What Does It Mean to be a “Culturally-Responsive” Teacher

Growing up attending elementary schools in small towns, most students don’t receive proper education on various important topics, such as social justice and multiculturalism. Their views on cultural diversity typically change—sometimes, drastically—when they enter college. As teachers, it’s important for us to be more “culturally-responsive” and make our students more aware. But, what does it mean to be a culturally responsive educator?

You need to understand that culture is essential to student learning. This implies that you need to know your students’ backgrounds, traditions, and celebrations that they recognize in their culture. A great place to start becoming a culturally responsive teacher is with respect. You should promote self-respect and respect for others so that you can begin building these relationships with your students. It is easy to implement social justice and diversity topics in any lesson. It can be as simple as changing the book that you're reading to your students so that you're studying a topic of greater significance. You can also consider changing the subject.

Teachers need to plan to teach for social justice in their classrooms by celebrating diversity every day. You want to ensure that each one of your students feels included and represented inside of the classroom. Another great thing you can do for culturally responsive teaching is to push your students to “talk back to the world”. Help them understand the concept of the head to heart to hands to make a greater change in different communities and the world as a whole.

Be more unique in your approach! Be a culturally responsive teacher!

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