Approximating Cultural Responsiveness: Teacher Readiness for Accommodative, Biography-Driven Instruction

Abstract

Although many educators espouse tenets of culturally responsive teaching praxis (CRTP) they struggle to effectively apply it in classrooms. Some teachers are unsure how to address the multifaceted assets and needs of students from variant races, ethnicities, and home countries. Other teachers operate from a deficit perspective that emphasizes perceived gaps in knowledge or skills among such learners, with little regard for their prior knowledge, experiences, or ways of knowing (assets). Responding to the needs of both kinds of teachers, Herrera (2010, 2016) developed Biography-Driven Instruction (BDI), a social constructivist method of CRTP that supports educators in making the curriculum accessible, relevant, and rigorous. This phenomenological research investigated teachers