Week 27 - Cultural Responsive Pedagogy

What is cultural responsive pedagogy? 

Savage et al 2011 talk about cultural responsive pedagogy as instances where the teachers care for students as culturally located individuals - what does this mean - is it merely personalising learning in a manner that impacts student achievement? Is it where students view the culture of the school to be in sync with their own culture? Culture includes a variety of aspects and I believe cannot be linked solely to race, ethnicity but includes the belief system, values and how students view the world around them which impacts how they learn. Erickson 2010 suggests that culture in schools can be represented at multiple levels, visible and invisible, where a dominant culture can devalue minority cultures within a school even if it views itself as multicultural.

Gay 2010 describe cultural responsive pedagogy as teaching students to and through personal and cultural strengths and so it seems it is where all the elements discussed above come together. Lucky enough to listen to Russell Bishop at a recent TOD, the key elements of his research is still founded in relationship based teaching where teachers provide an environment where students can thrive and there is deep reciprocity and authentic caring. Most of all it was the expectations, Bishop talked about, that underpinned culturally responsive pedagogy where teachers must have high expectations for all.

In relation to learning experiences / activities for students Culturally responsive pedagogy is about all students having equal opportunities to get depth with critical thinking because they can make vital links between their new learning and their prior knowledge. We need to be aware of this prior knowledge when planning our learning experiences and need to gather using a variety of strategies and tools that can activate this prior knowledge or knowledge sharing other than just brainstorming. For a time, I was an English Language Learner teacher and many of the strategies used to prompt critical thinking, so students can acquire language, are related to how culturally responsive pedagogy should look like when it comes to learning experiences. Providing scaffolds, graphic organisers, agentic opportunities to co-construct activities are all important.

Impact on taking action and next steps using the Maori Scale 

Whanaungatanga (Building relationships) is an important principle in the Maori scale to measure culturally responsive practices. As a facilitator coming into classrooms I have very limited time to build relationships with students. When taking action and implementing a new inquiry process, teaching use of digital tools and ultimately gaining feedback around the project based learning process about their teachers, relationships are vital. I need to start with knowing student backgrounds and getting to know the students, building relationships with them by offering them another avenue to interact with me such as digi or coding club. 


As a facilitator I come across this challenge constantly. I have higher expectations of students than their classroom teacher. When I conference with students invariably after I critically question their understanding of work, I will ask then to expand, edit, explain further and I am met with reluctance as their teacher does not have these expectations of them. Classroom teachers constrained by timetables, assessments and time run the risk of ticking off tasks rather than expecting much from the students. I need to work more collaboratively with teachers so we have the same high expectations of students and our communication is clear and consistent

I will continue to support teachers as although we have planned for learning experiences to link to prior knowledge and enhance learning, teachers do not get the depth due to time constraints. Making those links can also occur by providing students opportunities to teach younger and older students and share their new knowledge.