Professional Learning for Culturally Responsive Teaching

1 Equity In Action Professional Learning for Culturally Responsive Teaching rs : In Learning , for Life. Equ it y M a tt e Equity Matters: In Learning , for Life. Communities Flourish When Equity Matters Education expands our understanding of ourselves, the worlds in which we live, and the possibilities of what we can be- come. Students have a right to high-quality Learning opportunities in which their cultures, language, and experiences are valued and used to guide their Learning . Equity is measured by the degree to which people belong, feel included, and are empowered. Universal equity cannot be achieved without creating systems that embody the principles of everyday justice. 2. Professional Learning for Culturally Responsive Teaching Kathleen A.

2 King Alfredo J. Artiles Elizabeth B. Kozleski Arizona State University Equity In Action OESE. Office of Elementary and June, 2009. Secondary Education Equity Matters: In Learning , for Life 3. Professional Learning for Culturally Responsive Teaching has the potential to address achieve- ment gaps across ethnic groups and disproportionate representation in special education for students from Culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This Equity In Action has a twofold purpose: (a) to demonstrate the need for rethinking current approaches to Professional learn- ing and (b) to provide guidelines for Professional Learning for Culturally Responsive Teaching , as well as research-supported examples of schools and districts engaged in this process.

3 Professional Learning For Culturally This approach is called Culturally re- In a National Academy of Sciences Responsive Teaching sponsive Teaching , which is defined by commissioned review of Learning Ladson-Billings (1995a) as possessing theory and research, Bransford, Brown, At a time in the United States when these eight principles: and Cocking (2000) located this model schools across the country have in the so-called student-centered ap- labored to improve results for All proaches. Developing a knowledge students as a result of massive policy Communication of High base that is grounded in the notions of changes, several key outcomes remain Expectations Culturally Responsive Teaching is an im- intractable.

4 Two outcomes, in par- portant leap forward in understanding ticular, remain troubling; achievement Active Teaching Methods the gap between students' experiences gaps across ethnic groups of students and histories and teachers' knowledge persist, and subgroups of students Teacher as Facilitator and expectations about what schools from Culturally and linguistically diverse and classrooms are supposed to look (CLD) backgrounds continue to be Inclusion of Students who like. However, as the Report of the identified and placed in special educa- are Culturally and Linguis- AERA Panel on Research in Teacher tion at disproportionate rates (Artiles & tically Diverse Education (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, Bal, 2008; Teese et al.))

5 , 2007). Ac- Cultural Sensitivity 2005) suggests, the preparation of new cording to the most recent analysis of teachers is only recently addressing national data, the risk for dispropor- Reshaping the Curriculum the link between culture and Learning tionality for African American students in substantive ways. This means that in some states is as high as 4 times Student-Controlled the current Teaching force has had little as likely as for all other students in the Classroom Discourse formal preparation in conceptualizing category of emotional disturbance and and framing practice as cultural work as low as 25 percent as likely in other Small Group Instruction and/or through a cultural prism. Profes- states (Sullivan & Kozleski, 2008).

6 As and Academically-Related sional Learning must therefore assume special education reform efforts shift to Discourse an important role in engaging practicing focus on early intervening in general teachers in examining and transforming education classrooms, an important their own practice in ways that ac- aspect of redressing disproportionality knowledge the critical role that culture remains teachers' access to resources and language play in Learning . and Professional Learning opportu- nities that can help them redesign There is much to celebrate about the Learning environments to address the increasingly sophisticated understand- educational needs of their increasingly ing of the role of Professional Learning diverse students.

7 In the Teaching profession. Ongoing Professional Learning is more and more 4. We begin this piece on Equity In Action However, learners' performance in by highlighting a set of principles to everyday activities is not solely shaped guide Professional Learning experi- by their own developmental character- ences that foster Culturally Responsive istics. Performance is also mediated Teaching . Next, we identify four key by the nature of events ( , linguistic arenas that have been at the forefront and cognitive demands, etc.) and the of teacher Learning research in the last institutional conditions in which events 10 years. Finally, we provide exemplars take place ( , rules, assigned roles, of Professional Learning efforts for cul- expectations) (Gallego et al.)

8 , 2001). turally Responsive Teaching from each research arena, that are grounded in Professional Learning that is informed the Professional Learning principles, by these key assumptions can better and which demonstrate Professional prepare teachers to practice Culturally Learning opportunities that prepare Responsive Teaching . As we explain teachers to work for equity, participa- in this brief, this kind of Professional localized in classrooms rather than in tion, and access for All students. Learning provides teachers with op- traditional Professional development portunities for and guidance in the workshops (Bransford et al., 2000). Key Principles Of Professional examination of how their own beliefs This approach elevates the role of and knowledge about Teaching are Learning To Prepare Culturally the teacher as learner and is influenc- mediated by their educational experi- ing the ways in which states, school Responsive Teachers ences and sociocultural backgrounds districts, and local public schools are as well as institutional and situational Professional Learning principles making time for ongoing Professional demands of their work.

9 Knowledge emerged from a variety of research Learning among teachers. about Teaching must be more than a traditions, particularly those focused deep understanding of subject matter. on sociocultural perspectives, which However, much Professional Learning explore the relationship between Although content knowledge is an im- research and practice still omits discus- individual psychological characteristics portant element related to Professional sion about cultural considerations. At and a practice based model of human Learning , Culturally Responsive practice times, the need for understanding the development and Learning (Artiles, infuses content with an understanding cultural nature of Teaching and learn- 1996; Rogoff, 1990, 2003).

10 This theory of the cultural nature of Learning . ing is noted without in-depth analysis of human development enables us about how culture mediates student Understanding the need to explore to understand the ways in which and teacher classroom interactions and personal and Professional identities as children's and adults' participation in Learning processes. This practitioner well as the necessity of responding to everyday (cultural) practices whether brief is designed to explore a missing the strengths and needs that students they take place in classrooms, homes, dimension of Professional Learning : from all cultural backgrounds bring or playgrounds shape their develop- Culturally Responsive Teaching .