Defining a CRC 1
Rick Stuart
Personally Defining a Culturally Responsive Classroom
A Culturally Responsive Classroom (CRC) is an environment where every child has an
equal chance of succeeding. This concept has been at the core of our class in Racial and Ethical
Issues. In addition, the idea of a CRC is so paramount to the success of students that the
Wisconsin version on RTI has placed it in the center of creating an effective learning
environment (Wisconsin RTI Center, 2013). Because of this, the discussions, presentations and
activities in this class have revolved around creating a culturally responsive classroom.
However, it is important to for me as a future teacher to have a complete understanding of what a
culturally responsive classroom is before I can take steps to create one. A CRC is much more
than accommodating the instruction for students that have a cultural background different from
my own. Providing a CRC is all encompassing, giving thought not only to students that are what
most would consider culturally different from myself, but also covering issues relating to gender,
learning styles, sexual orientation, political, and a multitude of other factors that maybe too
complex to identify.
It is easy to try to boil CRC down to providing an effective learning environment for
minority students such as African Americans, Hispanic American and other minority groups of
students like those that we have been learning about in class. Although creating an environment
where minority students succeed is extremely important, creating a CRC is much more than that.
Every student is different. Aside from the obvious ethnic and cultural backgrounds, there is the
learning styles, strengths, disabilities, experiences at home, ambitions, goals, among others.
There is often the impulse to categorize the culture of many students to be the same as the culture
of the school. While it is true that a student whose family has lived in the community for
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Rick Stuart
generations has a lot more in common with his teachers and classmates in high school than a
classmate that was adopted from Bolivia, that does not imply that that student’s unique
characteristics are any less important in considering a CRC. Not only are the students all unique,
but the teacher has his or her own unique cultural perspective. However, creating an inclusive
environment where everyone embraces student individuality is the teacher’s responsibility.
Therefore, it is the teacher’s duty to put aside any biases in order to respect and appreciate all
students’ opinions and behaviors.
When creating this inclusive environment, it is important to remember to focus on all
aspects of being an educator. For example, much of the focus of a cultural responsive classroom
has been on content curriculum and teaching strategies while ignoring classroom management
(Curran, 2004). Not understanding the cultural differences of the student while implementing a
classroom management plan has the potential of losing the students due to lack of respect.
Therefore, teaching to all of the needs of a student, intellectually, emotionally, and culturally, is
required to create a safe environment for all students to have equal opportunity to succeed.
While it is important to consider all students, a large part of creating a CRC is in fact
establishing an environment where “at-risk” students can succeed. Unfortunately, too many
students from cultures that differ from the European-American culture struggle in school.
Creating inclusive CRC learning environments is a key to overcome the achievement gap of
African American and Latino American students (White-Clark, 2005). In order for the
classroom to be a place where all students have equal opportunity to succeed, there needs to be a
system in place to ensure an effective learning environment for these students. Fortunately,
Response to Intervention (RTI) is providing this support. It is not a surprise that the Wisconsin
RTI Center has the CRC at the core of the RTI environment. All of the other aspects of RTI,
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Rick Stuart
collaboration with educators, students, parents and communities, balanced assessment and
differentiated high quality research-driven standards based instruction all depend on a CRC to
succeed. For example, it would be impossible to provide effective differentiated instruction
without knowing the cultural differences of the students. In addition, any successful
collaboration would need to include an understanding and appreciation of the individuals
involved. The beauty of an effective RTI environment is that all students, not just the “at-risk”
students gain benefit from the influences of creating a CRC.
While the magnitude of creating a CRC may appear to be overwhelming, all of the
elements of a culturally responsive instructor align with traits of high quality instruction. A
teacher that cares and wants students to succeed will automatically be providing differentiated
instruction, making the content real to the students, factoring all of the unique qualities of their
students, and all of the other aspects of creating a CRC. Not to belittle the effort that it takes to
provide high-quality instruction, however, if that is the goal of the teacher a CRC is a natural
byproduct of the efforts.
Every time the question about what is a culturally responsive classroom is asked in class,
I cringe. Although a CRC can be boiled down to an environment where every student had an
equal chance to succeed, to me a CRC is much more than that canned answer. To me a
Culturally Responsive Classroom is the entirety of creating an environment where every student
is treated with an equal respect. This entirety includes pedagogy, classroom management,
classroom climate, RTI, teaching strategies, assessments, and social and cultural education. In a
word, a Culturally Responsive Classroom is everything.
Defining a CRC 4
Rick Stuart
Works Cited
Curran, M. T.-C. (2004). Toward a conception of culturally responsive classroom management, .
Journal of Teacher Education, 55(1), 25+.
White-Clark, R. (2005). Training Teachers to Succeed in a Multicultural Classroom. Education
Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 70, 8, 23-26. .
Wisconsin RTI Center. (2013, 10). Understanding RTI: A Systems View . Retrieved from
Wisconsin's Vision of RTI: http://www.wisconsinrticenter.org/educators/understandingrti-a-systems-view.html