(soft solemn music) - The world is a kaleidoscope in terms of ideas, in terms of shades of people, shapes of people, in terms of abilities.

And that kaleidoscope makes for a really rich and interesting palette.

It's important for teachers to recognize that the students who end up in their classrooms are individuals who have individual needs.

- The system that has been set up is no longer working.

Diversity in our schools has changed, so we have to change.

But change is hard.

You like me, you work with me, you want to hang out with me, you want to talk with me, help our students because they are me.

I am them.

(dreamy music) - There are a lot of benefits that students get from having teachers who engage in culture responsive practices.

The research shows that when teachers engage in culturally responsive practices, students are more likely to be engaged in school.

They're more likely to be motivated in school.

There's also reductions in problem behaviors as well.

And we also know that culture responsive practices are related to academic achievement, so things like reading and math achievement, as well as writing.

- Cultural competency training was a requirement developed by the state in law back in 2017.

They required, very broadly speaking, a cultural competency training.

There wasn't a lot of language around it in law of what it meant.

So we went through a meeting about what could cultural competency training look like for teachers with thousands of stakeholders.

We came up with quite a robust definition that has lots and lots of words to it to help define it for folks so they knew what exactly should happen.

- So the answer to the question, what is culturally responsive teaching?

I think it's important to go back to something that Gloria Ladson-Billings wrote, which is to say that it's just good teaching.

Teachers recognizing that students who come into their classrooms bring with them their lived experiences or the cultures that they exist in.

(upbeat music) In order for teachers to do a really great job of engaging students, they need to include those lived experiences or that culture that these students bring in.

- If you think of it less like something extra to do, but more something that's really going to make your life easier as a teacher, I think that that's a better way to look at it.

And I definitely have heard that kind of feedback from teachers that it makes it easier for them in the classroom because there's less problem behaviors and also students are performing better.

- One of the big misconceptions is when people think about culturally relevant teaching, when they hear the word culture, they think the word race, and we really need to, as a profession and all the institutes kind of get people to get off of that.

It's not about race.

Race is part, underneath the umbrella of culture, but it's just a small part of it.

- We know that culture responsive practices work for black students, but we also know that these practices benefit all students in the classroom, regardless of their race or cultural background.

It's really important for teachers to implement these practices because it really helps every student that they have in the classroom.

- Culturally competence training really talks about the teacher itself, sort of their internal reflection.

Our rule has two parts to it.

First of all, understanding and self-reflection on different cultural groups, students with learning disabilities, gender identity, sexual orientation, including race and culture, sort of all those pieces, and then a whole part on implicit bias.

So that's cultural competence and that's the training that the state has required.

Culturally relevant pedagogy is sort of the next step to that.

The ability for that teacher to understand and reflect on the students in their classroom and create lessons, creative learning experiences, that use the lived experience and the culture of the students in their classroom.

- Students have lives outside of schools that impact the way in which they're likely going to be able to take up and participate in academic settings.

(dreamy music) - I think it's really important for teachers to take some of these practices and implement them in order to make sure that they're able to reach all of their students, to reach the students that are racially and culturally diverse, and really be able to more personalize the education and know what students need and be able to connect with them.

- You can sing it, you can rap it, you can dance it.

Building relationships is a key.

And I think coming in there, that's the first thing I do is build relationships, not only with my students, but with my staff members.

We cannot do anything else until we have the foundation of that relationship.

That creates a safe place for teachers, admins, everyone to come ask questions as I ask questions.

We have to learn from each other.

- So the idea is you build trust with the students and you can do that by honoring their culture.

And then after you've done that, and you're trying to teach them, we'll say, for lack of a better example, the five paragraph essay.

So we could take all those lovely ideas you just expressed.

Now, can you express them like this?

And if you take the time to meet them where they're at first, they're more likely to come along with you, less likely to butt heads.

- As a teacher, part of your work is to unpack who are these people in your class and what are the opportunities that you can use to engage them in the curriculum?

Push this curiosity button that all of us come in the world with.

- The standards, I would say broadly throughout, really try to represent equity and cultural competence in different aspects.

But there is a standard that very specifically uses the words culturally relevant.

The teacher collaborates with students and designs and implements culturally relevant learning experiences.

But it's really talking about what are those learning experiences, or lesson plans, if you think sort of a formal way that you can do in collaboration with students that connect to their lived experiences, connect to their cultures, make the learning real for them versus the sort of the traditional model of a teacher sitting down, perhaps with a textbook where they pull lessons from, and figure out, okay, what lessons do I think are best for these students, and then provide those lessons.

- You know, my philosophy is that the requirements exist, but I also feel like the higher goal is what we should be doing.

And if we do what we should be doing, then the requirements get met.

So yes, we're gonna meet the requirements, but I'm more motivated by what we should be doing.

I'm more motivated to do what children deserve, and if we give children what they deserve, then the requirements are sort of beside the point.

- Middle school is just so sweet, because they're not really babies, but they're not really yet teens.

They're still trying to figure themselves out.

And I think this is a time where they get to see life.

'Cause in elementary, you're kind of sheltered.

Okay, you're getting a taste of what real life is.

You're getting a taste of what real homework is and grades.

So I think this is like, I'm almost there, but I'm not there yet experience for them.

So they're like in a weird place, but a cute place.

- Middle school is a really interesting time-space for thinking about culturally responsive practices for teachers because of where students are at in their development.

Ideas about who they are and where they fit in their communities, where they fit in their family.

You know, this notion of identity formation, their bodies are growing, they're growing.

- We have to recognize that it is important for all students of all different levels but I think in middle school, in particular, there's a really big push for identity development.

For one, we know from the research that cultural responsive practices really help all students in the classroom.

But we also know that there are disparities in education and that racially and culturally diverse students are not always doing as well academically.

When students are really trying to figure out who they are and figure out where they fit in, that culturally responsive practices probably has a really big impact.

- Eight years ago, when I started the process, it was definitely hard.

And one of the reasons I first felt like how I was teaching was wrong, so defensive immediately.

But when I allowed myself to see the theory for what it is that well, no, I'm not doing it wrong, I just need to add something.

And you will see that it is in fact, a good idea.

Being defensive at first, I can help people like, no, I got defensive too, but if you try it, you'll see, it'll work.

I promise you.

- We know that these practices will help students and teachers connect and have a better relationship.

That can really be to families as well.

- [Chrishon] Like the first term of the year, I really was like, lacking on my schoolwork and things like that.

But then like later on in the year, I started really, like, really getting all my stuff, really doing my work.

- [Interviewer] What changed for you over the year?

- My attitude, the way I do things.

I matured a lot.

- We work harder as a staff, we have lots of meetings, like two a week, where we break down every single student and we talk about their grades, of course, how they're doing on work turn in.

But then we also talk about their strengths.

What do we know about them outside of school that could be getting in the way?

How might we support that?

We get a teacher to be the go-to for any type of communication and connection.

- Having a teacher who is engaging in these practices and really gets to know their students, that they're also more likely to know their families as well.

And that can increase things like family engagement.

And we know that family engagement is also related to a student's academic achievement.

- In the conferences we were sitting in the hallways and two teachers run by.

And I didn't think they knew who we were.

And they was like, "Oh my God, "that's Chrishon's mom and dad.

"We love him, he's a great student, yada, yada, yada."

And they had to go and meet some other parents.

And they was like, "Good seeing you guys."

And we was like, we just like, wow.

And you know, another, we walking to go to another class, and another teacher was like, you know, "He's a great student.

You know, he's very intelligent, "he's very hands-on, he's very smart."

And I was telling him that like, dude, like, keep that up, man.

Don't be afraid to be smart.

If you don't know something, ask for help.

You know, not everybody knows everything.

- All of the practices that teachers would engage in are things that would resonate with families and things that families would say, you know, it would be better if my child's teacher had a stronger relationship with them.

- [Brent] You start with positive, always, whether talking about a student or talking to a parent.

To meet the students where they're at and bring them where you need them, but in a respectful way.

- The teachers are more in tune with the kids.

And it, I'm not gonna say that the teachers didn't care back when we was in school, but now it's, the teachers can relate more.

If you can reach one, teach one.

They really care.

When they email us or we call, it's like, "Oh, I'm sorry to email you."

No, don't be.

Like, I want that, good or bad.

If he's slacking off, if he's doing good.

If me and mom could talk to him and get him back on the right track, that's what we're here for.

You guys are there to do it, and we're here to do it.

And, you know, through email and through conferences, we all work together for his common goal.

- I was really down on my grades and he really just wanted me to stay after school so he could help me with it.

- It makes a huge difference.

If you can take those extra five to 10 minutes to get through to him or her or them, you know, by all means do it.

- There are a lot of schools and school districts that are providing professional development.

There are also a lot of resources online, a lot of books that help teachers to be able to reflect and understand equity and bias and how to incorporate these practices into the classroom.

- This isn't something that you do on the first day of school or the first week of school and boop, you're done, you got it.

Culture is mutable.

It's always changing.

Sometimes it's changing really quickly and other times it's slowly changing.

But the reality of course, is that it's always in movement.

Why?

Because people are adding to it and people are taking away from it.

Your work to understand and be responsive to the culture of the students that are coming into your class doesn't end.

There's a lot that you can do to get in front of that process, starting with yourself.

Unpacking myself, to begin to unpack my students.

- There are lots of elements that make up who we are and that it's multifaceted and we can't lump ourselves or our children into categories based upon what we see.

- Well, there's always gonna be teachers who maybe struggle with, I wouldn't say they resist it.

I think it's just that they feel overwhelmed.

And it's true that we generally, throughout the year and every year, have many things added to our plates and nothing's taken away.

- I think one of the things that teachers sort of, who are afraid of this, miss out on is expanding their perspective of what people are like outside of the narrow bands of their sort of affinity groups, whether it's their family or other teachers or other folks who look like them, who think like them, who operate like them.

- If you can find one thing for somebody to latch onto that works for them, I find that then they become more open to the entire process.

'Cause is it is quite broad, despite what some people, what their perceptions happen to be.

So if you can sit down with somebody and get a sense for what their teaching style is, you can find something that they can latch on to.

- There's so many decisions that we make every moment about what we're going to teach or how we're going to react to a behavior or how we're going to communicate that are made because of the lenses that we have.

Why do I think the thing I think?

And if one person is in charge and not a lot of people's voices being part of the mix, then it's no wonder that we have schools where many children aren't successful because that's so few perspectives being part of how we decide what success even looks like.

Be responsible, be respectful, be kind, and be your best, make it a great Wednesday.

- I would start off getting to know your students.

That's the first and foremost.

Who are they?

What do they like?

What are they interested in?

I mean, a lot of teachers may say all that doesn't mean anything in middle school, we have a curriculum, we have targets that we need to hit before the end of the year.

Again, until you build those relationships, it won't work.

So first key is getting to know your students, find out what they like, what are they into, bringing that into the classroom.

I start the beginning of the year by going through and including different cultures.

First, I needed to figure out what type of students I'm gonna have, who they are, get a little background on them.

So when they come to the classroom, the first thing they hear is music.

And that music is all different genres.

I like hip hop, like R&B, jazz, country, all of the above, gospel.

So they come in and that already sets the tone for them of just giving them, okay, it's been a rough day, maybe something happened at home, last night they didn't get dinner, or maybe they seen something they shouldn't have seen, or maybe there was a fight on the bus.

So removing all of that and letting them know in the class, this is a fresh day.

So they walk in, they hear the music, regardless if they like it, eventually they start catching the tone.

George Floyd changed a lot.

And I think witnessing nine minutes of that video has changed our society and our culture as a whole.

I think it's opening the door for a lot of, let me see, let me step back, let me get a different look.

- For example, the protesting in recent years, that may seem new to me as a student.

That's not new at all.

It's almost like they learn history backwards because they've not been alive for very long.

And then as they go backwards, they go, "Oh, it's over there and it's over there."

Whether it's their personal connections, their language, maybe their cultural history and is there anything that we can use to enhance their learning?

How much your school values teachers meeting with the teachers above and below your grade.

Like, elementary school does a good job of doing that usually because of course, they're younger and there's so much more, like, microscope, watching them.

But as they get older, their letter grade doesn't tell you anything about them.

It just tells you whether they turn things in, but you don't know how they turned it in or what they actually did to earn it.

I feel schools that do take the time to have teachers meet and say, tell me more about this student and why were they successful?

The successful ideas tend to transfer.

What's the best thing for the kids?

And then once I find out what it was, once I realize cultural responsive teaching is really the thing that kind of reaches most kids, okay, now I'm just gonna refine it more.

I'm gonna be sharper with it.

Do I know all my students' strengths?

If you can't answer that right away, that's usually a good sign to say, you know what?

I don't really know them as well as I could have known them.

If I've been doing the same activity for 5, 6, 7, 8 years, and I'm not gaining very engaged looks, maybe I need to look inside my practice a little bit.

I need to be vulnerable and reach out to my coaches and to my principals and all that.

And that takes trust.

Just be vulnerable and say, "I need help."

You're not a bad teacher.

We all have bad days.

And we all have tough classes, but I can't think of any teacher who wants to say, I just want to go to class every day or go to school every day and, and beat my head against the wall with kids who don't look interested.

I don't think I've ever met a teacher who wants to do that.

- We decide, and whoever we is, we is sometimes me, we is whoever has power, decides what other people need instead of letting people be their own best expert.

When I started education, and right now in education, there's always somebody who's in control.

There's somebody who has power.

There's somebody who is supposedly the expert, the one who knows telling everyone else what the children need.

Right now, coming off of a pandemic, we're talking about learning loss and what the children need.

And what the children need is for us to acknowledge everything they've learned in the last year, to acknowledge who they are and to acknowledge that their hearts need something right now, too, just as much as we need to figure out what they might've lost with regard to reading and writing and arithmetic.

So I guess me coming in and saying that we have to do this together was different.

Me coming in and saying that if we're gonna do it together, that also means listening to our kids, was markedly different.

And it was certainly different given the fact that our school population looked so much, or does look so much different than our staff.

And that was going to mean listening to many voices that would have things to say that were probably different than our own experiences.

- It really is a way to incorporate equity because we know that it is a strategy that really help all students and especially helps students who are racially and culturally diverse.

A lot of it is related to teacher/student relationships, and really understanding your students, understanding their backgrounds, their cultural backgrounds, and what motivates them.

There's also some mindset shifts as well, things like believing all students can learn and having high expectations for all of your students.

- It's a win-win, everyone wins in this situation, as opposed to some people being left outside of opportunities to succeed.

Everyone benefits from culturally responsive practices, whether you think that they may or not.

We can support teachers in developing the ability to do this kind of work by insisting that it be part of their teaching practice and providing them with the space and the tools and resources to do this work.

So if you're a principal and it's important for you that culturally responsive practices be part of what teachers do and you deliver your teacher professional development, or you engage in teacher observation and training in a didactic, a framework, then you're not helping your teachers at all.

But if one of the things that you do is recognize the funds of knowledge of the teachers that come into your building to engage in this work and use those funds of knowledge and cultures and backgrounds to improve the work environment, that provides a really important touchpoint for teachers to recognize the power of engaging in these kinds of practices with their students.

(soft music) - [Narrator] "Culture in our Classrooms" is the TPT Partnerships co-production with the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest, putting research into action.

Funding has been provided by The Institute of Education Sciences.

(chiming tones)