EducationDive, an online resource that provides context and clarify to esoteric educational research, offers insight into a recent report by New America that suggests “Some states’ teaching standards lack details on cultural responsiveness.”
The “dive brief” explains that teaching standards in all 50 states “include some reference to showing respect for students’ cultural diversity or [link] the curriculum to students’ race and ethnicity, but only a few [states] describe what being culturally responsive looks like,” illuminating possible shortcomings. In the report, which thoroughly examines each state’s teaching standards, analysis shows that 28 states presume educators will “reflect on their own cultural lens and potential biases,” and that only three states – Alabama, Washington, and Minnesota – “specifically recommend that teachers become familiar with institutional biases.”
In fact, Washington is the only state commended for its specificity in asking teachers to understand “unearned privilege,” and to recognize how “prejudice, discrimination and racism are different and engaging students in discussions around these issues.”
The authors of this report advise states to “revise their standards to incorporate more of the competencies,” which can include “promoting real-world problem solving” and using “culturally and linguistically responsive communication.” In short, treating culturally responsive teaching (CRT) as an “add-on” in policy diminishes the likelihood of teacher support for CRT and satisfactory teaching methods for students.
As the “dive insight” portion of the report states, the diversity of school-age children in the United States is growing at “a far faster rate than that of the teacher workforce.” It behooves policymakers and education leaders, therefore, to invest in CRT and to generate awareness “of how [teacher] assumptions about students’ backgrounds, interests, or strengths might limit future opportunities for those students.” The report also calls for professional development that would encourage CRT in a teacher’s subject area.
