The Culturally

To engage students from diverse cultural

and linguistic backgrounds, we must
see them as capable learners.
Ana Maria Villegas andTamara Lucas

eiki Alvarez, a young girl

one of us knows, arrived
in New York from the
Dominican Republic
several years ago with her
parents and two sihlings. After a difficult
start in the United States, both parents
lound jobs; their minimum-wage earnings were barely enough for a family of
five to scrape by month to month. As
the oldest child in the family, Belki soon

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had to assume caretaking responsibilities for her younger brother and sister.
At only 8 years old, she was responsible
for getting ber siblings ready for school,
taking them there each morning, bringing them back home at the end of the
school day and caring for them until
her parents came home from work.

ing products prepared at home. She astutely negotiated prices with customers
and expertly bandied financial transactions. Belki often spoke enthusiastically
about having her own business in the
future. She spoke Spanish fluently at
home and in the community, and she
often served as tbe English language
translator for her parents.

Belki's teachers, however, did not

know tbis competent, responsible, entbusiastic girl. Tbey perceived her as
lacking in language and math skills,
having little initiative, and being generally disinterested in learning.
Such profound dissonance between
her in-schoot and oui-of-school experiOn weekends, she worked with her
ences is not unique to Belki. Sadly, tbis
mother at the community street fair to
is typical for an increasing number of
make extra money for the family by sell- students in U.S. schools today
Over tbe past three decades, the racial,
etbnlc, and linguistic demographics of
tbe K-12 student population in the
United States have changed dramatically.
In 1972, 22 percent of all students enrolled in elementary and secondary public scbools were of racial/ethnic minority
backgrounds (National Center for Education Statistics INCESI, 2002). By 2003,
racial/ethnic minority students accounted
for 41 percent of total enrollments in
U.S. public scbools. In six states and the
District of Columbia, students of color
arc already in the majority (NCES,
2005). Tbe immigrant student population has also grown significantly in the
past 30 years. Currently one in five students speaks a language other than English at home, and the majority of these
i students are teaming English as a second
I language in school (Center on Education
I Policy, 2006).

EDUCATIONAL LEADLRSHIP/MARCH 2007

Responsive Teacher
A Framework and a Vision
Successfully teaching students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgroundsespecially students from
historically marginalized groupsinvolves more than just applying specialized teaching techniques. It demands a
new way of looking at teaching that is
grounded in an understanding of the
role of culture and language in learning.
Six salient qualities (see Villegas &
Lucas, 2002) can serve as a coherent
framework for professional development
initiatives m schools seeking to respond
effectively to an increasingly diverse student population.
Understanding How
Learners Construct Knowledge
Our conception of culturally and linguistically responsive teaching is
grounded in constructivist views of
learning (National Research Council,
2000). From this perspective, learners
use their prior knowledge and beliefs to
make sense of the new ideas and experiences they encounter in school. A
central role of the culturally and linguistically responsive teacher is to support
students' learning by helping them
build bridges between what they alread)
know about a topic and what they need
to learn about it.
For example, Belki will learn more
from a social studies unit on immigralion if her teacher draws on her very
real experience as a newcomer to the
United States. The teacher might ask her
and other mimigrant students in tbe
class to describe their experiences learning a new language and compare living
in the United States to living in their

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native countries. The teacher could

build on those narratives to introduce
relevant concepts, such as factors that
lead people to immigrate and phases in
the immigration process. The teacher
could invite immigrant parents to the
class to share their experiences. By involving the students and their parents in
ihese ways, the teacber would not only
help students build bridges to learning
but also strengthen the connections between bome and school. If the teacher
does not tap into the experiences of students in the class and instead teaches
the unit by focusing solely on the experiences of earlier immigrant groups
coming to the United Stalessuch as
the Germans and Irishthe material
will be much less relevant and engaging.
Learning also involves questioning,
interpreting, and analyzing ideas in the
context of meaningful issues. With this
in mind, an Fnglisb teacber in a comtnunity in the U.S. Southwest that had a
large Latino population designed a unit
on immigration to the United States.
The students were asked to write a letter
to the editor of a local newspaper expressing their views on the topic. To
write the letter, the students realized
that they needed to understand the issues more deeply. So they summarized
relevant newspaper articles and developed and administered a questiormaire
in their neighborhoods to learn about
the community's views on immigration.
They debated in class the proposal to
build a fence along the United
States/Mexico border. Working in
groups, they wrote letters to the editor
and then assessed their drafts using a
rubric that focused on grammar, clarity
oi position taken, and development of
supporting arguments. After receiving
the teachers feedback, the students re\ased and sent their letters. The students
were deeply engaged in a process that
helped improve tbeir writing skills.

30

In embracing constructivist views of

learning, we do not mean to suggest
that there is no place in schools for direct instruction, memorization, and
basic skills instruction. When such
transmission-oriented strategies predominate, however, their pedagogical
value diminishes, much to the students'
disadvantage. Such an approach to
teaching does not give students opportunities to actively engage in learning
and integrate new ideas and frameworks
into their own ways of thinking. Therefore, students are less likely to learn to
think critically, become creative problem
solvers, and develop skills for working
collaborative lyall qualities that are essential for success in life and work.
Learning Ahout Students' Lives
To teach subject matter in meaningful
ways and engage students in learning.

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/MARCH 2007

teachers need to know about their students' lives. We are not suggesting that
teachers leam generic information about
specific cultural or social groups. Such
thinking leads to stereotypes that do not
apply to individual students.
Instead, teachers need to know something about tbeir students' family
makeup, immigration history, favorite
activities, concerns, and strengths.
Teachers should also be aware of their
students' perceptions of the value of
school knowledge, tbeir experiences
with the different subject matters in
their everyday settings, and their prior
knowledge of and experience with specific topics in the curriculum. For example, Belki's teachers would benefit from
knowing that she and her family are immigrants, thai she often serves as ibe
English language translator for her parents, that she aspires to own a business

some day, and that she

expertly manages financial transactions at the
weekend street fair.
Effective strategies for
learning about students"
lives outside school include conducting home
\isits, creating opportunities in the classroom
for students to discuss
their aspirations for the
future, posing problems
for students to solve and
noting how each student
goes about soK-ing them,
and talking with parents
and other community
members. For instance,
Belki's teacher might
have asked her to give
examples of how she
uses math outside
-.chiH-)!, The teacher
could have learned even
more by visiting the
street fair. By observing her animated interactions vvdth customers, the teacher
would bave seen thai Belki is a fluent
Spanish speaker with sophisticated negotiation skills and some important
math skills.

Being Socioculturally Conscious

We define socioculturai consciousness
as the awareness that a person's worldview IS not universal but is profoundly
influenced by life experiences, as mediated by a variety of factors, including
race, ethnicity, gender, and social class.
Teachers who lack socioculturai consciousness will unconsciously and ine\itably rely on tbeir own personal
experiences to make sense of students'
livesan unreflective habit that often
results in misinterpretations of those

The vast majority of teachers in tbe

United States are white, middle class,
and monolingLtal English speaking. In
most cases, their lives differ profoundly
from tbe lives of their students. Although in formation-gathering strategies
are simpie enough to develop, it is more
challenging for teachers to leam how to
interpret what they discover about students through their data gathering. To
make productive instructional use of
this information, teachers must possess
two fundamental qualities; They must
have sociocuitural consciousness and
hold affirming views toward diversity
(Nieto, 1996).

To develop socioculturai consciousness, teachers need to took beyond individual students and families to
understand inequities in society. In all
social systems, some positions are accorded greater status than others, and
such status differentiation gives rise to
differential access to power. Teachers
need to be aware of the role that schools
play in both perpetuating and challenging those inequities. Professional development carried out in groups and
guided by an experienced facilitator
who is knowledgeable about multicultural issues can be instructive. Activities might involve reading about the dif-

ferential distribution of wealth and income in the United States or reflecting on

the well-documented fact that a person's
social class is the best predictor of academic success and future social standing
(Natnello, McDill, & Pallas, 1990). To
see the powerful connections between
social and education inequities, participants could read The Shame ofihe Nation;
The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in

America, by Jonathan Kozol (2006). By

reading and discussing accounts of successful teaching and learning in diverse

Teachers need to know something

about their students' family makeup,
immigration history, favorite activities,
concerns, and strengths.
students' experiences and leads to miscommunication. For example, students
from cultures with a less individualistic
and more coUectivist worldview than
that of mainstream U.S. culture may be
overlooked in class and assumed to be
less capable than their mainstream peers
because, in general, they do not seek individual attention and praise.

settings (see Garcia, 1999; LadsonBillings, 1994; Nieto &r Rol6n, 1997),
teachers can develop a vision of how
schools can challenge such inequities.
Holding Affirming Views
Ahout Diversity
Unfortunately, evidence suggests that
many teachers see students from socially
subordinated groups from a deficit persp)ective (Nieto, 1996). Lacking faith in
the students' ability to achieve, these
teachers are more likely to have low academic expectations for the students and
ultimately treat them in ways that stifle
their learning. They are more apt to use
drill, practice, and rote-leaming activities at the expense of more challenging
work that demands the use of higherorder thinking skills. They are also less
likely to call on the students in class,
give them sufficient wait time to respond thoughtfully to questions, or
probe incomplete answers for clarity
Bv contrast, teachers who see stu-

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31

dents from an affirming perspective and

tmly respect cultural differences are
more apt to believe tbat students from
nondominant groups are capable leamers, even when tbese students enter
school with ways of thinking, talking,
and behaving that differ from the dominant cultural norms. Teachers who hold
these affirming views about diversity
will convey this confidence by providing students with an intellectually rigorous curriculum, teaching students
strategies for monitoring their own
learning, setting higb performance stan-

lish teacher who helped students improve their writing skills through
researching Immigration did.
Teachers can also give English language leamers access to the curriculum
by drawing on the students native language resources. They can provide students who are literate in their native
language with material to read in that
language to help them build background knowledge for specific content
They can encourage students to use
bilingual dictionaries. They can prepare
study guides for instructional units that

Teaching is an ethical activity, and

teachers have an ethical obligation
to help all students learn.
dards and consistently holding students
accountable to those standards, and
building on the individual and cultural
resources that students bring to school.
For example, instead of setting out to
"correct" students' language through the
use of decontextualized drill and worksheet activities, the English teacher who
asked her students to write to the newspaper editor helped her students develop their writing skills by involving
them in purposeful and intellectually
stimulating tasks.
Using Ajjproptiate
Instnietional Strategies
Teachers can activate students' prior
knowledge by asking them to discuss
what they know about a given topic, as
Belkis teacher could bave done by having the immigrant students in the class
share their personal experiences with
Immigration. Teachers can embed new
ideas and skills in projects that are
meaningful to the students, as the Eng-

32

define relevant vocabulary and outline

key concepts in English, using simplified language. They can also use more
visual cues and graphic organizers and
incorporate more hands-on activities
into tbeir lessons.
Using pertinent examples and analogies from students' lives is another instructional strategy that helps students
build bridges to leaming. For example,
one of us recently observed a teacher introducing the concept of rhythm in poetry by having students analyze the
rhythm in a well-known hip-hop
recording and then engaging the students in a similar analysis of a poem by
Robert Frost. In U.S. history classes,
teachers can help engage students from
historically marginalized groups by having them examine the curriculum to determine whose perspectives are and are
not presented. This would work well,
for example, v*itb a textbook treatment
of slavery. If the students determine
through an analysis of the text that they

EDUCATIONAL LEADBRSHIP/MARCH 2007

are leaming little about the real experiences of slaves, they can read one of the
many published slave narratives to
deepen their understanding. As these
examples suggest, the job of the culturally and linguistically responsive teacher
involves engaging all students in learning for understanding.
Advocating for All Students
Numerous practices embedded in the
fabric of everyday schooling put students from nonmainstream groups at a
disadvantage. These Include a school
culture of low expectations for students
from low-status groups, inadequate general and multicultural leaming materials, large class sizes, assignment of the
least-experienced teachers to classes in
which students need the most help, insensitivity toward cultural differences,
questionable testing practices, and a
curriculum that does not reflect diverse
student perspectives.
To continue to move toward greater
cultural and linguistic responsiveness In
schools, teachers must see themselves as
part of a community of educators working to make schools more equitable for
all students. Teaching is an ethical activity, and teachers have an ethical obligation to help all students learn. To meet
this obligation, teachers need to ser\'e as
advocates for tbeir students, especially
those who have been traditionally marginalized in schools.
For example, teachers involved in
school- or district-level textbook review
committees could ensure that selected
textbooks and supplemental materials
appropriately reflect the diversity of experiences and perspectives in the student population. Those who have Input
Into the design of professional development activities could identify specific
areas in which the faculty might need
professional growth. Topics might include how to implement strategies for

References
Cenicr on Education Policy (2006). A public

leaming about students' lives, become

socioculturally conscious, build on students' interests outside school to advance curriculum goals, and tap
community resources in teaching. Responsive classroom teachers could also
request common planning time with the
English as a second language teacher to
coordinate instruction in ways that maximize content leaming for their English
language leamers.

Just Imagine
Certainly, individual teachers can enhance their success with students from
diverse backgrounds by working on
their ovwi to cultivate these qualities of
responsive teaching. However, the
framework that we have presented here
will have the greatest effect on a school
if teachers and school leaders develop a
shared vision of the culturally and linguistically responsive teacher.
Imagine Belki Alvarez's school life if
her teachers had explored these six

Teachers need to
serve as advocates
for their students.
qualities and shared ideas for applying
them in their teaching. They could have
capitalized on her entrepreneurial skills
to help her leam mathematical concepts. They would have seen her as a
capable learner and understood the relevance of her life experiences for her
school learning. They might have
tapped her experience as the English
translator for her family by having her
translate for other Spanish-speaking students in the class who spoke minimal
English. Approaching a students education in these culturally and linguistically
responsive waysrather than emphasizing deficitshas the potential to
truly engage all students in leaming,
both in school and beyond. IS

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approach. Albany. NY: SUNY Press.

Ana Maria Villegas {villegasa@mail

,montclair.edu) is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Tamara Lucas
{[email protected]) is Associate
Dean of thie College of Education and
Human Services and Professor of Educational Foundations at Montclair State
University, Montclair, New Jersey.

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