Culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2018; Villegas & Lucas, 2002) is a learner-centred approach within multicultural education theory and a framework for understanding many of the complex instruments that underlie the specifics of teaching diverse students. This approach was also conceptualised by Ladson-Billings (1995) as culturally relevant pedagogy and further developed by Paris (2012) into culturally sustaining pedagogy. These approaches focus, first and foremost, on incorporating students’ previous knowledge, experiences, cultures and languages into the educational process to create a rich multicultural learning environment where every opinion and all experience is valued, and students are encouraged to relate their newly acquired knowledge to their previous experiences (Gay, 2018; Paris, 2012; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). It is important to mention that culturally responsive teaching is not exclusively relevant to minority group students, it is beneficial to everyone regardless or cultural background or any other status (Gay, 2018; Nieto, 2010; Villegas & Lucas, 2002).

Marchesani and Adams (1992) presented a model that creates a framework for teachers who work with diverse students. The model includes four essential steps of 1) understanding the teacher’s cultural identity; 2) understanding students’ cultural identities; 3) composing an inclusive curriculum based on the students’ experiences and cultures, especially on their strong points; and 4) applying relevant teaching methods (Marchesani & Adams, 1992). This model is very similar to a model presented by Gay (2001). However, Gay (2001) combines Marchesani and Adams’ (1992) first two steps into one and calls it “developing a cultural diversity knowledge base” (p. 106). 

A cultural diversity knowledge base should be acquired through active dialogue between teachers and students. Especially in the early stages, it is important for teachers to be welcoming and open and not to project their own worldviews and opinions onto the students (Gay, 2001; Nieto, 2010). The next step described by Gay (2001) is identical to the third step described by Marchesani and Adams (1992). It is the teacher’s ability to provide a curriculum grounded in the cultural diversity knowledge base. Creating a multicultural curriculum is regarded as a significant and challenging step. It is important for teachers not to include something from every culture in the world, which is impossible and ends with a trivial and superficial curriculum (Parekh, 2006). Instead, teachers are encouraged to “familiarize students with the major representative forms of the subject in question, concentrate on some of them, and so stimulate them that they follow up the rest on their own” (Parekh, 2006, p. 227). 

The next step, according to Gay (2001), is the teacher’s demonstration of cultural caring and building up a learning environment based on trust and cooperation, where students and teachers become partners who work together to solve problems and construct knowledge. Furthermore, it is essential to promote cross-cultural communication in the classroom through comparing knowledge and transmitting ideas. Gay’s (2001) final step is somewhat identical to Marchesani and Adams’ (1992) and emphasises putting relevant teaching methods into practice and creating cultural harmony in the classroom. 

To summarise, the essence of culturally relevant and responsive teaching is to value and support students’ cultures and languages through actively including them in the learning process.

You may ask “how do you actually include students’ cultures and languages in the learning process?”. Luckily the Icelandic Ministry of Education Science and Culture published practical guidelines for the support of mother tongues and active plurilingualism in schools and afterschool programs. These guidelines can be used by every teacher or parent no matter where in the world they are located. The guidelines are available in English, Icelandic and Polish!

Here are some of my favourite methods that included in the guidelines:

Encourage all students in the class to learn a few words in the mother tongue of the student. This can be one word a week (word of the week) or a few words a week (language of the week).

Allow students who have the same mother tongue to assist each other using the mother tongue in specific projects when appropriate.

Allow students to read comparable texts in their mother tongue, e.g. on Wikipedia, if they can be found there.

Use various languages for communication in different circumstances (such as cards on Environment Day, poems to mother on Mother’s Day, superhero projects).

Celebrate language days (European Day of Languages, 26 September; Icelandic Language Day, 16 November; International Mother Language Day, 21 February).

(Ministry of Education Science and Culture, 2020).

You can download and read the guidelines following the links below.

Further reading:

• Benediktsson, A. I., Wozniczka, A. K., Trần, A.-Đ., & Ragnarsdóttir, H. (2019). Immigrant students’ experiences of higher education in Iceland: Why does culturally responsive teaching matter? Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE), 3(2), 37-54.
• Gay, G. (2015). The what, why, and how of culturally responsive teaching: International mandates, challenges, and opportunities. Multicultural Education Review, 7(3), 123-139. 
• Mensah, F. M. (2021). Culturally relevant and culturally responsive: Two theories of practice for science teaching. Science and Children, 58(4), 10-13.

Watch interview with Zaretta Hammond

References:

Gay, G. (2001). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2), 106-116.

Gay, G. (2018). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (3rd ed.). Teachers College Press. 

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491. 

Marchesani, L., & Adams, M. (1992). Dynamics of diversity in the teaching-learning process: A faculty development model for analysis and action. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 9-20.

Nieto, S. (2010). The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities. Teachers College Press. 

Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97.

Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers rethinking the curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(1), 20-32.