Seven Principals for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning (32:14)

Summary

The presenter explains culturally responsive teaching as a way to help more students, across their differences, achieve at higher levels and engage more deeply and consistently. It requires recognizing students’ identities and strengths without asking them to give up who they are or assimilate. The broader goal is to build authentic relationships across differences and make school work better for students who have historically been underserved.

The presenter distinguishes between:

• Cultural competence: The willingness and ability to form effective, authentic relationships across differences.
• Culturally responsive teaching: Teaching and leading so that more students achieve at higher levels, engage more deeply, and do so more often—while retaining their identities.

Differences do not have to obstruct teaching, but educators need to notice and respond to them. The presenter organizes this work into seven principles:

1. Honor students’ cultural connections — “Kids get it that we get them.” Students should feel that teachers recognize who they are, including their culture, race, religion, background, gender, learning style, and other aspects of identity. Culturally relevant examples and materials matter, as does conveying genuine understanding without making a student’s identity seem like an issue or overemphasizing it.

2. Be personally and culturally inviting — “Kids get it that we like them.” Students need to experience that teachers enjoy their presence and care about them as people. Tone of voice, warmth, greeting students by name, and making personal connections can help create this feeling. The presenter describes a teacher who began greeting each student at the door at the end of the week; students came to expect and value the routine.

3. Make the learning environment culturally and personally inviting — “School looks like me.” Classrooms and shared school spaces should reflect the identities of the students and community. Images, displays, languages, and other visual details can communicate who belongs. The presenter gives examples of classrooms whose materials did not reflect the students in them, and a cafeteria that displayed flags representing students’ countries of origin.

Together, principles 1–3 are the “front porch” of learning: They help students feel welcomed into the school and its academic work.

1. Reinforce academic learning — “Catch kids being smart.” Teachers should notice and affirm students’ intelligence, effort, growth, and academic strengths—including those of students who may not yet see themselves as capable. A teacher’s belief can help students develop belief in their own abilities. Academic monitoring and supports can also identify students who need intervention and reinforce their progress.

2. Adapt teaching strategies to students — “Sing harmony to kids’ song.” Teaching should respond to how students learn and the strengths they bring, rather than requiring everyone to learn in the teacher’s preferred way. This includes varying approaches for learning styles, ability levels, cultural strengths, and students’ existing knowledge. In the presenter’s example of a French lesson for largely Spanish-speaking students, the teacher connects French vocabulary to Spanish and uses movement, music, and performance. The presenter recommends considering the range of students reached across a week or unit, not only within a single lesson.

3. Manage the classroom with firm, consistent, loving control. Respect begins with the teacher. Effective discipline combines clear expectations and consistency with care, acceptance, and strong relationships. The presenter emphasizes that this is not about being students’ best friend or lowering behavioral standards; it is about modeling respect and making discipline instructive rather than merely punitive. He describes a school where building relationships with students helped reduce discipline referrals.

4. Use varied grouping and student-centered learning. Instruction should honor both students’ individual abilities and their ability to work with others. Teachers should “mix it up” rather than relying too heavily on whole-group instruction, balancing individual work with cooperative learning. The presenter describes a math activity in which mixed-ability groups matched problems with answers. Students who had seemed disengaged during whole-class instruction became active contributors and leaders.

Suggested Reflection and Follow-Up

The presenter recommends using the principles as a guide for professional growth:

• In pairs, discuss what principles 1–3 have in common and how they help welcome students into learning.
• In groups of four, share:
  • One example of a strong practice connected to any of the seven principles.
  • One barrier, challenge, or area where more work is needed.
• Individually, identify a principle to strengthen and one that could be shared to support colleagues.
• Continue with self-assessment, classroom observation, and discussion of opportunities and barriers. Some schools use a selected principle as a yearlong professional-growth goal.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Presenter: The speaker appears to be Gary Howard, based on his self-reference in the presentation.
• Referenced source: A book on culturally responsive classrooms by Mary Oberg, Barbara Shade, and Cynthia Kelly, cited by the presenter as the source of the seven-principle model.
• The presentation also recounts experiences and examples from unnamed teachers, students, and colleagues; they are not identified as speakers in the video.