Toward Culturally Restorative: Teaching Approaches

Introduction

The cultural knowledge from learners of color becomes the “funds of knowledge” (Moll, 1992) necessary for developing culturally responsive teaching. The use of culturally responsive teaching practices positively impacts the achievement of urban learners of color (Driscoll, 2000; Gay, 2002; OECD, 2007; Immordino-Yang, 2007; Schunk, 2012; Office of Special Education Programs, 2013) as evidenced by increased instructional engagement, higher academic attainments, decreased chronic absences, less school dropout (Hammond, Linton, Smink, & Drew, 2007) and reduced disproportionate under-representation in academically advanced coursework (Ladson-Billings, 2013). Despite, research confirming that matching instruction to the culture of urban learners of color makes learning more relevant (Ladson-Billings, 2009) still the practices of culturally responsive teaching remain underused (Siwatu, 2011). This underuse reflects political, symbolic, less responsive, or unresponsive uses of culturally responsive teaching practices, which suggests the so-called “achievement gap” (Ladson-Billings, 2009; Deming, Hastings, Kane & Staiger, 2014) between urban learners of color and their counterparts is the missed opportunity to develop the practices of culturally responsive teaching.