Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centric instructional approach that uses
cultural references and acknowledges students’ cultural backgrounds and experiences in all
aspects of the learning experience (Ladson-Billings, 1995).
Incorporating high levels of
culturally relevant content and strategies into the curriculum tends to increase students’ level of
ethnic identity and enables them to be more connected with their culture, be more involved with
their community, and become more engaged academically (Kana’iaupuni et al., 2010). Culturally
relevant teaching strategies have the potential to positively affect student performance and
enhance their socioemotional well-being (Cook-Hunter, 2015; Kana’iaupuni et al., 2010).
Cook-Hunter (2015) pointed out some teachers may feel uneasy with culturally relevant
pedagogy because they may have to step outside their comfort zone when having to reflect on
their current teaching practices and their sense of self-efficacy as it relates to teaching the status
quo. Nevertheless, the diversity of the modern college student body has not been served by the
predominant Western centric one-size-fits-all approach that has been imposed on generations of
students. Meeting the academic needs of the diverse college student body of the 21st century
requires “a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically
by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (Ladson-Billings, 1994, p.
17). According to Ladson-Billings (1994), to participate in culturally relevant teaching it is
indispensable for teachers to act intentionally to make their teaching a bridge that connects the
students home life and school life in the process of accomplishing the learning outcomes of their
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courses. Culturally relevant pedagogy capitalizes on the richness of the students’ cultural
backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences in a bidirectional manner: in one direction, it helps
inform the instructional content and methods, and in the other direction it engages students with
the course because they can see a relevance to their lived experiences.
