguistic
  knowledge and skills, using them as resources for
  moving ahead, instead of focusing on differences
  or deficiencies
• Holds high professional and personal expectations
  for others
• Treats others as competent, assuming their
  success.
• Encourages others to develop a broader and
  critical consciousness about social inequalities
  and the status quo.
• Facilitates going beyond the constrained ways of
  knowing, and a single version of truth.
• Builds bridges between everyday experiences and
  new ideas
• Encourages individuals to apply cultural
  knowledge in their work
• Supports professional learning so that it becomes
  a contextualized and meaningful experience.
• Leads in multidimensional ways that surface
  beliefs, feelings and factual information in
  teaching practices.

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Professional

• What needs to happen in order for educators to
  develop these skills?

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Institutional Practice

• Provide organization members with opportunities
  to consume and create new knowledge, by embracing
  a culture of inquiry. Active work as scholars
  allows them to address problems or questions
  through the systematic study of teaching and
  learning.
• Promote a collaborative environment, by providing
  time for teams to share read and think together
  about what they are doing and how it improves
  cultural practice
• Encourage and organize the use of staff resources
  to gather and develop knowledge about culturally
  responsive practices, inside and outside the
  organization.
• Make effective use of everyones time,
  responsibilities and materials to provide
  learning opportunities about culturally
  responsive practices in daily work.
• Embrace organizational values, beliefs and norms
  that support culturally responsive professional
  communities.
• Adopt leadership styles that allow collaborative
  work at the different administrative levels.

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Institutional

• What needs to happen in order for institutions to
  change?

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Building Culturally Responsive Systems-
Committing to an Equity Agenda

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References

• Bowers, C. Flinders, D. (1991). Culturally
  responsive teaching and supervision A handbook
  for staff development. New York Teachers College
  Press.
• Bowers, C. Flinders, D. (1990). Responsive
  teaching An ecological approach to classroom
  patterns of language, culture and thought. New
  York Teachers College Press.
• Gay, D. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching.
  New York Teachers College Press
• Hollins, E. (1996). Culture in school learning
  Revealing the deep meaning. Mahwah, NJ Lawrence
  Erlbaum Associates.
• Irvine, J. Armento, B. (2001). Culturally
  responsive teachers Lesson planning for
  elementary and middle grades. New York
  McGraw-Hill.
• Ladson-Billings, G. (1994) The dreamkeepers
  Successful teachers of African American children.
  San Francisco Jossey Bass.
• Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But thats just good
  teaching! The case for culturally relevant
  pedagogy. Theory into practice, 34(3), p.159-165.
• Lang, M., Olson, J., Hansen, H. Bunder, W.
  (1999). Introduction. In M. Lang, J. Olson, H.
  Hansen W. Bunder (Eds.), Changing
  schools/changing practices Perspectives on
  educational reform and teacher professionalism
  (pp. 9-21). Louvain, Belgium Garant.
• Lieberman, A. (1995). Restructuring schools The
  dynamics of changing practice, structure, and
  culture. In A. Lieberman (Ed.), The work of
  restructuring schools Building from the ground
  up (pp. 1-17). New York Teachers College Press.
• Little, J. (1999). Organizing schools for teacher
  learning. In L. Darling-Hammond G. Sykes
  (Eds.), Teaching as a learning profession
  Handbook of policy and practice (pp. 233-262).
  San Francisco Jossey-Bass.
• Villegas, A. M. Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing
  culturally responsive teachers Rethinking the
  curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, Vol.
  53(1), p.20-32.