Culturally Responsive Teaching with Adult Learners

Abstract

In recent decades, educational research has strongly supported the incorporation of culture and cultural identities into adult learning environments. However, much of the literature about culturally responsive teaching, a well-established framework in multicultural education research, has been conducted in the K-12 setting, leaving one to question how adult education researchers and practitioners utilize these approaches. This article describes research conducted from a culturally responsive framework in various adult learning environments. In general, many studies eschewed the complete culturally responsive framework, choosing selected aspects commonly identified with sociocultural theory. The most commonly used tenets were: the importance of learners' cultural identities, the need for adult educators to explore their own cultural identities, and the role that diverse curriculum and materials play in establishing an inclusive learning environment.

Cultural Humility: A Proposed Model for a Continuing Professional Development Program

“…Inclusion of at least 25% interactive elements in CPD learning interventions has been found to shift the learning from a passive to an active process [ 36 ]. In the case of cultural humility CPD, we propose that adopting a culturally responsive framework [ 37 ], underpinned by cultural humility as a reimagined model of practice, is crucial.…”

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Its Application in Higher Education Environments

“…Although often recognized as an important aspect of teacher development, students enrolled in educator preparation programs often complete their program of study without being introduced to societal issues produced by race, class, and culture. As an example, McIntosh [19] noted that many white people experience life without a need to defend or to explain themselves because they are not minorities [20].…”

“…Since Banks [26], other researchers [14,16,17,20,[28][29][30][31] have identified the concept of culture as a significant and useful teaching tool in K-16 and beyond classroom settings. Expanding on the philosophy of Banks regarding multicultural education, Ladson-Billings [32] has contributed to the discussion of CRT.…”

Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to Influence Literacy Achievement for Middle School Black Male Students

“…However, the success in sustaining this increase has been limited among marginalized student populations (U.S. Department of Labor, 2013). The use of CRT allows teachers to use the cultural experiences and frames of reference of students to design and implement effective instruction (Carjuzaa, 2012;Gay, 2010;Ladson-Billings, 1995;Rhodes, 2015). The consideration for using CRT with marginalized students in schools started with research reported by Banks (1994).…”