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CATESOL Book Review: Culturally Responsive Teaching, Theory Research and Practice, 3rd Edition by Geneva Gay
10/01/2024
Michelle Skowbo
Culturally Responsive Teaching, Theory Research and Practice, 3rd Edition
By Li-Yuan Liao, Chi-Ning Liu and Kara Mac Donald
Introduction
Culturally responsive teaching (CRT), a research-based approach to teaching, recognizes and develops students' unique cultural strengths. It aims to connect students' cultures, languages, and life experiences with what they learn and experience in the classroom. The overall goal is to better assist students’ academic and personal cultural understanding and strengths, and in turn develop higher-level academic success. With the challenges and data around under-performing students of color, the book’s preface opens with a recap of the first book’s first edition as well as the current third edition, sharing that although some things have changed, many of the concerns that prompted the first edition in 2000 still exist today. A second edition was published in 2010, and the third edition in 2018. Although some time has passed since the release of the third edition, the need for awareness of CRT is still and possibly far more relevant as the field of education has continued to grow and has shifted as well as broadened its inclusivity to better meet all students’ needs.
Chapter One – Challenges and Perspectives
The chapter opens by sharing that CRT alone is not the sole solution to supporting under-achieving students of color but is a critical component. To effectively teach students, teachers need to know their students. The author shares that the book is crafted around a story-telling based approach to highlight that like stories, different perspectives, information and styles can be used in CRT. To describe CRT and its dynamic nature, the chapter is divided into four sections. The first is the Need for and Nature of a Story. The second is a Personal Story and a Symbol as a Trend. The third is Achievements and Challenges. The fourth is Assertions about Improving Student Achievement. In each of these sections, Gay crafts a story of two students and proceeds to share their accounts, while also attending to critical aspects of their experiences as learners. The chapter closes with caveats or a call to action in a sense, stating that anything beyond thoughtful and planned action is insufficient and ineffective, while also arguing for acknowledgement of the value of culture and cultural diversity. No educational program can be effective for society if one or more groups and their contributions to U.S. society are undermined or ignored.
Chapter Two – Pedagogical Potential of Cultural Responsiveness
Chapter two provides an extensive review of research on culturally responsive teaching, emphasizing the vital importance of acknowledging and embracing diversity. It underscores the necessity of integrating multicultural dimensions into teacher preparation, classroom curriculum, and instructional practices to foster meaningful connections among home, school, and community, thereby supporting minority students in achieving their educational goals. The chapter also highlights the significance of recognizing ethnic diversity, which significantly influences students' learning experiences and academic outcomes. Educational reforms are advocated from various angles, encompassing teacher preparation and classroom strategies. Furthermore, the chapter advocates for instructional content that not only incorporates diverse ethnic perspectives but also prioritizes instructional methods that encourage inquiry, critical thinking, and analytical skills, moving beyond mere memorization of factual information.
Chapter Three – The Power of Culturally Responsive Caring
Chapter three explores the transformative power of culturally responsive caring, providing a literature review on the concept of caring and highlighting its critical role in student development. While caring is widely regarded by educators as essential for fostering student learning, it remains challenging to define in practice. The chapter emphasizes that empathy and emotional attachment are key to promoting students' academic success. It also distinguishes between “caring for” and “caring about”: the former refers to active engagement aimed at positive outcomes, while the latter reflects an attitude of concern for someone’s well-being. The chapter further outlines key characteristics of caring, and stresses that while caring is rooted in attitudes, it must also be demonstrated through actions. Educators are encouraged to be more caring and culturally competent by acquiring a knowledge base about ethnic and cultural diversity in education. The chapter encourages open dialogue about cultural diversity, urging educators to engage with others to recognize and appreciate the diversity present in their classrooms. It concludes by advocating for a process of self-reflection and self-awareness that enables teachers to reconstruct their expectations and interactions, ultimately demonstrating the true power of caring in education.
Chapter Four – Culture and Communication in the Classroom
Gay discusses the role and influence of a standard English on how teachers may perceive their students’ speech styles, as there are many varieties of English that reflect the cultural and personal backgrounds of learners. The myth of a standard English often prevents multiple varieties of English to exist in harmony in the classroom, as teachers are often funneled into a perception that they need to teach standard English and consequently, encourage its use in the classroom. The notion and existence of a national standard variety in itself is legitimate, but if its existence marginalizes other varieties, that is when the role of a standard variety becomes problematic. Gay discusses “English Plus” instruction, noting that students that have studied in bilingual programs, using one language to foster the development of another, are often more successful than those in monolingual classrooms. Yet it is not only language perceptions and myths about how students should interact and respond in class compared with how they do, as well as the role of gender in perceptions of learners’ expected behavior are discussed and how they influence learners’ experiences.
Chapter Five – Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Curriculum Content
With the perceptions around culture and student profiles discussed in the previous chapter, in this chapter Gay addresses the perceptions and content of textbooks. Students often take the content in textbooks as absolute truth than cannot and should not be questioned. However, it is widely understood that textbooks in the U.S. have a white European American perspective placing traditional powers of those societies in favorable view. The wrong doings and/or crimes of white European American society to other cultural and ethnic groups are not often presented. Cultural diversity has often been absent or ancillary content in textbooks, leaving students to sometimes not see themselves in the history and society of the U.S. Gay argues that textbooks are an important and vital part of classroom instruction, but teachers should be cautious of facts presented and leverage authentic material resources on the web to supplement textbook content, offer different perspectives on topics from different stakeholders to make content more accessible to diverse students and how they best learn.
Chapter Six – Cultural Congruity in Teaching and Learning
Gay explores the concept of cultural congruity, analyzing how educational practices can be aligned with students' cultural backgrounds. Recognizing and incorporating students' cultural identities can increase engagement and academic success. The chapter includes extensive research, featuring three projects and cooperative learning in areas such as mathematics, literacy, multisensory stimulation, music, movement, and social-emotional development. It demonstrates how cultural congruity can overcome barriers to learning and create a more inclusive classroom. The practical strategies for culturally relevant pedagogy are particularly valuable, presenting 24 insightful practices and listing 22 related journals at the end, which serve as useful resources for instructors, researchers, and readers alike.
Chapter Seven – A Personal Case of Culturally Responsive Teaching Praxis
As one of the subtitles from this chapter, "The personal is powerful," Gay generously shares her years of teaching experience and wisdom by implementing CRT in action in her own classroom. In a CRT classroom, the learning environment is dynamic (Cheney & Terry, 2018), and Gay connects students’ lives with real-world settings. Examples include creating an art museum classroom, role-playing as journalists covering an art exhibition, and designing a memory promenade along the school walkway. These approaches help students understand and embrace their own identities, illustrating how integrating culture into education can reduce challenges to learning and foster a more inclusive classroom atmosphere. In this chapter, Gay's educational philosophy aligns seamlessly with the Confucian ideas of 吾日三省吾身 "reflecting on oneself three times a day" (The Analects) and 教學相長 "teaching and learning benefit each other" (The Book of Rites).
Chapter Eight – Epilogue: Looking Back and Projecting Forward
Sankofa (SAHN-koh-fah) – A Twi word from the Akan Tribe of Ghana: Gay uses this word to symbolize her final chapter, "looking back to the past to make better sense of the present, and to construct a more desirable future." She reflects on the previous chapters, viewing CRT as a form of micro-educational reform. Gay points out the following obstacles to be overcome: tradition, individualism, compartmentalization, volunteerism, professional racism, and cultural hegemony. She emphasizes that CRT is not a fixed practice but a dynamic and evolving process. She continues to urge educators to keep reflecting and adapting, remaining responsive to the changing cultural landscape of their classrooms. This forward-looking perspective encourages all of us to envision the possibilities of CRT in shaping future educational practices.
Conclusion
The term CRT intersects with culturally sustaining pedagogy and the broader realm of culturally relevant pedagogy. Each of the domains entails their own focus; they aim to shift the focus and adapt the traditional classroom instruction from underserving and disregarding the contributions of marginalized communities. This text gives expansive insight into the implementation of CRT as a practice based on theoretical foundations and will be of interest to anyone interested in the fields of culturally sustaining pedagogy and the broader realm of culturally relevant pedagogy, as well as anyone who would like to better serve all students, and in particular students of color, to be empowered to become lifelong learners and critical thinkers.
Reference
Cheney, A. W., & Terry, K. P. (2018). Immersive learning environments as complex dynamic systems. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 277-289.
Michelle Skowbo
Culturally Responsive Teaching, Theory Research and Practice, 3rd Edition
By Geneva Gay
By Li-Yuan Liao, Chi-Ning Liu and Kara Mac Donald
Introduction
Culturally responsive teaching (CRT), a research-based approach to teaching, recognizes and develops students' unique cultural strengths. It aims to connect students' cultures, languages, and life experiences with what they learn and experience in the classroom. The overall goal is to better assist students’ academic and personal cultural understanding and strengths, and in turn develop higher-level academic success. With the challenges and data around under-performing students of color, the book’s preface opens with a recap of the first book’s first edition as well as the current third edition, sharing that although some things have changed, many of the concerns that prompted the first edition in 2000 still exist today. A second edition was published in 2010, and the third edition in 2018. Although some time has passed since the release of the third edition, the need for awareness of CRT is still and possibly far more relevant as the field of education has continued to grow and has shifted as well as broadened its inclusivity to better meet all students’ needs.
Chapter One – Challenges and Perspectives
The chapter opens by sharing that CRT alone is not the sole solution to supporting under-achieving students of color but is a critical component. To effectively teach students, teachers need to know their students. The author shares that the book is crafted around a story-telling based approach to highlight that like stories, different perspectives, information and styles can be used in CRT. To describe CRT and its dynamic nature, the chapter is divided into four sections. The first is the Need for and Nature of a Story. The second is a Personal Story and a Symbol as a Trend. The third is Achievements and Challenges. The fourth is Assertions about Improving Student Achievement. In each of these sections, Gay crafts a story of two students and proceeds to share their accounts, while also attending to critical aspects of their experiences as learners. The chapter closes with caveats or a call to action in a sense, stating that anything beyond thoughtful and planned action is insufficient and ineffective, while also arguing for acknowledgement of the value of culture and cultural diversity. No educational program can be effective for society if one or more groups and their contributions to U.S. society are undermined or ignored.
Chapter Two – Pedagogical Potential of Cultural Responsiveness
Chapter two provides an extensive review of research on culturally responsive teaching, emphasizing the vital importance of acknowledging and embracing diversity. It underscores the necessity of integrating multicultural dimensions into teacher preparation, classroom curriculum, and instructional practices to foster meaningful connections among home, school, and community, thereby supporting minority students in achieving their educational goals. The chapter also highlights the significance of recognizing ethnic diversity, which significantly influences students' learning experiences and academic outcomes. Educational reforms are advocated from various angles, encompassing teacher preparation and classroom strategies. Furthermore, the chapter advocates for instructional content that not only incorporates diverse ethnic perspectives but also prioritizes instructional methods that encourage inquiry, critical thinking, and analytical skills, moving beyond mere memorization of factual information.
Chapter Three – The Power of Culturally Responsive Caring
Chapter three explores the transformative power of culturally responsive caring, providing a literature review on the concept of caring and highlighting its critical role in student development. While caring is widely regarded by educators as essential for fostering student learning, it remains challenging to define in practice. The chapter emphasizes that empathy and emotional attachment are key to promoting students' academic success. It also distinguishes between “caring for” and “caring about”: the former refers to active engagement aimed at positive outcomes, while the latter reflects an attitude of concern for someone’s well-being. The chapter further outlines key characteristics of caring, and stresses that while caring is rooted in attitudes, it must also be demonstrated through actions. Educators are encouraged to be more caring and culturally competent by acquiring a knowledge base about ethnic and cultural diversity in education. The chapter encourages open dialogue about cultural diversity, urging educators to engage with others to recognize and appreciate the diversity present in their classrooms. It concludes by advocating for a process of self-reflection and self-awareness that enables teachers to reconstruct their expectations and interactions, ultimately demonstrating the true power of caring in education.
Chapter Four – Culture and Communication in the Classroom
Gay discusses the role and influence of a standard English on how teachers may perceive their students’ speech styles, as there are many varieties of English that reflect the cultural and personal backgrounds of learners. The myth of a standard English often prevents multiple varieties of English to exist in harmony in the classroom, as teachers are often funneled into a perception that they need to teach standard English and consequently, encourage its use in the classroom. The notion and existence of a national standard variety in itself is legitimate, but if its existence marginalizes other varieties, that is when the role of a standard variety becomes problematic. Gay discusses “English Plus” instruction, noting that students that have studied in bilingual programs, using one language to foster the development of another, are often more successful than those in monolingual classrooms. Yet it is not only language perceptions and myths about how students should interact and respond in class compared with how they do, as well as the role of gender in perceptions of learners’ expected behavior are discussed and how they influence learners’ experiences.
Chapter Five – Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Curriculum Content
With the perceptions around culture and student profiles discussed in the previous chapter, in this chapter Gay addresses the perceptions and content of textbooks. Students often take the content in textbooks as absolute truth than cannot and should not be questioned. However, it is widely understood that textbooks in the U.S. have a white European American perspective placing traditional powers of those societies in favorable view. The wrong doings and/or crimes of white European American society to other cultural and ethnic groups are not often presented. Cultural diversity has often been absent or ancillary content in textbooks, leaving students to sometimes not see themselves in the history and society of the U.S. Gay argues that textbooks are an important and vital part of classroom instruction, but teachers should be cautious of facts presented and leverage authentic material resources on the web to supplement textbook content, offer different perspectives on topics from different stakeholders to make content more accessible to diverse students and how they best learn.
Chapter Six – Cultural Congruity in Teaching and Learning
Gay explores the concept of cultural congruity, analyzing how educational practices can be aligned with students' cultural backgrounds. Recognizing and incorporating students' cultural identities can increase engagement and academic success. The chapter includes extensive research, featuring three projects and cooperative learning in areas such as mathematics, literacy, multisensory stimulation, music, movement, and social-emotional development. It demonstrates how cultural congruity can overcome barriers to learning and create a more inclusive classroom. The practical strategies for culturally relevant pedagogy are particularly valuable, presenting 24 insightful practices and listing 22 related journals at the end, which serve as useful resources for instructors, researchers, and readers alike.
Chapter Seven – A Personal Case of Culturally Responsive Teaching Praxis
As one of the subtitles from this chapter, "The personal is powerful," Gay generously shares her years of teaching experience and wisdom by implementing CRT in action in her own classroom. In a CRT classroom, the learning environment is dynamic (Cheney & Terry, 2018), and Gay connects students’ lives with real-world settings. Examples include creating an art museum classroom, role-playing as journalists covering an art exhibition, and designing a memory promenade along the school walkway. These approaches help students understand and embrace their own identities, illustrating how integrating culture into education can reduce challenges to learning and foster a more inclusive classroom atmosphere. In this chapter, Gay's educational philosophy aligns seamlessly with the Confucian ideas of 吾日三省吾身 "reflecting on oneself three times a day" (The Analects) and 教學相長 "teaching and learning benefit each other" (The Book of Rites).
Chapter Eight – Epilogue: Looking Back and Projecting Forward
Sankofa (SAHN-koh-fah) – A Twi word from the Akan Tribe of Ghana: Gay uses this word to symbolize her final chapter, "looking back to the past to make better sense of the present, and to construct a more desirable future." She reflects on the previous chapters, viewing CRT as a form of micro-educational reform. Gay points out the following obstacles to be overcome: tradition, individualism, compartmentalization, volunteerism, professional racism, and cultural hegemony. She emphasizes that CRT is not a fixed practice but a dynamic and evolving process. She continues to urge educators to keep reflecting and adapting, remaining responsive to the changing cultural landscape of their classrooms. This forward-looking perspective encourages all of us to envision the possibilities of CRT in shaping future educational practices.
Conclusion
The term CRT intersects with culturally sustaining pedagogy and the broader realm of culturally relevant pedagogy. Each of the domains entails their own focus; they aim to shift the focus and adapt the traditional classroom instruction from underserving and disregarding the contributions of marginalized communities. This text gives expansive insight into the implementation of CRT as a practice based on theoretical foundations and will be of interest to anyone interested in the fields of culturally sustaining pedagogy and the broader realm of culturally relevant pedagogy, as well as anyone who would like to better serve all students, and in particular students of color, to be empowered to become lifelong learners and critical thinkers.
Reference
Cheney, A. W., & Terry, K. P. (2018). Immersive learning environments as complex dynamic systems. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 277-289.