Culturally Responsive Practice
Program Summary:
There are four courses in the Culturally Responsive Practices Program. The four courses are: Program Introduction, Cultural Responsiveness, Socio-Political Awareness, and Academic Achievement.
Culturally responsive practice is an approach that encompasses and recognizes both students’ and educators’ lived experiences, culture, and linguistic capital. Culturally responsive educators reflect on their students’ as well as their own lived experiences, culture, and linguistic capital to inform, support, and ensure high-quality instruction. They have high expectations of their students and demonstrate positive attitudes toward student achievement; they are committed to involving their students in multiple phases of academic programming, thereby supporting the unique abilities and learning needs of each student and fostering student success. The ongoing commitment to reflect and engage in this kind of exemplary practice to inform, support, and ensure high-quality instruction lies at the core of culturally responsive practice. This definition is drawn from the work of Gay (2010), Hammond (2014), and Ladson-Billings (2009).
Program Introduction Course: Culturally Responsive Practice (CRP) Program Introduction
.5 hours
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Recognize the relationship between culturally responsive teaching, academic achievement, and socio-political consciousness or social political awareness as evidenced through reflection.
Course 1: Culturally Responsive Practice (CRP) Cultural Responsiveness
2.5 hours
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Define what it means to be a culturally responsive educator (also referred to as “culturally competent teacher” in the videos)
- Explain the components of cultural responsiveness: educator knows and understands themselves; educator knows and understands each student; educator knows and understands essential aspects of the community that surrounds the school
- Discover how educators use knowledge of self, knowledge of students, and knowledge of community as a bridge to help each student learn and achieve at high levels
- Discover how culturally responsive practices supports excellent teaching and leading practices
Course 2: Culturally Responsive Practice (CRP) Socio-Political Awareness
2 hours
In Course Two, participants will be able to:
- Recognize that culturally responsive educators understand the importance of social political awareness in the context of student learning
- Develop an understanding of the role that a culturally responsive educator plays to support learning opportunities that lead to positive change in the school and community
- Develop an understanding that culturally responsive educators help students become change agents in their community
- Describe the importance of self-care
- Learn about specific examples that demonstrate how social political awareness can shape the education of students in the classroom and community
- Learn to identify your sphere of influence
Course 3: Culturally Responsive Practice (CRP) Academic Achievement
4.5 hours
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Recognize the importance of acquiring student prior knowledge
- Recognize the importance of engaging families and communities as a part of an educator’s culturally responsive practices
- Recognize the value of family assets to better involve them in the classroom
- Examine the curriculum and supporting materials to identify opportunities to integrate student culture in the school and classroom
- Describe the alignment of culturally responsive teaching and national mathematics standards and apply the alignment to a mathematics class
- Describe the alignment of culturally responsive teaching and science academic achievement (specifically three concepts: funds of science knowledge, naïve ideas, and inquiry)and apply the alignment to a science class
- Describe the alignment of culturally responsive teaching and English Language Proficiency Standards and apply the alignment within the school and classroom
Course Terms
Please note - A variety of terms related to culturally responsive practice will be used throughout the courses (i.e. culturally relevant pedagogy, cultural competence, social-political consciousness). The courses are based upon multiple frameworks and theories related to this work that continue to evolve over time.
Course Contact Information
If you have questions regarding this course, please reach out to: equity@education.ohio.gov
LPDC Online Professional Development Form
We recommend that you contact your Local Professional Development Committee (LPDC) to request pre-approval for using the course hours toward meeting your individual professional development plan (IPDP) goals. We have included generic LPDC reflection forms below, however, when you request pre-approval, you should check to see if your district LPDC has specific forms they require you to use (e.g. pre-approval forms, time logs, reflection forms).