Moving Beyond the Obvious:
What is Highly Effective, Culturally
Responsive Pedagogy?
Dr. Socorro Herrera
Kansas State University
What do you see?
CIMA © 2012
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Engagement, Access, & Hope
CIMA © 2012
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What do you see?
The Question Persists…am I broken?

1st generation language learner in U.S. K-12 schools
 It’s about persistence—“being” and “behaving” like them.
 Am I broken?

Experience in U.S. higher education institutions
 Qualified Admission: Who belongs?
 Am I broken?

Working in U.S. prisons
 A sea of “students of color” who said, “My teachers hated me” and “No one believed I could
learn.”
 Am I broken?

Master’s in Counseling
 Maybe we are all pathological? Is the language of the oppressor on target? Does poverty,
culture and language difference = dysfunction?
 Am I broken?

Is A PhD the answer? Curriculum and Instruction?
 Educational Psychology
 The Meaning Perspectives that teachers hold in relation to their Mexican American
Students
 Scapegoating, reductionist prescriptivism, mañana attitude, colorblind accommodative
denial
 Instead of students asking “Am I broken?,” culturally
and linguistically diverse students should be pushed to
ask “What are my assets?”
 Instead of teachers being proleptic about their students
of color’s futures, they should be asking “What are my
students’ strengths?”
1971 United States Commission on Civil Rights
Report I: Ethnic Isolation of Mexican Americans in the Public
Schools of the Southwest
The report concluded that:
1) Mexican American students were
extremely isolated by the majority of
district and school personnel.
1) Mexican Americans were
underrepresented on school boards and
in professional teaching positions.
1) Mexican American students were more
likely to be in remedial programs.
1971 United States Commission on Civil Rights
Report II: The Unfinished Education
This report claimed that:
1) Mexican American, Black, and American
Indian students do not acquire the same
benefits of public education at the same
rate as their white counterparts.
1) Retention of non-white students was
significantly lower.
1) College acceptance and entrance rates
were much lower for non-white
students.
1) Dropout rates increased among nonwhite students.
1) Participation in extracurricular activities
were much lower for non-white
students.
1971 United States Commission on Civil Rights
Report III: The Excluded Student
This report concluded that:
1)The Southwest school systems “have not
recognized the rich culture and tradition of the
Mexican American students.”
1)1/3 of schools discouraged the use of Spanish
within the classroom.
1)Bilingual Education is the recommended
program to meet the needs of English learners.
1)An overt omission of Mexican American
history, heritage, and folklore from curriculum
and textbooks caused cultural exclusion.
1)Schools only participated in “superficial and
exotic elements” of Mexican American culture.
The Rise & Fall of Multicultural Education
 Born out of the Civil Rights Movement, the school system
moved from “multiethnic education” to “multicultural
education”
 Included issues of gender, socioeconomic class, and other
marginalized groups
 Failed to investigate and locate the deeper societal roots of
racism, sexism, and classism
 Left educators with an attempt to recognize cultural and
linguistic diversity but never truly integrated and embedded
cultural and linguistic diversity into the daily practice within
our school system (Gotando, 2000).
Culturally Responsive Teaching Is…
…using the cultural characteristics, experiences,
and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as
conduits for teaching them more effectively. It is
based on the assumption that when academic
knowledge and skills are situated within the lived
experiences and frames of reference of students,
they are more personally meaningful, have higher
interest appeal, and are learned more easily and
thoroughly.
Gay (2002, p. 106)
Critique of Culturally Responsive
Teaching/Pedagogy
Sometimes educators approach culturally responsive teaching/pedagogy
with a “checklist” mindset:
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Read article on African American culture. CHECK!
Attend professional development session on diversity. CHECK!
Cook Mexican food and bring to my students. CHECK!
Watch a documentary on urban schools. CHECK!
Add “diversity clothing & musical instruments” for play. CHECK!
Hang up motivational poster that includes people of color. CHECK!
Social Justice or Social JustUS?
Teaching for social justice is currently theorized and discussed in higher
education classrooms in order to prepare “teachers as change agents” by
• recognizing forms of oppression
• Interrupting the cycle of oppression
BUT Social Justice can become Social JustUS when we:
• have different definitions of oppression based on our own biases.
• present our views as superior to our students’ vision of a better world.
• participate in this movement merely to make ourselves feel better.
Multiethnic Education
Civil Rights Movement
Multicultural Education
Culturally Responsive Teaching
Social Justice Teaching
What do these different educational movements
have in common? Haven’t we had this
conversation for over 100 years?
What were the OUTCOMES?
 Efficacy Trainings, or rather “Effockus” Trainings
 Laundry Lists
 Us vs. Them Mentality
 One-sided Dialogues
Where are we now? Why are we
stuck?
Assuming A Deficit Perspective
Gorski (2008, 2010) explains that educators typically
enter the classroom with adoration and “love” for
their students but “hope fades” because teachers pair
these good intentions with a deficit perspective.
Let’s Talk about the Deficit
Perspective
 Deficit perspective is the act of focusing on a
student’s weaknesses rather than her/his
strengths.
Complete Failure to Make It to Praxis
World of
Theory
World of
Reality
Praxis is the process in which theory is realized and
embodied through practice.
LANGUAGE
Assessment of:
Listening/Speaking
Reading/Writing
SOCIOCULTURAL
COGNITIVE
Learning Style
Learning Strategy
Processing
Home Visit
Interest Survey
Environment
ACADEMIC
Prior Schooling
Grades
State Assessments
School Situated Biography
Shuffling the Deck
High Cards
Middle Cards
Home
Low Cards
School
LANGUAGE
Comprehension L1 & L2
Communication L1 & L2
Expression L1 & L2
SOCIOCULTURAL
COGNITIVE
Know
Think
Apply
Life
Laughter
Love
ACADEMIC
Access
Engagement
Hope
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL HISTORY
While many of us might agree that
relationship-building with our students is the
key their educational successes, what keeps
us from building those real relationships and
connections?
Background Knowledge
Funds of
Knowledge
Prior Knowledge
Academic
Knowledge
Home Assets
Community Assets
School Assets
•Traditions
•Native Language
•Home Literacy
Practices
•Family Dynamics
•Language Brokering
•Community
Environment
•Family Employment
•Community Support
Systems
•Previous Content
Knowledge
•School Literacy Practices
•School-based Cooperation
& Collaboration Skills
•Formal School Dynamics
Activate, Connect, Confirm
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Access: Grouping Configurations
i + TpsI
Total Group
(Teacher Directed)
Individual
Partner
Affirmation/Accountability
(Student to Student/
Small Group
Perspective Taking/Consensus
Building/Peer and Teacher
Facilitated
Teacher Facilitated)
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Moving Beyond the Espoused
Three Phases of “Opportunity”
Opening
Working
Closing
“Activate”
“Connect”
“Affirm”
Contextual Processes
Zone Of Proximal Development
Planned elements of teaching

Intentional efforts to build student trust
and sense of belonging

Standards, curriculum, learning goals

Grouping structures and configurations

Physical aspects of the classroom
Situational Processes
Zone Of Proximal Development
Teaching “in the moment”

Cycle of acting, observing student
responses, and reacting

Attention to the interplay between
students’ biographies and the lesson

Focus on supporting each learner to
achieve the goals of the lesson
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Language & Literacy Development
and
Contextualization
Joint Productive Activity
and
Instructional Conversations
Challenging Activities
Opening = Activate
Working = Connect
Closing = Affirm
What Matters Most
Don’t Judge Me!
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Where are you now? What is
your plan?