Who's In My Classroom?. Tim Fredrick

social change, and contributes to their engagement, learning, growth, and achievement through the cultivation of critical thinking.”²⁹

A New America report published in 2019 noted that, “All 50 states embed some combination of culturally responsive teaching competencies into their standards.”³⁰ But they found that many state standards are written in vague ways that do not provide teachers with sufficient guidance about how to meet the standards:

      Forty-seven states widely expect teachers to exhibit high expectations for all students, though no state explicitly addresses how low expectations are commonly associated with race, class, culture, language, gender and sexual orientation, or disability status.

Similarly, New York asks teachers to be “responsive to the economic, social, cultural, linguistic, family, and community factors that influence their students’ learning,” yet the state does not provide an additional element that captures how teachers are supposed to be “responsive to” students’ “cultural factors.” Rhode Island likewise requires teachers to “design instruction that accommodates individual differences (e.g., stage of development, learning style, English language acquisition, cultural background, learning disability) in approaches to learning,” but it provides no other elements to elaborate on this competency. Reasonably, a lack of specificity makes it difficult for educators to act upon the expectations.³¹

      These findings make two things clear: States across the country are requiring teachers to demonstrate teaching competence in ways that are responsive to the developmental and cultural needs of students, and few states provide the rationale and support that make it possible for teachers to do so. That's why we wrote this book.

Becoming a Developmentally and Culturally Responsive Teacher

      So what makes teachers developmentally and culturally responsive? In my work, I've found that developmentally and culturally responsive teaching is demonstrated when teachers design and implement lessons that engage students intellectually in a supportive and nurturing environment that values them as assets. You can see it in the learning experiences described by the students in this chapter, and you'll see more throughout this book.

Developmentally and culturally responsive teachers have a basic understanding of the developmental sciences, which we've briefly reviewed in this book. Study and experience help them also understand the characteristics of cognitive, physical, linguistic, social, and emotional development that are typical of students within the age ranges they teach.

      Developmentally and culturally responsive teachers also model empathy and care and make connections with students by purposefully seeking to learn about them, their families, and how they've navigated life both inside and outside of school.

      I've also found that developmentally and culturally responsive teachers have certain “habits of mind” that shape how they plan and implement lessons. For example, they acknowledge and question their beliefs and expectations about all children and particularly children from backgrounds different from their own. In developing their lessons, they also draw on their knowledge of children's cultural backgrounds and experiences outside of school. They view children's experiences outside of school as sources of strength that can positively contribute to school performance. They see their lessons as opportunities to foster their students’ motivation and belief in their ability to succeed in school.

Ultimately, as Zaretta Hammond noted in her book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain,³² developmentally and culturally responsive teaching is “not a practice” but what “informs our practice” by enabling teachers to meet the developmental needs of children in culturally responsive ways.

Finally, here's a paradox. Having greater knowledge of the cultural backgrounds of your students isn't a prerequisite for being developmentally and culturally responsive. It's mostly a consequence of it. When we think of this knowledge as a prerequisite, it suggests that we can't teach in a developmentally and culturally responsive way until after we've acquired that knowledge. As we noted earlier, that can paralyze teachers. If you teach in a reasonably diverse school, just learning about the religions and home foods of your students could take months of study. Another problem is that teachers can treat getting to know their students as a one-off exercise in extracting information. I've seen teachers lead activities to quickly get to know their students at the beginning of the school year, but fail to sustain the discussion and curiosity throughout the year—or worse, use the information to form settled judgments about students. That can lead to surface-level and even stereotypical and biased perspectives of students. However, when we view this knowledge more as a consequence, then we focus on how we can employ developmentally and culturally responsive practices in an intentional and consistent way over time.

What Teachers Can Do

      My work with teachers and school administrators has taught me that teachers who become more developmentally and culturally responsive become more self-aware of their current practices, deepen their knowledge of how their students develop and learn, and learn effective new teaching skills. Here are ways to do that.

      1. Reflect on your current teaching and disciplinary practices.

      In “Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools,” UCLA professor Dr. Tyrone Howard recommends that to become more culturally responsive we need to reflect on our responses to key questions, including:

       whether there are racial, ethnic, gender, or economic characteristics common to students who are referred for special needs services, gifted education, or AP courses;

       how frequently we differentiate instruction;

       whether we allow culturally based differences in language, speech, reading, and writing to shape our perceptions about students’ cognitive ability; and

       how often we include nontraditional means of assessment (such as role-playing, skits, poetry, rap, self-evaluations, Socratic seminars, journaling, student-led conferences, or cooperative group projects) as part of our assessment practices.

Percy Lujan, 18, attended a school for recent immigrants from countries with widely varying political systems. An important goal for the school was to help students understand American democracy. Here's how one history teacher used creative approaches to deepen student understanding and assess learning:

      When we studied the French Revolution, Ms. Sara helped us understand how history is still relevant by making us participate in the class as if we were history's protagonists. She first divided us into groups representing the three estates that existed in France at that time, and then she had members of each group research their assigned estate. We had to write and give a speech in front of the class, expressing the point of view of our estate. Ms. Sara and her assistant acted as Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, commenting on the ideas that they “liked” and acting offended about the ideas they didn't. That class discussion made me realize the beauty of democracy and why some people die to obtain it.

      In addition to Dr. Howard's questions, I also ask the teachers I support to reflect on whether there are racial, ethnic, gender, or economic characteristics common to students who tend to receive discipline referrals.

      Jeimmy Hurtado, 16, describes a classic case of gender-based disciplinary policies:

      “You with the spandex, come here.” My principal, who was lounging on the school security desk, motioned with her index finger for me to come forward. My legs stayed glued to the ground as I glanced around at the other students who rushed past me. It took me a moment to register that she was talking to me. I was the only one wearing spandex, but why was she calling me over? Every bad thing I