Culturally Relevant, sustaining, and responsive

Students do not come in one shape or size, but yet students have always been defined by their differences, i.e race, class, ability and gender. Today’s classroom is full of diversity; every student brings in a varying set of values, perspectives, and beliefs that all contribute to their learning environment. Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student centered approach to teaching and learning, where teachers encourage diversity and in turn it encourages students achievement. This pedagogy shows the importance of inclusion, acknowledging, and celebrating our students’ culture in all aspects of learning. With a culturally responsive approach, the teacher’s goal is to help all students by developing necessary skills by recreating and recycling knowledge by both parties. For teachers to be culturally responsive they must use the instructional dimension.

The instructional dimension highlights the need of reorganizing the cultural components of school policies, finances, and community involvement. Teachers have to make sure that students all have equal opportunities in their classroom and at school. One example of this is Newcomer Academy. Newcomer Academy is a school in Allentown, Pennsylvania that benefits students who have just arrived into the country and have not been introduced to the american school system. The school district of Allentown noticed a need for their population and opened up a school that would be strongly beneficial to the fast growing immigrant population of their community. This school pushes for a new level of inclusion and acknowledges that this student population needs help. They are embracing student differences and diversity and helping them with their education. They have seen that placing students in this school compared to just putting them in their regular schools, students have been doing exponentially better and are more likely to graduate and continue their education.

Culturally responsive pedagogy recognizes and embraces student’s identities, experiences, and culture. This nurtures students and allows them to not be stereotyped into fitting into a box. The strengths of using CRP in the classroom are that they build academic and socio-emotional skills, affirm students’ social and cultural histories, and help students recognize, analyze, and address social inequality and racist policies. Students who are in strong culturally responsive classrooms benefit because they become more engaged, and build knowledge on their communities culture and history.