Culturally Responsive Teaching in Higher Education

Abstract

One of the major tenets of culturally responsive teaching is that students’ current culture is used as a necessary starting point for learning. Here, Students’ linguistic tools, their ways of seeing and being, and their background knowledge are used as a foundation for learning. Culturally responsive teaching consists of three interconnecting elements: (a) high academic standards that focus on students’ total intellectual growth, (b) cultural competence and inclusion, and (c) critical or sociopolitical consciousness. These elements are interdependent. Meaning that culturally responsive teaching is found at the intersection and interconnection of all three. This article ends by describing some strategies and conditions that might facilitate culturally responsive teaching.