A School Leader’s Role

in Culturally
Responsive Teaching

Murphy Hansen
Tone Holland
Melanie McCormick

EDUC 555
Winter 2021
Dr. Helber
Agenda
● Warm-up activity
● What is culturally responsive
teaching?
● How can a school leader support
culturally responsive teaching?
● Resources
● Conclusion and questions

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Warm-Up Activity
Think about your personal identity,
experiences, and biases you may hold.

Write them down and think about how

these can impact culturally responsive
teaching.

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Culturally responsive,
relevant, or sustaining?
● We often hear these three terms
utilized and also utilized interchangeably.
For the purposes of our work, we will
dig into cultural responsiveness.
● Which term do you use most?
● What does culturally responsive pedagogy or
teaching mean to you?
● Jamboard- What does a culturally responsive
school look like, sound like, and feel like to
you?
What is culturally
responsive teaching?
● Teaching that “uses the cultural knowledge, prior
experiences, frames of reference, and
performance styles of diverse students to make
learning encounters more relevant to and
effective for children” (Gay, 2010, p. 31).
● “Culturally responsive instruction involves
drawing from the culture, ethnic diversity, and
experiences of students to better meet their
instructional needs” (Gay, 2002 cited in Marshall
& Khalifa., 2018).
WHY culturally responsive
teaching?
● Much of the equity policy at the State and Federal
level are, “just masking the same systematic ways of
being and thinking about learning” (Muhummad,
2020, p. 42).
● Geneva Gay’s work, “rests on the philosophy that
teachers can’t teach until they deeply know and
understand… the tools, protocols, values, traditions,
and ways of living of the students they teach”
(Muhummad, 2020, p. 45).

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WHY culturally responsive
teaching?
● “Students’ interest and engagement in learning
increase when educators use pedagogies
connected to their experiences” (Muhammad,
2020, p. 45).
● Furthermore, culturally responsive teaching
doesn’t mask current inequities, if done right
● Instead, teachers who use this approach, “see
curriculum as a tool of power and disruption of
marginalization” (Muhammad, 2020, p. 45).

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What does culturally responsive
teaching aim to do?
According to Gay (2010)*:
1. Socially and academically empower students
2. Engage students’ cultural knowledge, experiences,
contributions, and perspectives in a
multidimensional manner
3. Validate every student’s culture
4. Comprehensively educate each child socially,
emotionally, and physically
5. Transform instruction, assessment, and curriculum
6. Emancipate students from oppressive ideologies

*Lindsey, J (working paper)

The principal’s role in culturally
responsive teaching

“Culturally responsive practices are more likely

to occur in schools where principals engage in
culturally responsive leadership and work to
overcome the barriers that are against it.”

(Bustamante et al, 2009).

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Culturally Responsive Leadership
Addresses Four Key Areas
1. Doing Personal Work
2. Facilitating Learning and Development in others
3. Organizing the system to be culturally responsive
4. Engaging with Students, Families, and Community

“Everything rises and falls on leadership” - John C. Maxwell

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How can a school leader support
culturally responsive teaching?
1. Do the Necessary Personal “Work”
● Develop critical consciousness. Have self-awareness of implicit biases, beliefs and
dispositions when serving students of color (Brown, 2004; Dantley, 2005; Gay &
Kirkland, 2003; Gooden, 2005; Mckenzie et al., 2008 cited in Khalifa et al., 2016)
● Recognize, respect, and employ each student’s strengths, diversity, and culture as
assets for teaching and learning. (PSEL standard 3)
● Model culturally responsive practices and attitudes for staff, students, and community
(Gooden & Dantley, 2012).
● Use equity assessments to measure student inclusiveness, policy, and practice
(Khalifa, Gooden, Davis, 2016)
● Seek parent and community input/voice when measuring responsiveness (Khalifa et
al, 2016)
● Commit to continuous learning of cultural knowledge and contexts (Gardiner &
Enomoto, 2006)

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 How can a school leader support
culturally responsive teaching?
2. Facilitate Learning & Development in Staff
● Arrange for culturally relevant training and create professional
development opportunities for teachers and staff
● Develop teacher capacity for culturally responsive pedagogy and
classroom management strategies (Vogel, 2011)
● Help teachers learn to use school data to identify cultural gaps in
achievement.
● Create a leadership team and PLCs that work to find new ways for
teachers to be culturally responsive and support growth
● Ensure that curriculum materials utilized are culturally responsive
● Help teacher to choose and use culturally responsive assessment
tools for students
Source: Khalifa, M. A., Gooden, M. A., and Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of
the literature. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 12
How can a school leader support
culturally responsive teaching?
3. Organize the System to Be Culturally Responsive
● Create and articulate a mission and vision that supports the
development and sustaining of culturally responsive teaching
(Khalifa et al, 2016).
● Create an inclusive positive school climate and culture (Steel and
Chon-Vargas, 2013)
● Use school data to uncover and track disparities in academic and
behavioral performance. (Khalifa et al, 2016)
● Implement culturally responsive restorative justice policies
(Archibold, 2016)
● Make culturally responsive hiring decisions (NASSP, 2019)
● Plan and prepare a school budget to develop and support
culturally responsive teaching practices (NASSP, 2019)
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How can a school leader support
culturally responsive teaching?
4. Engage with Students, Families, and Community
● Develop meaningful relationships with students, families, and
the community
● Ask for and analyze feedback from students and families
● Advocate for the needs all students and their families
● Find overlapping spaces for school and community
● Resist deficit perspectives of students and families
● Consider students’ and families’ cultural backgrounds in
developing school-wide routines and processes
“The evidence strongly suggests that when schools, families and community groups
work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school
longer, and like school more.”
(Henderson and Mapp 2002: 16)

Source: Culturally Responsive Leadership Framework (www.nycleadershipacademy.org)

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Cultivating Genius
An Equity Framework For Culturally
& Historically Responsive Literacy

By: Gholdy Muhammad

Cultivating Genius
1. Cultivate Identity
a. “Literacy was integral to identity
development and was not seen as an
isolated effort in education” (p. 65).
2. Cultivate Skills
a. “Historically, skills were cultivated because
skills across areas of learning gave
students, young and old alike, the access
and tools for education” (p. 84).

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Cultivating Genius
3. Cultivate Intellect
a. “Readers in Black literary societies had aims of
cultivating their intellect and scholarship so they
could be better equipped to experience joy and to
critique the problems of the world” (p. 101).

4. Cultivate Criticality
b. “Criticality enables us to question both the world
and texts within it to better understand the truth in
history, power, and equity” (p. 117).

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Practical Resources
How to cultivate genius in schools
Wrapping Up
Come back to what you wrote about your personal
identity, experiences, and biases you may hold.

● How can people’s identities, experiences, and biases

impact culturally responsive teaching?
● How can you support as a school leader?

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Thanks!
Any questions?

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References
Bustamante RM, Nelson, JA, Onwuegbuzie, AJ, (2009) Assessing Schoolwide Cultural Competence. Implications for School
Leadership Preparation. Educational Administration Quarterly. 2009.45(5): 793-827.
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Teachers College.
Khalifa, M. A., Gooden, M. A., and Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature.
Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1272-1311.
Lindsey, J. B. (working paper)
Marshall, S. L. and Khalid, M. A. (2018). Humanizing school communities: Culturally responsive leadership in the shaping of
curriculum and instruction. Journal of Educational Administration, 56(5), 533-545.
Paris, D. and Alim, S. (2014). What are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining pedagogy? A loving critique
forward. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 85-137.
NASSP. Culturally Responsive Schools. 2019. https://www.nassp.org/culturally-responsive-schools/
Skrla L, Scheurich JJ, Garcia J, Nolly G. Equity Audits: A Practical Leadership Tool for Developing Equitable and Excellent
Schools. Educational Administration Quarterly. 2004;40(1):133-161.
Steele, D. M., & Cohn-Vargas, B. (2013). Identity safe classrooms: Places to belong and learn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press
The Leadership Academy. A Framework for School and School Leaders. https://www.nycleadershipacademy.org
Vogel, L. R. (2011). Enacting social justice: Perceptions of educational leaders. Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice,
and Research, 1(2), 69-82). 21
Credits

Special thanks to all the people who

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● Photographs by Unsplash

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