Culturally responsive pedagogy

You will now explore a theory which all of this unit’s recommended strategies fit into – culturally responsive pedagogy.

CRP helps all students to learn better by using a vast range of teaching and learning techniques, making the content relevant to the lived experiences of students, and developing growth mindsets in students so they persevere even when the learning is challenging.

CRP helps develop an academic mindset to prepare students for further and higher education where they are required to mull over information until it makes sense.

Where CRP has been used effectively, children experiencing extreme adversity have gained higher grades, have improved school attendance, and have better mental health outcomes overall (Hammond, 2014).

CRP can be broken down into three key components, as shown in the diagram below.

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1. Student Learning. Students grow intellectual and moral understandings as well as problem-solving and reasoning skills. 2. Cultural Competence. Students develop skills that let them affirm and appreciate their culture of origin while developing understandings of other cultures. 3. Critical Consciousness. Students gain the ability to identify, analyse and solve real-world problems.

CRP teaches students about the process of learning itself, helping them to appreciate challenge and struggle, rather than always getting to the correct answer straight away. It explores a learning pit, where students may get stuck trying to figure out a task or a concept and it celebrates that moment of confusion and struggle before a student reaches an understanding of the content.

This struggle is what helps students to get into an academic mindset and build the skills required for further and higher education and life after school.

Why is culturally responsive pedagogy vital for refugee students?

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1. Children who are refugees may have lived through war, persecution natural disasters. They may have a very different world view to a child who has been raised in a safe country. 2. They likely also come from a culture quite different to the one they find themselves in now. If they are presented with lessons and resources where nobody looks like them, it can be alienating and cause them to suffer academically and in terms of self-worth. 3. Children and young people who are refugees bring a whole world of knowledge, understanding and skills with them when they come to the UK, culturally responsive pedagogy helps to bring that into their lessons so they can thrive and feel pride in who they are. 4. It is vital we use an asset-based approach rather than focusing on deficits like not being fluent in English yet, having gaps in formal education, or struggling with trauma and loss.

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Strategies for fostering academic success

Strategies to introduce culturally responsive pedagogy into your classroom