Gay.pdf

7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

1/11

Journalof TeacherEducation, Vol. 53, No. 2, March/April2002Journalof TeacherEducation, Vol. 53, No. 2, March/April2002

2001 AACTE OUTSTANDING WRITING AWARD RECIPIENT

Editors Note: This article draws from Geneva Gays recent book, Culturally ResponsiveTeaching: Theory, Research, and Practice, which received the 2001 Outstanding WritingAward from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

PREPARING FOR CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING

Geneva GayUniversity of Washington, Seattle

In this article, a case is made for improving theschool success of ethnically diverse studentsthrough culturally responsive teaching and for

preparing teachers in preservice education pro-grams with the knowledge, attitudes, and skillsneeded to do this. The ideas presented here arebrief sketches of more thorough explanationsincluded in my recent book, Culturally Respon-sive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice (2000).The specific components of this approach toteaching are based on research findings, theo-retical claims, practical experiences, and per-sonal stories of educators researching and work-ing with underachieving African, Asian,Latino,andNativeAmericanstudents. These data were

produced by individuals from a wide variety ofdisciplinary backgrounds including anthropol-ogy, sociology, psychology, sociolinguistics, com-munications, multicultural education, K-collegeclassroomteaching,andteacher education. Fiveessential elements of culturallyresponsiveteach-ing areexamined: developinga knowledge baseabout cultural diversity, including ethnic andculturaldiversity content in the curriculum,dem-onstrating caring and building learning com-munities, communicating with ethnically diversestudents, and responding to ethnic diversity in

the delivery of instruction. Culturally responsiveteaching is defined as using the cultural charac-teristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethni-cally diverse students as conduits for teaching

themmore effectively. It is based on the assump-tion that when academic knowledge and skillsare situated within the lived experiences and

frames of reference of students, they are morepersonally meaningful, have higher interest ap-peal,andare learnedmore easilyandthoroughly(Gay, 2000). As a result, the academic achieve-ment of ethnically diverse students will improvewhen they are taught through their own cul-tural and experiential filters (Au & Kawakami,1994; Foster, 1995; Gay, 2000; Hollins, 1996;Kleinfeld, 1975; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 1995).

DEVELOPING A CULTURAL

DIVERSITY KNOWLEDGE BASE

Educators generally agree that effective teach-ing requires mastery of content knowledge andpedagogical skills. As Howard (1999) so aptlystated, We cant teach what we dont know.This statement applies to knowledge both ofstudent populations and subject matter. Yet, toomanyteachersareinadequately prepared to teachethnically diverse students. Some professionalprograms still equivocate about including multi-cultural education despite the growing num-bers of and disproportionately poor performance

of students of color. Other programs are tryingto decidewhat is themost appropriate place andface for it. A few are embracing multiculturaleducation enthusiastically. The equivocation is

106

Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 53, No. 2, March/April 2002 106-116 2002 by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

2/11

inconsistent withpreparing for culturally respon-sive teaching, which argues that explicit knowl-edge about cultural diversity is imperative tomeetingtheeducationalneedsofethnicallydiversestudents.

Part of this knowledge includes understand-ing the cultural characteristics and contribu-

tions of differentethnicgroups(Hollins,King, &Hayman, 1994; King, Hollins, & Hayman, 1997;Pai, 1990; Smith, 1998). Culture encompassesmany things, some of which aremore importantfor teachers to know than others because theyhave direct implications for teaching and learn-ing. Among these are ethnic groups culturalvalues, traditions, communication, learning styles,contributions, and relational patterns. For exam-ple, teachers need to know (a) which ethnicgroups give priority to communal living andcooperative problem solvingandhowthese pref-

erences affect educational motivation, aspira-tion, and task performance; (b) how differentethnic groups protocols of appropriate waysfor children to interact with adults are exhibitedin instructional settings; and(c) the implicationsof gender role socialization in different ethnicgroups for implementing equity initiatives inclassroom instruction. This information consti-tutes thefirst essential component of theknowl-edgebaseof culturally responsive teaching. Someof the cultural characteristics and contributionsof ethnic groups that teachers need to know areexplained in greater detail by Gold, Grant, andRivlin(1977); Shade (1989); Takaki (1993); Banksand Banks (1995); and Spring (1995).

The knowledge that teachers need to haveabout cultural diversity goesbeyond mere aware-ness of, respect for, and general recognition ofthe fact that ethnic groups have different valuesor express similar values in various ways.Thus,thesecondrequirement fordeveloping a knowl-edge base for culturally responsive teaching isacquiringdetailed factual informationaboutthe

cultural particularities of specific ethnic groups(e.g., African, Asian, Latino, and Native Ameri-can). This is needed to make schooling moreinteresting and stimulating for, representativeof, and responsive to ethnicallydiversestudents.Too many teachers and teacher educators thinkthat their subjects (particularly math and sci-

ence)andcultural diversity are incompatible, orthat combining them is too much of a concep-tual and substantive stretch for their subjects tomaintain disciplinary integrity. This is simplynot true. There is a place for cultural diversity inevery subject taught in schools. Furthermore,culturally responsive teaching deals as much

with using multicultural instructional strate-gies as with adding multicultural content to thecurriculum. Misconceptions like these stem, inpart, from the fact that many teachers do notknow enough about the contributions that dif-ferent ethnic groups have made to their subjectareas and are unfamiliar with multicultural edu-cation. They may be familiar with the achieve-ments of select, high-profile individuals fromsome ethnic groups in some areas, such as Afri-can American musicians in popular culture orpoliticians in city, state, and national govern-

ment.Teachers may know little or nothing aboutthecontributions ofNativeAmericansandAsianAmericans in the same arenas. Nor do theyknow enough about the less publicly visible butvery significant contributions of ethnic groupsin science, technology, medicine, math, theol-ogy, ecology, peace, law, and economics.

Many teachers also are hard-pressed to havean informed conversation about leading multi-cultural education scholars and their major pre-mises, principles,and proposals. What they thinkthey know about the field is often based onsuperficial or distorted information conveyedthrough popular culture, mass media, and crit-ics. Or their knowledge reflects cursory aca-demic introductions that provide insufficientdepth of analysis of multicultural education.These inadequacies can be corrected by teach-ers acquiring more knowledge about the con-tributions of different ethnic groups to a widevariety of disciplines and a deeper understand-ing of multicultural education theory, research,and scholarship. This is a third important pillar

of theknowledge foundationofculturallyrespon-sive teaching. Acquiring this knowledge is notas difficult as it might at first appear. Ethnicindividuals and groups have been making wor-thy contributionsto thefullrange of life and cul-ture in the United States and humankind fromthe very beginning. And there is no shortage of

Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 53, No. 2, March/April 2002 107

7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

3/11

quality information available about multicul-tural education. It just hasto be located, learned,and woven into the preparation programs ofteachers and classroom instruction. This can beaccomplished, in part, by all prospective teach-ers taking courses on thecontributions of ethnicgroups to the content areas that they will teachand on multicultural education.

DESIGNING CULTURALLY

RELEVANT CURRICULA

In addition to acquiring a knowledge baseaboutethnicandcultural diversity, teachers needto learn howto convert it into culturally respon-sive curriculum designs and instructional strat-egies. Three kinds of curricula are routinelypresent in the classroom, each of which offersdifferent opportunities for teaching cultural

diversity. The first isformal plans for instructionapproved by thepolicyandgoverningbodies ofeducationalsystems. Theyareusually anchoredin and complemented by adopted textbooksand other curriculum guidelines such as thestandards issued by national commissions,state departmentsofeducation,professional asso-ciations, and local school districts. Even thoughthese curriculum documents have improved overtime in their treatment of ethnic and culturaldiversity, they are still not as good as they needto be (Wade, 1993). Culturally responsive teach-

ers know how to determine the multiculturalstrengths and weaknessesof curriculum designsandinstructional materials andmakethe changesnecessary to improve their overall quality. Theseanalyses should focus on the quantity, accuracy,complexity, placement, purpose, variety, signif-icance, and authenticity of the narrative texts,visual illustrations, learning activities, role mod-els, and authorial sources used in the instruc-tionalmaterials.There are several recurrent trendsin how formal school curricula deal with ethnicdiversity that culturally responsive teachers need

to correct. Among themare avoiding controver-sial issues such as racism, historical atrocities,powerlessness, and hegemony; focusing on theaccomplishments of the same few high-profileindividuals repeatedly and ignoring the actionsof groups; giving proportionally more attentionto African Americans than other groups of color;

decontextualizing women, their issues,and theiractions from their race and ethnicity; ignoringpoverty; and emphasizing factual informationwhile minimizing other kinds ofknowledge (suchas values, attitudes, feelings, experiences, andethics). Culturally responsive teaching reversesthese trends by dealing directly with contro-

versy; studying a wide range of ethnic individu-als and groups; contextualizing issues withinrace, class, ethnicity, and gender; and includingmultiple kinds of knowledge and perspectives.It also recognizes that these broad-based analy-ses are necessary to do instructional justice tothe complexity, vitality, and potentiality of eth-nic and cultural diversity. One specific way tobegin this curriculum transformation process isto teach preservice (and inservice) teachers howto do deep cultural analyses of textbooks andother instructional materials, revise them for

better representations of culturally diversity, andprovide many opportunities to practice theseskills under guided supervision. Teachers needto thoroughly understand existing obstacles toculturally responsive teaching before they cansuccessfully remove them.

Other instructional plans used frequently inschools are called the symbolic curriculum (Gay,1995). They includeimages, symbols, icons, mot-toes, awards, celebrations, and other artifactsthat are used to teach students knowledge, skills,morals, and values. The most common forms ofsymbolic curricula are bulletin board decora-tions; images of heroesandheroines; trade books;and publicly displayed statements of social eti-quette, rules and regulations, ethical principles,and tokens of achievement. Therefore, class-room and school walls are valuable advertis-ing space, and students learn important les-sons from what is displayed there. Over time,they come to expect certain images, value whatis present, and devalue that which is absent.Culturally responsive teachers are critically con-

scious of the power of the symbolic curriculumas an instrument of teaching and use it to helpconvey important information,values,andactionsabout ethnic and cultural diversity. They ensurethat the images displayed in classrooms repre-sent a wide variety of age, gender, time, place,social class, and positional diversity within and

108 Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 53, No. 2, March/April 2002

7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

4/11

across ethnic groups and that they are accurateextensions of what is taught through the formalcurriculum. For example, lessons of leadership,power, and authority taught through imagesshould include males and females and expres-sive indicators of these accomplishments frommany different ethnic groups.

A third type of curriculum that is fundamen-tal to culturally responsive teaching is whatCorts (1991, 1995, 2000) has called the societalcurriculum. This is the knowledge, ideas, andimpressions about ethnic groups that are por-trayed in the mass media. Television programs,newspapers, magazines, and movies are muchmore than mere factual informationor idle enter-tainment. They engage in ideological manage-ment (Spring, 1992) and construct knowledge(Corts, 1995) because their content reflects andconveys particular cultural, social, ethnic, and

political values, knowledge, and advocacies. Formany students, mass media is theonly source ofknowledge about ethnic diversity; for others,what is seen on television is more influentialand memorable than what is learned from booksinclassrooms.Unfortunately,muchofthisknowl-edge is inaccurate and frequently prejudicial.In a study of ethnic stereotyping in news report-ing, Campbell (1995) found that these programsperpetuate myths about life outside of whitemainstream America . . . [that] contribute to anunderstanding of minority cultures as less sig-nificant, as marginal (p. 132). Members of bothminority and majority groups are negativelyaffected by these images and representations.Ethnic distortions in mass media are not limitedto news programs; they are pervasive in othertypes of programming as well. The messagesthey transmit are too influential for teachers toignore. Therefore, culturally responsive teach-ing includes thorough and critical analyses ofhow ethnic groups and experiences are pre-sented in mass media and popular culture.

Teachers need to understand howmedia imagesof African, Asian, Latino, Native, and EuropeanAmericans are manipulated; the effects they haveon different ethnic groups; what formal schoolcurricula and instruction can do to counteracttheir influences; and how to teach studentsto bediscerning consumers of and resisters to ethnic

information disseminated through the societalcurriculum.

DEMONSTRATING CULTURAL CARING

AND BUILDING A LEARNING COMMUNITY

A third critical component of preparation forculturally responsive teaching is creating class-room climates that are conducive to learning forethnicallydiverse students. Pedagogicalactionsare as important as (if not more important than)multicultural curriculum designs in implement-ing culturally responsive teaching. They are notsimplytechnical processes of applying any bestpractices to underachieving students of color,however. Much more is required. Teachers needto know how to use cultural scaffolding in teach-ing these studentsthat is, using their own cul-tures and experiences to expand their intellec-

tual horizons and academic achievement. Thisbeginsby demonstratingculturallysensitive car-ing and building culturally responsive learningcommunities. Teachers have to care so muchabout ethnically diverse students and theirachievement that they accept nothing less thanhigh-level success from them and work dili-gently to accomplish it (Foster, 1997; Kleinfeld,1974, 1975).This isa very differentconception ofcaring than the often-cited notion of gentlenurturing and altruistic concern, which canlead to benign neglect under the guise of letting

students ofcolor make theirown way and moveat their own pace.

Culturally responsive caringalso places teach-ers in an ethical, emotional, and academic part-nership with ethnically diverse students, a part-nership that is anchored in respect, honor, integ-rity, resource sharing, and a deep belief in thepossibility of transcendence (Gay, 2000, p. 52).Caring is a moral imperative, a social responsi-bility, and a pedagogical necessity. It requiresthat teachers useknowledge and strategicthink-ing to decide how to act in the best interests of

others . . . [and] binds individuals to their soci-ety, to their communities, and to each other(Webb, Wilson, Corbett,& Mordecai, 1993, pp. 33-34).Inculturallyresponsiveteaching, theknowl-edge of interest is information about ethnicallydiverse groups; the strategic thinking is howthis cultural knowledge isused to redesignteach-


7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

5/11

ing and learning; and the bounds are the reci-procity involved in students working with eachother and with teachers as partners to improvetheir achievement.Thus, teachers need to under-stand that culturally responsive caring is actionoriented in that it demonstrates high expecta-tions and uses imaginative strategies to ensure

academic successforethnicallydiversestudents.Teachers genuinely believe in the intellectualpotential of these students and accept, unequiv-ocally, their responsibility to facilitate its real-izationwithoutignoring, demeaning,or neglect-ing their ethnic and cultural identities. Theybuild toward academic success from a basis ofcultural validation and strength.

Building community among diverse learnersis another essential element of culturally respon-sive teaching. Many students of color grow upin cultural environments where the welfare of

the group takes precedence over the individualand where individuals are taught to pool theirresources to solve problems. It is not that indi-viduals and their needs are neglected; they areaddressed within the context of group function-ing. When the group succeeds or falters, so doits individual members. As a result, the groupfunctions somewhat like a mutual aid societyin which all members are responsible for help-ingeach other perform andensuring that every-one contributes to the collective task. The posi-tive benefits of communities of learners andcooperative effortson student achievement havebeen validated by Escalant and Dirmann (1990)in high school mathematics forLatinos;by Sheets(1995) in high school Spanish language and lit-erature with low-achieving Latinos; by Fulliloveand Treisman (1990) in 1st-year college calculuswith African, Latino, and Chinese Americans;and by Tharp and Gallimore (1988) in elemen-tary reading and language arts with NativeHawaiian children. These ethics and styles ofworking are quite different from the typical

ones used in schools, which give priority to theindividual and working independently. Cul-turallyresponsiveteachers understand howcon-flicts between different work styles may inter-fere with academic efforts and outcomes, andthey understand how to design more commu-nal learning environments.

The process of building culturally responsivecommunities of learning is important for teach-ers to know as well. The emphasis should be onholistic or integrated learning. Contrary to thetendency in conventional teaching to make dif-ferent types of learning(cognitive,physical, emo-tional) discrete, culturally responsive teachingdeals with them in concert. Personal, moral,social, political, cultural, and academic knowl-edge and skills are taught simultaneously. Forexample, students are taught their cultural heri-tages and positive ethnic identity developmentalong with math, science, reading, critical think-ing, and social activism. They also are taughtabout the heritages, cultures, and contributionsof other ethnic groups as they are learning theirown. Culturally responsive teachers help stu-dents to understand that knowledge has moralandpoliticalelements andconsequences,which

obligate them to take social action to promotefreedom, equality, and justice for everyone. Thepositive effects of teaching these knowledgesand skills simultaneously for African, Asian,Latino,andNative Americanstudentsare docu-mentedby Ladson-Billings (1994); Foster(1995);Krater, Zeni, & Cason,(1994); Tharp & Gallimore(1988);Escalant andDirmann (1990); andSheets(1995).

CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS

Effective cross-cultural communication is afourth pivotal element of preparing for cultur-ally responsive teaching. Porter and Samovar(1991) explained that culture influences whatwe talk about; how we talk about it; what wesee,attendto,orignore;howwethink;andwhatwe think about (p. 21). Montagu and Watson(1979)added thatcommunicationis the groundof meeting and the foundation of community(p.vii) amonghumanbeings. Withoutthis meet-ing and community in the classroom, learn-ing is difficult to accomplish for some students.

In fact, determining what ethnically diverse stu-dents know and can do, as well as what they arecapable of knowing and doing, is often a func-tion of howwell teachers cancommunicate withthem. The intellectual thought of students fromdifferent ethnic groups is culturally encoded(Cazden, John, & Hymes,1985) in that itsexpres-


7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

6/11

sive forms and substance are strongly influ-enced by cultural socialization. Teachers need tobe able to decipher these codes to teach ethni-cally diverse students more effectively.

As is the case with any cultural component,characteristics of ethnic communication stylesare core traits of group trends, not descriptionsof the behaviors of individual members of thegroup.Whether and how particular individualsmanifest these characteristics vary along con-tinua of depth, clarity, frequency, purity, pur-pose, and place. However, expressive variabil-ityof cultural characteristics among ethnicgroupmembers does not nullify their existence. It isimperativefor teachers to understand these reali-ties because many of them are hesitant aboutdealing with cultural descriptors for fear of ste-reotyping and overgeneralizing. They compen-sate for this danger by trying to ignore or deny

the existence of cultural influences on studentsbehaviors and their own. The answer is notdenial or evasion but direct confrontation andthorough, critical knowledge of the interactiverelationships between culture, ethnicity, com-munication, and learning and between individ-uals and groups.

Culturally responsive teacher preparation pro-grams teach how the communication styles ofdifferent ethnic groups reflect cultural valuesand shape learning behaviors and how to mod-ify classroom interactions to better accommo-

date them. They include knowledge about thelinguisticstructuresof various ethniccommuni-cation styles as well as contextual factors, cul-tural nuances, discourse features, logic andrhythm, delivery, vocabulary usage, role rela-tionships of speakers and listeners, intonation,gestures,andbodymovements. Research reportedby Cazden et al. (1985), Kochman (1981), andSmitherman (1994) indicated that the discoursefeatures of cultural communications are morechallenging and problematic in teaching ethni-cally different students than structural linguistic

elements. The cultural markers and nuancesembedded in the communicative behaviors ofhighly ethnically affiliated Latino, Native,Asian, and African Americans are difficult torecognize, understand, accept, and respond to

without corresponding cultural knowledge ofthese ethnic groups.

There are several other more specific compo-nentsofthecommunication stylesofethnicgroupsthat should be part of the preparation for andpractice of culturally responsive teaching. Oneof these is the protocols of participation in dis-course. Whereas in mainstream schooling andculture a passive-receptive style of communica-tionandparticipationpredominates,manygroupsof color use an active-participatory one. In thefirst, communication is didactic, with the speakerplaying the active role and the listener beingpassive. Students are expected to listen quietlywhile teachers talk andto talk only atprescribedtimes when granted permission by the teacher.Their participation is usually solicited by teach-ers asking convergent questions that are posedto specific individuals and require factual, right

answer responses. This pattern is serialized inthat it is repeated from one student to the next(Goodlad, 1984; Philips, 1983).

In contrast, the communicative styles of mostethnic groups of color in the United States aremore active, participatory, dialectic, and multi-modal.Speakers expect listeners to engage withthem as they speak by providing prompts, feed-back, and commentary. The roles of speaker andlistener are fluid and interchangeable. AmongAfrican Americans, this interactive communi-cativestyle isreferredtoascall-response(Baber,

1987; Smitherman, 1977);andforNative Hawai-ians, it is called talk-story (Au, 1993; Au &Kawakami, 1994). Among European Americanfemales, the somewhat similar practice of talk-ing along with the speaker to show involve-ment, support, and confirmation is described asrapport talk (Tannen, 1990). These communalcommunication styles can be problematic in theclassroom for both teachers and students. Unin-formed and unappreciative teachers considerthem rude, distractive, and inappropriate andtake actions to squelch them. Students who are

told not to use them may be, in effect, intellectu-ally silenced. Because they are denied use oftheir natural ways of talking, their thinking,intellectual engagement, and academic effortsare diminished as well.


7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

7/11

Another communication technique importantto doing culturallyresponsiveteaching is under-standing different ethnic groups patterns of taskengagement and organizing ideas. In school, stu-dents are taught tobe verydirect,precise,deduc-tive, and linear in communication. That is, theyshould be parsimonious in talking and writing,

avoid using lots of embellishment, stay focusedon the task or stick to the point, and build a logi-cal case from the evidence to the conclusion,from the parts to the whole. When issues aredebated and information is presented, studentsare expected to be objective, dispassionate, andexplicit in reporting carefully sequential facts.The quality of the discourse is determined bythe clarity of the descriptive information pro-vided; the absenceof unnecessaryverbiage, flair,ordrama; and how easily thelistener (or reader)can discern the logic and relationship of the

ideas (Kochman, 1981). Researchers and schol-ars call this communicative style topic-centered(Au, 1993; Michaels 1981, 1984). Many African,Asian, Latino, and Native Americans use a dif-ferent approach to organizing and transmittingideas: one called topic-chaining communication.It is highly contextual, and much time is devotedto setting a social stage prior to theperformanceofanacademic task. This isaccomplished bythespeakers (or writers) providing a lot of back-groundinformation; being passionately andper-sonally involved with the content of the dis-course; using much indirectness (such as innu-endo,symbolism,andmetaphor) toconveyideas;weaving many different threads or issues into asingle story; and embedding talk with feelingsof intensity, advocacy, evaluation, and aesthet-ics. There also is the tendency to make the dis-course conversational (Au, 1993; Fox, 1994;Kochman, 1981; Smitherman, 1994). The think-ing of these speakers appears to be circular, andtheir communication sounds like storytelling.To one who is unfamiliar with it, this communi-

cation style sounds rambling, disjointed, andas if the speaker never ends a thought beforegoing on to something else (Gay, 2000, p. 96).These (and other) differences in ethnic commu-nication styles have many implications for cul-turally responsive teaching. Understanding themis necessary to avoid violating the cultural val-

ues of ethnically diverse students in instruc-tional communications; to better decipher theirintellectual abilities, needs, and competencies;and to teach them style or code-shifting skills sothat they can communicate in different wayswith different people in different settings fordifferentpurposes. Therefore, multicultural com-munication competency is an important goal andcomponent of culturally responsive teaching.

CULTURAL CONGRUITY IN

CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

The final aspect of preparation for culturallyresponsive teaching discussed in this article dealswith the actual delivery of instruction to ethni-cally diversestudents.Culture isdeeplyembed-ded in any teaching; therefore, teaching ethni-callydiversestudentshastobe multiculturalized.

A useful way to think about operationalizingthis ideainthe act of teachingismatchinginstruc-tionaltechniques to thelearning styles of diversestudents. Or, as the contributing authors to Edu-cation and Cultural Process (Spindler, 1987) sug-gested, establishingcontinuity betweenthemodusoperandi of ethnicgroupsandschool cultures inteaching and learning. Many possibilities forestablishing these matches, intersections, orbridges are implied in the previous discussions.For example, a topic-chaining communicationstyle is very conducive to a storytelling teaching

style. Cooperative group learning arrangementsand peer coaching fit well with the communalcultural systems of African, Asian, Native, andLatinoAmerican groups(Gay, 2000;Spring,1995).Autobiographical case studies and fiction cancrystallize ethnic identity and affiliation issuesacross contextual boundaries (i.e., geographic,generational, temporal). Motion and movement,music, frequent variability in tasks and formats,novelty, and dramatic elements in teachingimprove the academic performance of AfricanAmericans (Allen & Boykin, 1992; Allen & But-

ler, 1996; Boykin, 1982; Guttentag & Ross, 1972;Hanley, 1998).

Cultural characteristics provide the criteriafor determining how instructional strategiesshould be modified for ethnically diverse stu-dents. Developing skills in thisarea should beginwith teacher education students confronting the


7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

8/11

misconceptions and controversies surroundinglearning styles.Some mightberesolved byunder-standing that learning styles are how individu-als engage in the process of learning, not theirintellectual abilities. Like all cultural phenom-ena, they are complex, multidimensional, anddynamic. There is room for individuals to move

around within the characteristics of particularlearning styles, and they can be taught to crossstyle parameters. Learning styles do have corestructures,andspecific patterns byethnicgroupsare discernible (see, for instance, Shade, 1989).The internal structure of ethnic learning stylesincludes at least eight key components (whichare configured differently for various groups):preferred content; ways of working through learn-ing tasks; techniques for organizing and con-veying ideas and thoughts; physical and socialsettings for task performance; structural arrange-

ments of work, study, and performance space;perceptual stimulation for receiving, process-ing,anddemonstrating comprehension and com-petence; motivations, incentives, and rewardsfor learning;and interpersonal interactional styles.These dimensions provide different points ofentry and emphasis for matching instruction tothe learning styles of students from various eth-nicgroups. To respond most effectively to them,teachers need to know how they are configuredfordifferentethnicgroupsas well as thepatternsof variance that exist within the configurations.

Another powerful way to establish culturalcongruity in teaching is integrating ethnic andcultural diversity into the most fundamentaland high-status aspects of the instructional pro-cess on a habitual basis. An examination ofschool curricula andmeasuresof studentachieve-ment indicates that the highest stakes and high-est status school subjects or skill areas are math,science, reading, and writing. Teachers shouldlearn how to multiculturalize these especially,although all formal and informal aspects of the

educational process also should be changed.Further analysis of teaching behaviors revealsthat a high percentage of instructional time isdevoted to giving examples, scenarios, andvignettes to demonstrate how information,principles, concepts, and skills operate in prac-tice. These make up the pedagogical bridges that

connect prior knowledge with new knowledge,the known with the unknown, and abstractionswith lived realities. Teachers need to developrich repertoires of multicultural instructionalexamples to use in teaching ethnically diversestudents.

This is not somethingthat happens automati-cally or simply because we want it to. It is alearned skill that should be taught in teacherpreparation programs. The process begins withunderstanding the role and prominence of ex-amples in the instructional process, knowingthe cultures and experiences of different ethnicgroups, harvesting teaching examples from thesecritical sources,andlearninghowto applymulti-cultural examples in teaching other knowledgeand skillsfor instance, using illustrations ofethnic architecture, fabric designs, and recipesin teaching geometric principles, mathematical

operations, and propositional thought. Or us-ingvarious samples of ethnic literature in teach-ing the concept of genre and reading skills suchas comprehension, inferential thinking, vocabu-lary building, and translation. Research indi-cates thatculturallyrelevant examples have pos-itive effects on theacademicachievement of eth-nically diverse students. Boggs, Watson-Gegeo,and McMillen (1985) and Tharp and Gallimore(1988) demonstrated these effects for Native Ha-waiians; Foster (1989), Lee (1993), and Mosesand Cobb (2001) for African Americans; Garca

(1999)forLatinos andlimited-English speakers;and Lipka and Mohatt (1998) for Native Alas-kans. Observations made by Lipka and Mohatton their research and practice with using cul-tural examples to teach math and science toYupik students in Alaska underscored the im-portance and benefits of these strategies for im-proving school achievement. They noted that

Important connections between an aboriginal sys-tem of numbers and measurements andthehuntingand gathering context from which it derived can beused as a bridge to the decontextualized abstract

system often used in teaching mathematics and sci-ence, . . . can demystify how mathematics and sci-encearederived. . . [and] visualize . . . waysin whicheveryday tasks and knowledge can be a basis forlearning in formal schooling. (p. 176).

A wide variety of other techniques for incor-porating culturally diverse contributions, expe-


7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

9/11

riences, and perspectives intoclassroom teachingcan be extracted from the work of these andother scholars. They are valuable models andincentives for doing culturally responsive teach-ing and should be a routine part of teacher prep-aration programs.

CONCLUSION

The components of the preparation for andpracticeofculturallyresponsive teachingincludedin this discussion are not inclusive. There ismuch more to know, think, and do. These sug-gestions are merely samples of the knowledgeand skills needed to prepare teachers to workmore effectively with students who are not partof the U.S. ethnic, racial, and cultural main-stream. This preparation requires a more thor-ough knowledge of the specific cultures of dif-

ferent ethnic groups, how they affect learningbehaviors, and how classroom interactions andinstruction canbe changedto embrace these dif-ferences. Because culture strongly influences theattitudes, values, and behaviors that studentsand teachers bring to the instructional process,it has to likewise be a major determinant of howthe problems of underachievement are solved.Thismandate for changeisbothsimple and pro-found. It is simple becauseit demands for ethni-cally different students that which is alreadybeing done for many middle-class, European

American studentsthat is, the right to grapplewith learningchallengesfromthepointofstrengthandrelevancefound intheir owncultural framesof reference. It is profound because, to date,U.S.education has not been very culturally respon-sive to ethnicallydiverse students. Instead, thesestudents have been expected to divorce them-selvesfrom their cultures andlearn accordingtoEuropean American cultural norms. This placesthem in double jeopardyhaving to master theacademic tasks while functioning under cul-tural conditions unnatural (and often unfamil-

iar) to them. Removing this second burden is asignificant contribution to improving their aca-demic achievement. This can be done by allteachers being culturally responsive to ethni-cally diverse students throughout their instruc-tional processes. But they cannot be reasonably

heldaccountable fordoing soif they are not ade-quatelyprepared.Therefore,teacherpreparationprograms must be as culturally responsive toethnic diversity as K-12 classroom instruction.

REFERENCES

Allen, B. A., & Boykin, A. W. (1992). African-Americanchildren andtheeducative process:Alleviatingculturaldiscontinuitythroughprescriptivepedagogy. SchoolPsy-chology Review, 21(4), 586-598.

Allen, B. A., & Butler, L. (1996). The effects of music andmovement opportunity on theanalogical reasoning per-formance of African American and White children: Apreliminary study.Journal of Black Psychology, 22(3), 316-328.

Au,K.H.(1993).Literacyinstruction in multiculturalsettings.New York: Harcourt-Brace.

Au, K. H., & Kawakami, A. J. (1994). Cultural congruencein instruction. In E. R. Hollins, J. E. King, & W. C. Hay-man (Eds.), Teaching diverse populations: Formulating a

knowledge base (pp. 5-23). Albany: State University ofNew York Press.Baber, C. R. (1987). The artistry and artifice of Black com-

munications. In G. Gay & W. L. Baber (Eds.), Expres-sively Black: The cultural basis of ethnic identity (pp. 75-108). New York: Praeger.

Banks, J. B., & Banks, C.A.M. (Eds.). (1995). Handbook ofresearchon multiculturaleducation. NewYork:Macmillan.

Boggs, S. T., Watson-Gegeo, K., & McMillen, G. (1985).Speaking, relating, and learning: A study of Hawaiian chil-dren at home and at school. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Boykin, A. W. (1982). Task variability and the performanceof Black and White schoolchildren: Vervistic explora-tions. Journal of Black Studies, 12(4), 469-485.

Campbell, C. P. (1995). Race, myth, and the news. ThousandOaks, CA: Sage.Cazden, C. B., John, V. P., & Hymes, D. (Eds.). (1985). Func-

tions of language in the classroom. Prospect Heights, IL:Waveland.

Corts, C. E. (1991). Empowerment through media liter-acy: A multicultural approach. In C. E. Sleeter (Ed.),Empowerment through multicultural education (pp. 143-157). Albany: State University of New York Press.

Corts, C. E. (1995). Knowledge construction and popularculture: The media as multicultural educator. In J. A.Banks & C.A.M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research onmulticulturaleducation(pp.169-183).NewYork:Macmillan.

Corts, C. E. (2000). Our children are watching: How media

teach about diversity. New York: Teachers College Press.Escalant, J., & Dirmann, J. (1990). The Jaime Escalant

math program. Journal of Negro Education, 59(3), 407-423.

Foster, M. (1989). Itscookingnow: Aperformance analysisof the speech events of a Black teacher in anurban com-munity college. Language in Society, 18(1), 1-29.


7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

10/11

Foster, M. (1995). African American teachers and cultur-ally relevant pedagogy. In J. A. Banks & C.A.M. Banks(Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education(pp. 570-581). New York: Macmillan.

Foster, M. (1997). Black teachers on teaching. NewYork:NewPress.

Fox, H. (1994). Listening to the world: Cultural issues in aca-demic writing. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachersof English.

Fullilove, R. E., & Treisman, P. U. (1990). Mathematicsachievement among African American undergraduatesat the University of California, Berkeley: An evaluationof theMathematicsWorkshop Program.Journal of NegroEducation, 59(30), 463-478.

Garca, E. (1999). Student cultural diversity: Understandingand meeting the challenge. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Gay, G. (1995). Amulticultural school curriculum. In C. A.Grant & M. Gomez (Eds.), Making school multicultural:Campus and classroom (pp. 37-54). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsiveteaching: Theory, research,and practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

Gold, M. J., Grant, C. A., & Rivlin, H. N. (Eds.). (1977). In

praise of diversity: A resource book on multicultural educa-tion. Washington, DC: Teacher Corps.

Goodlad, J. I. (1984). A place called school: Prospects for thefuture. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Guttentag, M., & Ross, S. (1972). Movement responses insimple concept learning. American Journal of Orthopsy-chiatry, 42(4), 657-665.

Hanley, M. S. (1998). Learning to fly: Knowledge constructionof African American adolescents through drama. Unpub-lished doctoral dissertation, University of Washington,Seattle.

Hollins, E. R. (1996). Culture in school learning: Revealing thedeep meaning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Hollins, E. R., King, J. E., & Hayman, W. C. (Eds.). (1994).

Teachingdiversepopulations:Formulatinga knowledge base.Albany: State University of New York Press.

Howard, G. R. (1999). We cant teach what we dont know:White teachers, multiracial schools. New York: TeachersCollege Press.

King, J. E., Hollins, E. R., & Hayman, W. C. (Eds.). (1997).Preparing teachers forculturaldiversity. NewYork: TeachersCollege Press.

Kleinfeld, J. (1974). Effects of nonverbal warmth on thelearning of Eskimoand White students.Journal of SocialPsychology, 92(1), 3-9.

Kleinfeld, J. (1975).Effective teachersof Eskimo andIndianstudents. School Review, 83(2), 301-344.

Kochman, T. (1981). Black and White styles in conflict. Chi-cago: University of Chicago Press.

Krater, J., Zeni, J., & Cason, N. D. (1994). Mirror images:Teaching writing in Black and White. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.

Ladson-Billings,G. (1994). The dreamkeepers:Successful teach-ers of African-American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturallyrelevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Jour-nal, 32(3), 465-491.

Lee,C. (1993).Signifying asa scaffoldto literary interpretation:The pedagogical implications of a form of African-Americandiscourse (NCTE Research Rep. No. 26). Urbana, IL:National Council of Teachers of English.

Lipka, J., & Mohatt, G. V. (1998). Transforming the culture ofschools: Yupik Eskimo examples. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence

Erlbaum.Michaels, S. (1981). Sharing time: Childrens narrative

styles and differential access to literacy. Language inSociety, 10(3), 423-442.

Michaels, S. (1984). Listeningandresponding: Hearing thelogic of childrens classroom narratives. Theory IntoPractice, 23(3), 218-224.

Montagu, A., & Watson, F. (1979). The human connection.New York: McGraw-Hill.

Moses,R.P.,&Cobb,C.E.,Jr.(2001).Radicalequations: Mathliteracy and civil rights. Boston: Beacon.

Pai, Y. (1990). Cultural foundations of education. New York:Merrill/Macmillan.

Philips, S. U. (1983). The invisible culture: Communication inclassroomand communityon theWarm Springs IndianRes-ervation. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.

Porter, R. E., & Samovar, L. A. (1991). Basic principles ofintercultural communication. In L. A. Samovar & R. E.Porter (Eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader (6thed., pp. 5-22). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Shade,B. J. (Ed.). (1989). Culture, style, andthe educative pro-cess. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.

Sheets, R. H. (1995). From remedial to gifted: Effects of cul-turally-centered pedagogy. Theory Into Practice, 34(3),186-193.

Smith, G. P. (1998). Common sense about common knowledge:

Theknowledge basesfor diversity. Washington, DC:Amer-ican Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Smitherman, G. (1977). Talkinand testifyin: The language ofBlack America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Smitherman, G. (1994). The blacker the berry the sweeterthe juice: African American student writers. In A. H.Dyson, & C. Genishi (Eds.), The need for story: Culturaldiversity in classroomand community (pp. 80-101). Urbana,IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Spindler, G. D. (Ed.). (1987). Education and cultural process:Anthropological approaches (2nd ed.). Prospect Heights,IL: Waveland.

Spring, J. (1992). Imagesof American life:A history of ideologi-cal management in schools, movies, radio, and television.

Albany: State University of New York Press.Spring, J. (1995). The intersection of cultures: Multicultural

education in the United States. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Takaki, R. (1993).A differentmirror:A history of multiculturalAmerica. Boston: Little, Brown.

Tannen, D. (1990).You justdont understand: Women andmenin conversation. New York: Morrow.


7/27/2019 Gay.pdf

11/11

Tharp, R. G., & Gallimore, R. (1988). Rousing minds to life:Teaching, learning, and schooling in social context. Cam-

bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Wade, R. C. (1993). Content analysis of social studies text-

books: A review of ten years of research. Theory andResearch in Social Education, 21(3), 232-256.

Webb, J., Wilson, B., Corbett, D., & Mordecai, R. (1993).Understanding caring in context: Negotiating bordersand barriers. Urban Review, 25(1), 25-45.

GenevaGay is a professor of education at the Univer-sity of Washington, Seattle, where she teaches courses inmulticultural education and general curriculum theory

within the graduate studies and teacher education pro-grams. She is a former high school social studies teacher.Her research, teaching, and scholarship interests includethe interaction among culture, ethnicity, and education;curriculum design, staff development, andclassroom instruc-tion for multicultural education; and bridging multicul-tural education theory and practice. She is the author ofmore than 130articlesand book chapters,the authorof two

books, and the coeditor of one. Her latest book, CulturallyResponsive Teaching: Theory, Research,and Practice(2000, Teachers College Press), received the AACTE 2001Outstanding Writing Award.


Documents

Gay.pdf