Stop Using the Term “CulturallyResponsiveTeaching”
A Conversation with Zaretta Hammond
I was fortunate to sit down with Zaretta Hammond, teacher-educator and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and Brain for a conversation about the intersections of our work in early childhood, inquiry, PBL and equity. Immediately following our conversation, I transcribed the interview, reflected on the conversation, drafted a blog, and sent it to colleagues for feedback. I was excited to share excerpts of our interview because Zaretta’s work has deeply impacted my work as a teacher and coach. I had recently joined the beta group of Zaretta’s online PLC Culturally Responsive Education by Design because I wanted to continue this process toward understanding the connection between anti-racist, anti-bias education, Culturally Resposnive Teaching (CRT), and Project Based Learning. I also wanted to better understand how to operationalize CRT in my classroom and my instructional coaching.
After participating in the PLC over the course of 5 months, I realized there was a reason that I hadn’t posted my writing. My initial draft of the blog was what Zaretta might refer to as “The First Pancake.” You know how when you make a batch of pancakes, the first spoonful of batter that goes onto the griddle usually doesn’t turn out the way you envisioned it or want it to be. It’s too lumpy, too liquidy, it burns too easily. So you watch, you see what you did wrong, you make adjustments. You turn down the heat, put less batter on your spoon, flip the next ones quicker.
Nearly 6 months after the initial draft of my article, after moving through the PLC, talking with other educators, beginning to shift my own mental models in terms of what CRT is and is not, and, “chewing” all that I heard, saw, read, I returned to rewrite this blog...adjusting my thinking, like a chef adjusts after observing the first pancake. I think the fact that I needed to make these revisions is important to share here, so that others know that even as adult learners, we need opportunities to clarify our thinking, process new information, make mistakes, and revise.
What follows are excerpts from my conversation with Zaretta, including my own reflections and connections, along with implications for our work as early childhood PBL teachers. My interview questions emerged from my desire to connect her work to mine in a more explicit way - specifically in creating and sustaining learner-centered, early childhood PBL classrooms that hold equity at the center of all aspects of my instructional design. My hope is that this blog inspires you to explore how your classroom practices and PBL units for young children can be vehicles for equity by intentionally building your students’ cognitive capacity through instructional approaches that give students agency, moving young children from dependent to independent learners.
Approaching Culturally Responsive Teaching in an Early Childhood Classroom
SL: What are the things you want early childhood teachers to know as they approach culturally responsive teaching in their classrooms?
ZH: The first thing I want them to do is to stop using the term “culturally responsive teaching” because when you use that phrase you have no idea what it means. So part of what we have to be able to do is ask: How do we help every child become a powerful learner by leveraging their funds of knowledge? I actually know what action I can take when I hear that - vs. “culturally responsive.” I’m not talking about multiculturalism - “food, fabric and festivals” - because that’s where a lot of white teachers go. And then they go back to teaching about who can talk, when they can talk, and it’s still the white, cultural dominant orientation. Just because I kind of sprinkle some stuff on it, it’s not culturally responsive. But for a lot of educators, that’s what they’re thinking. I have to mention something about cultural identity or racialize something. That’s not culturally responsive. Culturally responsive is: I am allowing you to use your natural ways of learning so that you can continue to expand it. So that you can continue to carry more of the cognitive load as you progress.
Reflections and Connections
There is a common thinking routine/prompt that goes: “I used to think...but now I think…” In one of the final reflections we did in the online PLC, Zaretta asked us to consider those prompts in regards to our beliefs about culturally responsive teaching. Here was mine:
I used to think that CRT was about building in classroom routines like chants and call/responses, or “turn and talks” to help engage my students of color in my lessons. I didn’t really know why these kinds of routines would help Black and Brown kids to engage, but I thought that was the advice of culturally responsive educators, so that’s what I tried to do.
Now I think that CRT is about first understanding our country’s racial history, and how children of color have been intentionally excluded from educational opportunities that build intellectual capacity to become powerful learners. Now I think that CRT is about instructional design that honors students’ cultural ways of being and knowing and intentionally places students as the units of change in order to become independent learners. Culturally Responsive Teaching is not a list of “strategies” that support engagement. It is a complete re-frame of my mental models around what my classroom looks, feels and sounds like - how I approach my relationships with students and families, and how I approach my instruction. It is about igniting children’s brains by connecting new knowledge to current schema, then giving students (especially dependent learners) the opportunity to “chew” on this new content, and then reviewing that new content or skill or knowledge later so that learning can happen and new neural pathways can develop. CRT is a work in progress. I am not “done,” but rather, I accept that I’m at the beginning of this path toward transformation, and that is ok.
So what are the implications for the PBL units we design?
Zaretta writes that “lesson design and unit planning for equitable outcomes has a backbone structure that centers on the student as the unit of change. It plans for helping the student develop the skills and dispositions that would allow them to turn inert information into usable knowledge.” For me, this is PBL, and projects designed by early childhood educators are no different. Creating authentic projects for young children challenges us to identify the skills and dispositions that we want to help our students develop. Our projects don't need to be racialized or include social justice themes. We certainly can create multi-cultural, social justice-oriented projects as long as the learning outcomes are clear and have a lens towards equity. Thematic teaching around the “food, fabric and festivals” of a country or culture is tempting for early childhood teachers because the topics and themes feel accessible for young children. But in PBL, projects emerge from a variety of places, including students' interests, connections with home and family, and events happening in the community. We must also connect this content to standards to create project learning goals, and most importantly, our projects must include opportunities for students to be leaders of their learning and develop skills that empower them to become more independent, therefore disrupting inequitable educational systems.
“As the personal trainer of your students’ cognitive development, your job is to provide them with new cognitive tools, not just engage them in random activities, employ the latest fad strategy, or do interesting project based units.”
Even interesting PBL units are not necessarily culturally responsive if we are not intentional about truly coaching into students’ learning moves so that they begin to see themselves as powerful learners. We need to elevate the level of cognitive demand through challenging questions and problems. We must consider where we can give children agency by introducing thinking routines and protocols from resources such as Harvard’s Project Zero. We can be intentional about vocabulary development or “word wealth” in our projects. We can share power in our classroom by co-creating socio-cognitive norms, honoring questions, seeing errors as information, and giving students plenty of opportunity for voice and choice. We must view even our youngest children as learners who are capable of developing greater independence when we offer the right amount of scaffolding and remove it as needed.
Levering Children’s Funds of Knowledge
SL: Is there more that we need to know so that we can leverage young children’s funds of knowledge?
ZH: Yeah, I think what we can do is try to make as much congruence between home and classroom. Meaning it doesn’t have to be 100% but it has to be that partnership. The school or the center or the preschool is also building its capacity to actually welcome the student so they don’t feel they have to be different. Here’s a thing I want to say too why it’s so important. Because early childhood educators are the bridge between formal school and home. And that child is still at home. So we don’t want to set up a type of conflict where they have to choose. We want them to not have to edit themselves. That however they’ve been learning at home should have some representation, should have some congruency in the classroom.
Reflections and Connections
This particularly resonated with me because this past year, as school was literally at home, and I showed up each morning in my kids’ kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms. I was a guest in their homes. But as we shift back to in-person school, what aspects of this parent partnership will we carry with us? How can my classroom environment be set up in a way that feels familiar, like home, from day 1? How am I stretching myself to learn about my students, their families, and the things that bring them joy before they even arrive? What steps do I need to take to learn about the parenting styles and practices of my families early on and throughout the year? How will I stay cognizant of my children’s cultural norms and communication patterns? How will we make sure to teach and affirm with these aspects of children’s home learning experience in mind? So much of what we learned this year with family partnerships and the home/school connection must remain present. The way children communicate at home, their ways of knowing and being, must be honored in the classrooms each day. We need to build in storytelling and story-sharing, communicating and collaboration, joy and movement.
PBL is a powerful way to leverage this home/school connection as we return to in-person learning. I am committed to continuing to design PBL units that bring in children’s knowledge and curiosity. Units that honor children’s unique identities while at the same time, allow them to connect and build relationships with others who have different perspectives and knowledge. And most importantly, units where students have myriad opportunities to reflect on their own learning, set goals for themselves, and act on meaningful feedback - not only from me, but from their peers - so as to continue to grow their intellectual capacity.
SL: What do you think preschool and early childhood leaders can do to enhance and improve their programs in terms of addressing these sources of inequity?
ZH: Again, we want to move past the big terms and bring it closer to the ground. So again, they have to look at - what are the narratives floating around in our school building? There are narratives about different families from racial groups or socio-economic groups. So you have to notice that so you can actually start counter narratives. And the counter narrative isn’t “You’ve gotta be the microaggression police,” but the way in which you are counterbalancing the cultural ways of being. So that a child who gets up to go sharpen his pencil, or is talking to a neighbor, is not now being sent out. You should not have Black and Brown boys, just because they may have a way of processing information that is a little more tactile, or more energetic, or is verbal because they are doing it with another person - those actually should be incorporated into the classroom community. Most white educators won’t acknowledge inequity by design. Early childhood educators need to know what messages are out in the world. Because if you don’t, they are there, the whole time. If you have no counter, you will be infected by that. So the leader has to know what those things are that may be representative of a particular way that a collectivist culture may express itself. They have to have enough of a lens because collectivism looks different in different communities.
Reflections and Connections
My early work as a member of Zaretta’s PLC has really pushed me to look inward at my beliefs and the narratives that live in my personal experiences, my classroom approaches, and my school context. We must investigate our beliefs about families from racial and socio-economic groups and look hard at our own racial and cultural biases. These biases can so easily show up in the way we talk to our students and families, as well as in the learning experiences we plan for our classrooms.
As I approach the new school year, I seek to ensure that where students’ cultural ways of being and doing - ways of speaking, engaging with others that are the roots in their culture, are not “othered” - rather these ways of being must inform my own understanding of collectivism, and thus inform my instructional design and implementation. For me, this will be creating projects where young children are the agents of change, where they will generate questions, engage with others in discussions using appropriate protocols, and grapple with challenging problems with peers. I will intentionally create and sustain the conditions for students to make their voices heard, become cognizant of their own learning moves, and be leaders in their own learning. Developing these projects requires me to continue to gain a deeper understanding of collectivism as a lens on the world - in my day-to-day interactions with students and families, in the classroom environment we create together. This year, I will continue to ask myself
Where and how might PBL integrate students’ cultural ways of being?
How might PBL allow young children to work in more of an apprenticeship model, work alongside or with feedback from experts in the community?
How will I actively continue to learn about family, parenting styles and mirror those practices in my classroom - especially given I am working with our youngest learners who are transitioning from home to school?
Culturally Responsive Teaching is More Than Just “Good Instruction”
SL: When I first read your book, I thought to myself: “Well, this is just good instruction.” I believe I recall being in your foundations seminar and you saying no- that is a misconception. Can you say more about that?
ZH: First of all, I want to remind you that this is not just my thoughts. This is the science of learning, this is data driven. This is what Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings developed when she started talking about culturally responsive teaching. So this is not a relative “I just think this is….” I think it’s really important to kind of ground yourself and root yourself in the research as to why this is not just “good teaching.” She wrote the article [“But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy”] that was centered around that. Because the problem with - when you start to talk about culturally responsive teaching, it is invisible. Meaning when you look at it, unless it’s racialized, you don’t see it. You just think, ‘well that’s just good teaching.’ Right. And we have kept good teaching away from Black and Brown children. So the historical piece has to be put in there. We have strategically and deliberately underdeveloped the cognitive capacity of Black and brown students. Particularly indigenous and those of African descent. So if we know we’ve done that, then part of what we have to do is being able to “water-up” our environment so that good teaching is accessible to them, building on their funds of knowledge. So as much as you can say - oh wow, constructivism, that’s the way it is - that’s not the truth when you go into classrooms with mostly Black and brown children in them. Even in a school that is diverse, look to see where the Black and brown students are. They’re on the low track, they’re typically grades behind - and this starts in early childhood. It’s not like something flips in second grade. This starts with how we help babies think.
“So the teaching itself, the instruction itself looks more like Project Based Learning. If you actually look at collectivist communities, and how they teach - it looks very much like that. It looks like an apprenticeship model. We’re shoulder to shoulder, we’re doing, we’re taking it apart, we’re talking while we’re doing it - We’re in a community of practitioners - this is always how it’s done.”
Reflections and Connections
This deeply affirmed my belief that PBL has the potential for being a vehicle for equity. As a PBL teacher, my work is grounded in constructivist principles and learner-centered practices - what I deem to be “good instruction.” Culturally Responsive Teaching practices seemed to overlap and intersect with this foundation, so what is the difference? That inquiry-based teaching and learning, learning that is experiential, hands-on, minds-on - this is culturally responsive teaching. But it isn’t enough to just be doing this “good teaching” without actively knowing about and disrupting the intentional inequities designed into our educational system.
Zaretta likes to remind us that “information is not transformation.” Reading, listening, and talking about these ideas is not enough. It is actually the active working, trying things out - with students and colleagues - that is transformational. We have to actively provide opportunities for culturally/linguistically diverse students to develop habits of mind that grow their cognitive capacity, that consistently enables children to learn how to learn. In PBL, we can intentionally build in these opportunities; through targeted, instructional conversations, scaffolded feedback/critique protocols, thinking routines and authentic, relevant problem-solving. These opportunities level-up student learning, setting up engaging environments that elicit strategic thinking and problem solving, collaboration, focused attention, and expression/ communication. Only then will we disrupt the inequities that currently exist in education - even, and especially with, our youngest learners.
Moving Forward
If you are interested in learning more about Zaretta Hammond and her work, I would suggest beginning with her book or articles, including her recent piece “Liberatory Education: Integrating the Science of Learning and Culturally Responsive Practice.” You might also check out her upcoming PLC.
If you are already familiar with her work, continue focusing on improving students’ information processing skills, making sure that students are the agents of change. Do a “gut check” of your projects. Are you relying solely on an “engaging” project design? If yes, then investigate your day-to-day instructional practices and conversations. Where can you build in more scaffolds, thinking routines, and discussion protocols so students carry more of the cognitive load? Is your project going down the “food, fabric and festivals” route in an attempt to be “multicultural?” If yes, instead, choose a different project topic - one that is relevant, engaging and authentic and that draws on and builds upon students’ schema. Focus on instructional design that ensures that students who are more dependent learners - often students of color - are building cognitive capacity and being given opportunities for agency. And in the end, remember, this is a process of learning and discovery and mistake-making. As you learn and try new things, don’t be discouraged if it takes you a while to make a solid batch of pancakes. I’m still working on mine.
Sara Lev teaches Transitional Kindergarten in Los Angeles and is a member of the National Faculty of PBLWorks. She is the co-author of Implementing Project Based Learning in Early Childhood: Overcoming Misconceptions and Reaching Success (Routledge, 2020).
Erin Moulton has over 23 years of experience in Early Learning and Elementary Education in Oregon. Erin was the first teacher hired by Judy Graves at the Opal School where she taught grades Pk-5 over the course of 11 years. She currently consults with Teaching Preschool Partners mentoring public school Early Learning teachers in integrating playful inquiry-based teaching approaches.