Category Archives: Diverse Learners

Shadows

Introduction to Culturally Responsive Teaching

Diverse Learners, Teachers & Researchers, Written by: Judi Fusco, Written by: Pati Ruiz

by Pati Ruiz and Judi Fusco

At CIRCL Educators, we’re on a journey to help students and we think culturally responsive teaching is an important part of it. Since we will have more posts that fall under this topic we wanted to share a few definitions and a few of our favorite resources that have helped us start thinking and talking about culturally responsive teaching. This is a starting roadmap. The terms mentioned are similar, but distinct. In the research world different terms represent different emphases. We’ll discuss the differences more in the future. We provide this glossary of terms and full references to the articles discussed below.

Definitions

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: credited to Ladson-Billings (1995), this term “loosely refers to teachers’ ability to incorporate knowledge of students’ background and culture in their instructional practice to enhance student learning” (Gist, 2017, p. 289). However, it seems Ladson-Billings (2014) grew dissatisfied with how her term was used saying: “What state departments, school districts, and individual teachers are now calling “culturally relevant pedagogy” is often a distortion and corruption of the central ideas I attempted to promulgate. The idea that adding some books about people of color, having a classroom Kwanzaa celebration, or posting “diverse” images makes one “culturally relevant” seem to be what the pedagogy has been reduced to” (p. 82).”

Culturally Responsive Teaching: This term comes from Genva Gay’s work, which built on the Ladson-Billings ideas, and directed the approach more toward the act of teaching. “Gay (2010) explained culturally responsive teaching by arguing that such practices are a means for unleashing higher potentials of ethnically diverse students by simultaneously cultivating their academic and psychosocial abilities.” (Gist, 2017, p. 290). Gay characterized culturally responsive teaching by the use of ‘cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them.

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: is an umbrella term used by Gist (2017) that includes Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Culturally Responsive Teaching as well as the intentional strategies that teachers should implement to create an environment in which all children have equitable opportunities to learn.

A related term is Culturally Relevant Education (Aronson & Laughter, 2016). This work places the work of Gay on teaching and Ladson-Billings on pedagogy at the center of an effort to create a social justice pedagogy.

Books

Articles

Aronson, B., & Laughter, J. (2016). The theory and practice of culturally relevant education: A synthesis of research across content areas. Review of Educational Research, 86(1), 163-206. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315582066

Gist, C. D. (2017). Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for Teachers of Color. New Educator, 13(3), 288–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/1547688X.2016.1196801

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3. (Autumn, 1995), pp. 465-491.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2000). Culturally relevant pedagogy in African-centered schools: Possibilities for progressive educational reform. African-centered schooling in theory and practice, 187-198.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: Aka the remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74-84. doi:10.17763/haer.84.1.p2rj131485484751

Reports

Krasnoff B. (2016) Culturally Responsive Teaching

We’ll close this post with this quote from Gist (2017, p. 290)

In both Ladson-Billings’ (1995) and Gay’s (2010) theorizing of culturally responsive practices, common themes of high expectations, acknowledgement of student cultural capital, critical sociocultural/political consciousness, and passion and dedication are apparent. Unfortunately, terms such as culturally responsive pedagogy can become so commonplace that teacher educators lose sight of what teacher candidates need to know and be able to do when attempting to cultivate culturally responsive practices with their future students. Moreover, even if culturally responsive pedagogy is emphasized and addressed in a teacher candidate’s preparation experiences, it can be inappropriately applied in ways that differ sharply from the original intent of culturally responsive pedagogy theorists (Ladson-Billings, 2014).

Thank you to Joseph Chipps, Ed.D. for reviewing this post. You can reach us by tweeting @CIRCLEducators. Please let us know what you are reading and thinking as we take this journey.

2019 STEM for ALL Video Showcase with image of youth in the background

2019 STEM Video Showcase Review: Teaching Accessibility to Broaden Participation

Diverse Learners, Learning, Uncategorized, Video Showcase, Written by: Pati Ruiz

By Pati Ruiz and Amar Abbott

When this year’s STEM for All Video Showcase came around, two of us (Pati and Amar) were drawn to a video presentation titled Teaching Accessibility to Broaden Participation. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 15% of K–12 students, 11% of college students, and 5% of graduate students have a disability. While this video focused on raising awareness about accessibility needs in graduate computer science courses, we found the video helpful in thinking about leveraging technology tools in the equitable design of courses.

Meeting the accessibility needs of all students is a federal mandate, however as an accessibility expert, I (Amar) think that it is often a struggle to provide students with the right supports due to a range of barriers including the absence of professional development opportunities for instructors as well as a lack of  affordances* in technology tools.

*What are affordances? Researchers use the term affordances to talk about the opportunities that a technology makes possible. The affordances of learning technologies are described in How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures as “a feature or property of an object that makes possible a particular way of relating to the object for the person who uses it (Gibson, 1979; Norman, 2013).”

After watching the video, we wanted to learn more about the work that still needs to be done to bring an awareness of accessibility needs to those who design technology tools. Co-PI of AccessComputing, Sheryl Burgstahler shares that a major barrier to information technology (IT) that her Accessible Technology Services office works on is non-accessible PDFs; scanned-in images that screen readers can’t access. Another major barrier is videos that don’t have captions or that have unedited computer-created captions. Here’s a great example of a video of computer-created captions going wrong and more information about creating accurate captioning. Sheryl encourages faculty members to use accessible IT when delivering online content instead of just teaching about it. In the showcase video comments, lead Presenter, Richard Ladner described a “chicken and egg problem” in graduate computer science (CS) programs that don’t teach accessibility topics and textbooks that don’t cover these topics. The lack of education about accessibility perpetuates the lack of accessibility content in courses.

There are a few points to underscore:

  • It is essential for educators to be aware of the ways in which software is disabling to their students and other stakeholders.
  • We need to ensure that our video content is captioned and that the documents we share with students, like PDFs, are machine readable.
  • We need to understand that there is a lack of education in CS programs about accessibility and that we should be asking questions about the IT that’s being developed and used in our schools and students from learning management systems to  websites and videos.
  • When we make tools more accessible, the benefits are often ones that help everyone!

Through this video, we learned that the technologies like speech recognition, captioned videos, texting, and video chats that were designed to solve accessibility problems, often become mainstream because they make using technology easier for everyone. An example highlighted by the presenters is the use of video subtitles when we find ourselves watching a video in a noisy setting like a bus or a train. I (Pati) often use  the screen reader on my phone, voice recognition, audiobooks, and captions in videos. I (Amar), use many of the same accessibility features that Pati does. As a person with a learning disability, I also use accessibility technologies to function in my daily professional life. Those technologies include Kurzweil, Dragon naturally speaking, and Mindview mind mapping software. I also teach my students to use assistive technologies to manage barriers in their academic and personal pursuits.

We find that assistive technology tools can change a person’s life and hope that projects like Access Computing can continue to raise awareness – in technical fields – about the accessibility needs of all people. This is essential as we work towards the equitable design of courses. We encourage other educators to explore Teach Access, The DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center, and CAST to learn more about removing barriers to participation in the resources we prepare for our students, our colleagues, and their parents. As always, please share your thoughts with us on Twitter @CIRCLedu.

Citations

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24783.

2016 NSF Video Showcase: Broadening Participation

Diverse Learners, Video Showcase, Written by: Pati Ruiz

 

By Pati Ruiz

The NSF 2016 Video Showcase: Advancing STEM Learning For All featured 65 videos under the “Broadening Participation” keyword. This topic is an important one for those of us who work in the classroom. I learned through the Cyberlearning 2016 conference that the NSF established the Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance Program between 2006 and 2009 to address issues of engagement and education in computing and computationally-intensive disciplines across the K-20 education landscape.

One underrepresented group discussed in the NSF video showcase was students with diagnosed learning differences. Two of the videos on this topic were very interesting to me – these were Diverse Learning Technologies: Helping students with LD, ADHD, and ASD reach their full potential in STEM and Accessible PhET Simulations for Diverse Learners. In order to learn more about working with diverse learners, I spoke with Amar Abbott, a High Tech Center Access Specialist and faculty member at Taft College. Here is our conversation:

Question: You watched the Diverse Learning Technologies: Helping students with LD, ADHD, and ASD reach their full potential in STEM and Accessible PhET Simulations for Diverse Learners videos from the 2016 NSF Video Showcase. What did you find interesting about them?

Amar Abbott: I thought that they were very informative and I especially liked that all of the videos had closed captioning embedded. This makes them accessible to a wider audience. Also, I learned a lot about the technologies that are being developed for helping students with learning differences.

Question: How might these videos inform your practice?

Amar Abbott: These videos have helped me think more deeply about cognitive load and helping students and teachers monitor learning. One question that came up for me is: If a tool provides some support for the cognition of the student, what can the community [around the student(s)] also do to help support cognitive learning? In addition, I would also like to learn more about the situative and social supports that might help students.

Question: What will you do with what you learned from these videos?

Amar Abbott: I appreciated the introduction to Landmark College, their resources, and research group there; it’s a great model. Their focus on UDL is especially excellent because their work stems from direct experience. I am going to try to visit Landmark and hopefully develop long-term relationships with the researchers and students there.

As for the accessible PhET Simulations for Diverse Learners project video, I learned a great deal about what affordances learners need for activities like simulations. The video was to the point, and I like that it highlighted a blind student working with the PhET Simulations. Projects like these puts accessibility in the forefront and that helps all learners.

It was great to hear Amar’s thoughts, and as a teacher, I will be interested in following both of these projects. I am especially interested in what the University of Colorado team discovers about how simulations “are shaped by sociocultural norms of science, [and] can also be used to change the traditional norms of how students engage in the classroom.” This work will be helpful for everyone interested in broadening participation and engaging all learners in STEM topics.