Self Reflection Around Race is Hard Work (December 2018 CRT)

[2 minute read] Our 2018-2019 calendar emphasizes developing an understanding & responding to the context of your classroom. Our December 2018 blog post was written by Faculty Development Coordinator Chelsea Biggerstaff.


“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.”
― W.E.B. Du Bois

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centered approach to teaching in which students backgrounds and unique cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to create a sense of belonging in and out of the classroom.

Implementing a Culturally Responsive practice can be detrimental to students if teachers do not understand their own biases first. The majority of teachers in our country are white, middle class, and female. A common side effect of being raised by dominant white cultural norms is a racially unconscious narrative of “I don’t see color” or “I’m an American; I don’t have a culture.”  

This narrative is problematic because it refuses to recognize and accept that a person of color has an entirely different experience of the world and that experience is fundamentally different than that of a white person.

Becoming a racially conscious educator is a deeply self-reflective process that cannot be packaged and filed away to be pulled out when needed. Knocking down your own biases first will help.

When faculty, staff, and administrators become more racially conscious, the classroom and institution as a whole will become more inclusive.

CRTxACC

To support faculty who are exploring and implementing culturally responsive teaching in their courses, we’ve created a Private Facebook Group to facilitate collegial conversations.

CRTxACC members are encouraged to share resources, experiences, and questions to deepen their understanding of culturally responsive teaching.

Join the Online Community

Tags: , , , , , ,

Back to Top

Share This

Share this post with your friends!