Teaching Tolerance Honors Five Educators for Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching
On Dec. 9, 2011, at a special gathering in the nation's capital, Teacher Tolerance honored the five winners of its Culturally Responsive Teaching Award. The award was designed to recognize educators who have demonstrated excellence in teaching students from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. The five winners, selected through a rigorous application and review process, each received $1,000. The awards event, organized by Education Week Teacher, also included panel discussions exploring the facets of culturally responsive pedagogy, as well as a keynote address by acclaimed scholar Sonia Nieto. Archived video of the entire event is below; video clips highlighting the teacher-awardees' work appear in the right-hand column.
The Winners:
(Click on each winner for additional details.)
The English-only focus had caused "a serious divide," he says. In 2007, Arcos' principal asked him to direct a new, dual-language program that would emphasize cross-cultural learning and the development of Spanish-language as well as English skills. As a result, the students have a renewed respect for both languages and soaring proficiency scores. "We do not see them coming in with zero knowledge," says Arcos of Spanish-dominant students. "We see them coming in with a wealth of knowledge. They are just adding a second language to their repertoire."
She starts by visiting the homes of each of her students during the first two weeks of school to learn more about each student's hidden strengths and how to work best with each family. In class, Galaviz, supplements the curriculum with authentic materials and experiences that reflect the cultures of her Mexican-American, Asian, Native American, and white Idahoan students. Galaviz sees her approach to teaching as a responsibility. "I don't have the right to ask families to invest in my classroom if not investing in them first," she says. And her students show very few behavior issues. "They know I'm invested," she says with a laugh. "I know where they live!"
One of her key strategies is to learn as much as she can about her students. She does this in part by going to lunch with them and, when she's invited, attending important events outside of school—like church services and basketball games. "This strategy is at the heart of culturally relevant teaching," she says. "Using what I know about my students, I can incorporate their interests, hopes, and aspirations into my classroom." This also helps Logan's equity team evaluate and revise its methods. Elementary students "are often hesitant to share their feelings about race," says LaCroix. "But we want to keep them talking."
Today, they are addressing that struggle through an innovative course in ethnic studies that Makaiau, who has a Ph.D in curriculum and instruction from the University of Hawaii, helped to develop. Now mandatory for 9th graders, the course has been successful in reducing school violence and violence-related suspensions. Students see it as successful as well. In a recent essay, one student wrote, "I blossomed into something more [in this class]; my growth increases every day. … I am a girl who honors all of my family names, I am a proud leader, and I am Hawaiian."
She believes that any teacher working with a diverse group of students faces a learning curve. "One thing I had to learn is that just because I'm black doesn't mean I know how to teach black kids," says Oliver-Gary, who has been teaching for 12 years. With more diverse classrooms—both in terms of academic skill and ethnicity—Oliver-Gary says she "had to be more intentional" in her teaching. For instance, despite studies showing that students of color—including black and Latino students—work well in groups, she has often found that "some students just really hate to work with other kids." She now creates lesson plans as diverse as her students. And Oliver-Gary often finds herself teaching study skills as well as the curriculum. But she has learned how to access her talent for teaching in new ways. Giving her students a voice, she says, also allows her to "paint a picture of their future."
Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, administered the Culturally Responsive Teaching award in collaboration with several professional organizations, including the National Education Association. The award is supported by a grant from The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Walden University.
Video: Learn More About the Honorees and Their Practice
Resources on Culturally Responsive Teaching
- Awards Event Handout (PDF) provides an overview of the research on culturally responsive teaching and explores the role of such instruction in schools today.
- Primer on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is an introduction to teaching that facilitates student learning by building upon race and ethnicity-related values, dispositions and experiences.
- Teaching Tolerance's Common Beliefs Survey identifies beliefs about instruction and learning that may have consequences for students of diverse races and ethnicities. The topics covered include:
- Engaging English Language Learners is a case study explores what educators can do to meet the language and literacy needs of ELL students in a content area like science.
- Keeping Spec. Ed. in Proportion, an article from the Teacher PD Sourcebook, looks at how improvements in school instructional cultures can keep some struggling minority kids out of special education.