Culturally Responsive Teaching
By definition, cultural literacy is the ability to understand individuals’ traditions, activities, and history from a particular culture. Regarding Culturally Responsive teaching (CRT), cultural literacy enables and educator to develop essential communication and self-reflection skills necessary for classroom interactions. The disparity between the middle class and marginalized learners at school creates a problem for equal educational development; hence cultural literacy also targets customized and specified opportunities for all. While CRT may see focused on students of color, the approach applies to any group that falls out of the dominant culture at a particular learning institution. This approach is a way to ensure the minority’s needs are not neglected at the expense of the majority, whether intentionally or not (Gay 229). Cultural literacy is the foundation of CRT that enables this framework to apply the cultural background to improving various learner outcomes.
CRT is an enactment of multicultural education that applies more in practice rather than just focusing on the theory of cultural teaching. Dr. Geneva Gay points out that this teaching technique precisely elevates marginalized students who might not be doing well in school due to this situation (Gay 4:18). It is not a matter of exclusion but rather a realization of privilege and the need for marginalized students to have rights that their American counterparts already have. CRT is not a replacement for traditional forms of education but instead integrates cultural literacy in supplementing it for better outcomes. Application of cultural filters is another concept of CRT that applies to cultural literacy to allow aspects of familiarity from the student’s background to be integrated into learning. The potential advantages of cultural literacy and CRT are extensive, but the criticism and questions of relevance are equally significant.
Despite the intention of cultural literacy to improve interactions, and specifically through CRT improve learner outcome, there is still a lot of reluctance regarding educators adopting this technique. However, educators must understand the potential advantages they pose to the learning environment and the community and country’s history and culture. Cultural literacy also includes educating children of the different cultural groups in the United States to facilitate positive responses to interactions amongst themselves (Fiona et al. 389). CRT may not be as effective without the awareness of all students regardless of background. More so, history and heritage also determine how much a learner knows of their culture. If the knowledge they have is distorted or prejudiced, then cultural literacy works to correct this.
As established in the interview, culturally responsive teaching is based on cultural literacy and how understanding diversity can work to improve learning outcomes. Understanding the core of humanity is part of understanding cultural literacy, creating a distinction from tangible aspects of society, such as race and social class. According to Gay p. 232, integration of cultural attributes in teaching boils down to the interpersonal relationship that affects teaching and learning. Good performance in educative environments is improved when students are comfortable and feel valued. As such, CRT’s fundamental goal is to facilitate inclusivity and basic human respect regardless of the difficulty of embracing multicultural existence. Cultural literacy success in education and the healthcare sector could grow into acceptable social and community standards.
Works Cited
Gay, Geneva. Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press, 2018.
Geneva, Gay, director. Dr. Geneva Gay and Dr. Valerie Kinloch Interview. 8 Oct. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsyMbSiphTo.
Maine, Fiona, Victoria Cook, and Tuuli Lähdesmäki. “Reconceptualizing cultural literacy as a dialogic practice.” London Review of Education 17.3 (2019): 383-392.