Reimagining Culturally Responsive Learning Spaces

"How do we create and sustain culturally responsive classrooms and schools?” This book supports you as an educator to examine, implement, and sustain culturally responsive teaching practices in your secondary ELA and history classrooms.

With particular attention to research and the discernment of bias, practices, strategies, and expert guidance in the context of culturally responsive teaching and leading, the contributions in this book offer an overview of research alongside concrete activities, lesson plans, and reflection questions that encourage teachers and leaders to use reflection and self-examination as a foundational practice. The book moves from the “macro” to the “micro” by first providing context regarding what culturally responsive teaching/leading is, and then an overview of practices and strategies that support the implementation and sustaining of culturally responsive pedagogy. Each chapter helps educators navigate the task of incorporating and sustaining culturally responsive practices into the classroom, better understanding our personal responsibility towards knowing our positionality, and ensuring that we have discovered a starting place to begin the journey of creating culturally responsive learning spaces. Professional development groups can also use the book to work collectively to enhance or assess department curricula, and to discuss and reflect on how to best integrate culturally responsive teaching and leading into classrooms.

This is an ideal resource for all secondary school English Language Arts and history teachers and leaders interested in equity work.