Collective Voices and Shared Practices
Reimagining Culturally Responsive Learning Spaces asks: How do we create and sustain culturally responsive classrooms and schools? This book supports educators in examining, implementing, and sustaining culturally responsive teaching practices in secondary ELA and history classrooms.
Grounded in research and attentive to reflection and self-examination, the book brings together expert guidance, practical strategies, lesson plans, activities, and reflection questions. Moving from the “macro” to the “micro,” it establishes a foundation for understanding culturally responsive teaching and leadership before offering concrete approaches for putting these ideas into practice.
Each chapter helps educators consider their positionality, recognize their responsibility in shaping responsive learning environments, and identify meaningful starting points for creating and sustaining culturally responsive classrooms. The book can also serve as a resource for professional learning communities and departments seeking to examine curricula, strengthen practice, and engage collectively in culturally responsive teaching and leadership.
Praise for Reimagning Culturally Responsive Learning Spaces
“Reimagining Culturally Responsive Learning Spaces is essential reading for anyone committed to cultivating learning spaces where all students thrive. Drawing on the collective research, wisdom, and experiences of diverse educators and scholars, this volume serves as a critical resource for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of culturally responsive practices and transform teaching and learning.”
– Terah Venzant Chambers, Professor, MSU College of Education, Associate Dean, MSU Graduate School, Michigan State University
“Every teacher, principal, curriculum specialist, and counselor needs to read this book of collective voices about culturally responsive education. The specialists have created an exceptional resource explaining how to design a school where students are at its center. Places where all learners feel and know they belong and the curriculum and classroom reflect the community. Educators need to appreciate student lives, families, cultures, and language. I highly recommend this easy -to-read text that identifies vital leadership practices and curriculum strategies for culturally responsive pedagogy. As you prepare your classroom, ask yourself, ‘How well do I know my students, their dreams and their passions?’”
— Valerie Ooka Pang, Professor Emerita, San Diego State University
“As a teacher educator, I am always looking to update my courses with readings that support preservice teachers’ development as critically self-reflective and culturally responsive and sustaining educators. The beautiful collection of chapters in this edited volume will help me to achieve this and so much more. It weaves together reflective insights from authors’ personal narratives and research while providing a wealth of reflective prompts and practical strategies to develop and deepen pre- and in-service teachers’, leaders’, researchers’, and evaluators’ reflexive and culturally responsive praxis. From considerations of community voice and reciprocity in evaluation to the importance and power of building community with and a sense of belong for students and families before the first day of school to centering Diné, Latine, and Afrocentric perspectives in curriculum, this book is a valuable resource and guide for educators seeking to create learning environments that honor students’ and their communities’ histories, heritages, and ways of knowing.”
– Shaneé A. Washington, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Justice and Equity in Teacher Education, College of Education, University of Washington