Using Technology to Support Culturally Responsive Practices in Post-Secondary Settings

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a research-based method of instruction that centers students' racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds in the curriculum and pedagogy to ensure equitable outcomes as well as promote critical consciousness related to social injustice. CRT is typically associated with P-12 educational settings; however, the principles and mindsets of culturally responsive education have been applied in post-secondary educational settings. The practices associated with CRT require intentional planning, preparation, and implementation. The abrupt shift to virtual and remote learning required quickly leveraging various technology tools to ensure CRT practices were incorporated into teaching and learning in order to create an equitable and culturally-responsive learning environment.

Utilizing the Intersectional Perspective to Shift Individual and Systems Practices

The chapter aims to help practitioners create more equitable learning environments and student outcomes using an intersectionality lens. The chapter first discusses what the intersectionality lens is and why it is essential. Then it discusses the impact of using an intersectional approach on exceptional education practitioners' abilities to understand better their students' lived experiences and needs, leading to more accurate and comprehensive decision making and subsequently providing more effective student placement, instruction, and support. The chapter provides guidance to practitioners concerning how to work with their teams and the school to create a continual commitment to cultural competence, reassessing structures and making necessary adjustments to maintain and enhance their utilization of culturally responsive practices.

Teacher embodiment of culturally responsive pedagogies in a fifth grade classroom

Schools need better roadmaps for accomplishing culturally responsive pedagogy and intercultural education. In this article, I feature the culturally responsive practices of a Black teacher situated in an elementary classroom in the U.S. Her practices contribute to a roadmap for enacting culturally responsive pedagogy that incorporates small group instruction and cooperative learning. I also contend that queries investigating pedagogies affirming minoritized students must consider the primary actors charged to implement such work. In addition to her pedagogical practices, I include data that elucidate how the teacher’s racial biography is explicitly tied to the culturally responsive work she engages in the classroom. I conclude with considerations for how this case study might offer educators, researchers, and policymakers’ ideas for deep integration of intercultural education.

Examining Recruitment Practices for Servingness during COVID-19: Perspectives from Institutional Agents at an Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI)

The COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 as high school seniors were receiving their college admission notifications for fall. Many postsecondary institutions shifted outreach efforts to online formats. This qualitative study examines how virtual recruitment at an emerging HSI incorporates culturally responsive practices from the perspective of institutional agents (IAs) who were involved in these efforts. We also consider how IAs perceive the broader commitment of the institution to serve Latinx/a/o students. Our findings expose limitations in effectively recruiting Latinx/a/os in virtual formats due to the digital divide. The IAs identify ways in which the university was not equipped to overcome unreliable broadband access and technology. These agents maintain a critical lens to identify how the institution can expand capacity and ensure that the work of supporting Latinx/a/o students is a shared responsibility and not concentrated on a few staff. The findings further raise awareness of the continued language divide in disseminating information to families who do not speak English. Our study provides insights on how universities nationwide and across the world can transform recruitment practices to more intentionally support minoritized students and families as they make enrollment decisions into college.

Turn the Page, Speech-Language Pathologists: Adequate, Authentic, and Accurate Representation as a Consideration in the Selection of Picture Books for Use in Treatment

Purpose This tutorial discusses what it means to be a culturally responsive speech-language pathologist (SLP) and then grounds this discussion in strategies that SLPs can engage in to diversify the books and other materials that they use in clinical practice. Method We motivate the tutorial by reviewing policy statements and theoretical information from allied literature. Then, we suggest some ways that SLPs can reflect on their practice to enact an antiracist/culturally responsive approach to treatment, taking the selection of children's literature up as a particular example. We identified strategies that have been suggested across a variety of fields and illustrate these strategies with examples. We both provide recommendations for how to select picture books and also suggest ways to implement these suggestions with accountability. Conclusions There is a need for SLPs to reflect on how to be culturally responsive in their practice and to review their materials selection practices with regard to how materials reflect the composition of their caseloads. As a predominantly White profession serving diverse caseloads, we have an ethical obligation to review our choice of materials and align them with culturally responsive practices.

Teaching in a global society: Considerations for university-based educational leadership

Those who work in university-based programs are in a unique position to positively influence teaching, leading, and learning in the 21st century—whether in traditional face-to-face classrooms or online. To ensure culturally responsive practices, postsecondary faculty and administrators must be proactive about critically reflecting on their own professional praxes related to adult learning. This paper offers a mini-review of concepts derived from the literature for promoting inclusive postsecondary learning communities in a diverse and global society. This conceptually based paper blends current practices with traditional adult learning theories and includes considerations for those who work in university-based programs that prepare educational leaders.

Connecting home and hospital life : cultural influence in child life practice

The changing demographics of illness necessitate the provision of complex care practices designed to meet the individual needs of families from diverse backgrounds. Providing psychosocial care to paediatric patients, child life specialists integrate processes designed to better understand their patients, thus informing their plans of care. Through the use of Grounded Theory, this study involves 7 child life specialists from a large city in Ontario and explores the processes implemented by child life specialists in getting to know their patients and families. Data obtained from semi-structured interviews and a reflective journaling exercise was examined for evidence of cultural influence and a greater understanding of child life specialists' perceived comfort and ability was explored. The results of this study suggest child life specialists engage in culturally responsive practices, however several barriers and challenges exist. Resource needs are identified and implications for practice are examined.

Connecting home and hospital life : cultural influence in child life practice

The changing demographics of illness necessitate the provision of complex care practices designed to meet the individual needs of families from diverse backgrounds. Providing psychosocial care to paediatric patients, child life specialists integrate processes designed to better understand their patients, thus informing their plans of care. Through the use of Grounded Theory, this study involves 7 child life specialists from a large city in Ontario and explores the processes implemented by child life specialists in getting to know their patients and families. Data obtained from semi-structured interviews and a reflective journaling exercise was examined for evidence of cultural influence and a greater understanding of child life specialists' perceived comfort and ability was explored. The results of this study suggest child life specialists engage in culturally responsive practices, however several barriers and challenges exist. Resource needs are identified and implications for practice are examined.