REL Pacific
Samantha Holquist & Tameka Porter
June 3, 2020
As part of a collaboration between REL Mid-Atlantic and REL Pacific, this is part two of three blogs examining equity and culturally responsive practices in light of COVID-19. The first blog post provided an overview of using culturally responsive practices in online learning.
As racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity within schools and classrooms has expanded, teachers and leaders have begun to recognize the unique backgrounds and experiences of culturally diverse students through culturally responsive leading and learning.1 Culturally responsive practices consist of using cultural knowledge, learning styles, and prior educational and personal experiences to make learning effective, relevant, and equitable for all students.2 With the COVID-19 pandemic upending the conventional school environment, teachers and leaders have an opportunity to explore culturally responsive ways to support students and their families with the transition from the in-person classroom to the online learning experience by providing spaces for families and students to exercise their voice.3 By acknowledging the unique student and family voices within schools and districts, teachers and leaders have an opportunity to help families adapt to the current academic landscape while addressing and closing equity disparities.
Student voice and family voice can be defined as the ways in which students and/or their families have opportunities to indirectly or directly participate in and influence education decisions that will shape students' learning.4 5 6 In an in-person or virtual classroom setting, student voice and family voice practices can range from teachers soliciting feedback on lessons to co-creating lessons with students and/or families.7 8 When using student and/or family voice strategies, it is important for teachers to foster a safe, open environment where all students and families can:
Building and sustaining collaborative relationships with students and families is essential not only for understanding students' and families' experiences, but also for meeting students' learning needs and desires.13 14 How administrators and teachers build these relationships will depend on the specific context and cultures of students and families served by the school. To build and sustain collaborative relationships during COVID-19, administrators and teachers can strive to foster a virtual school culture that is responsive to students' and families' cultures to their current experiences and needs.15 The following strategies can support administrators and teachers in building a culturally responsive virtual school culture.
For more information about these strategies and others to support administrators and teachers in building a culturally responsive virtual school culture through student voice and family voice, check out REL Pacific's recent infographic entitled “Including Voice in Education Addressing Equity Through Student and Family Voice in Classroom Learning.”
Exacerbated by COVID-19, families and students on the margins of learning are facing obstacles such as food and housing insecurity, limited access to technology, and the stress of becoming comfortable with unfamiliar learning platforms that may make it difficult for meaningful and engaging online learning to occur.22 23 One way to raise awareness about the challenges that students and families are facing is through delving into these issues through culturally responsive social justice projects and activities.
A common misconception is that social justice and culturally responsive learning are synonymous with race-based teaching practices that encourage educators to teach the “black way” or the “Hispanic way.” 24 25 26 Culturally responsive learning that includes social justice and community issues connects history, science, economics, and culture and focuses on how inequality can shape society and education experiences. The following strategies can support teachers and leaders as they explore and respond to social justice and community issues compounded by COVID-19.
Building relationships with families and students enables teachers and leaders to better understand their circumstances, so that they can provide equitable supports and services to students and their families to support successful remote learning. Recognizing and acknowledging that education access and opportunity may differ depending on personal and cultural circumstances is a crucial component of creating and sustaining culturally responsive and equitable learning practices and policies that ensure that all students have pathways to high-quality education resources and opportunities.
Providing families and students with education choices and ways to communicate their needs is a sustainable culturally responsive teaching and learning practice—during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond—that sets up expectations for success rather than assuming students are incapable of doing the work or learning the material. By building relationships with students and parents as individuals rather than as members of a particular racial or cultural group, teachers and administrators can apply student and family backgrounds and experiences to develop curricula that support academic achievement for all children.
Footnotes:
1 Bazron, B., Osher, D., & Fleischman, S. (2005). Creating culturally responsive schools. Educational Leadership, 63(1), 83–84.