Culturally responsive classroom management: awareness into action

Theory Into Practice, Autumn, 2003 by Carol Weinstein, Mary Curran, Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke

Finally, culturally responsive classroom management requires that teachers understand the ways that schools reflect and perpetuate discriminatory practices of the larger society. We must understand how differences in race, social class, gender, language background, and sexual orientation are linked to power. We need to recognize that the structure and practices of schools (e.g., rigid tracking, unevenly distributed resources, standardized testing) can privilege select groups of students while marginalizing or segregating others.

Strategies for Enacting Culturally Responsive Classroom Management

With these fundamental understandings, teachers can begin to reflect on the ways their classroom management practices promote or obstruct equal access to learning. This is an ongoing, long-term, and often discomfiting process, in which cultural diversity becomes a lens through which teachers view the tasks of classroom management. These tasks include (a) creating a physical setting that supports academic and social goals, (b) establishing expectations for behavior, (c) communicating with students in culturally consistent ways, (d) developing a caring classroom environment, (e) working with families, and (f) using appropriate interventions to assist students with behavior problems. In the following sections, we examine each of these tasks from a culturally responsive perspective.

Organizing the physical environment

   I once visited a fifth-grade classroom on the New
   Mexico-Mexico border. The room displayed pictures
   of colonial Jamestown, and because it was spring
   the bulletin board was surrounded by paper tulips.
   In fact, when I looked at the calendar, I realized that
   it was May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) and that there was
   nothing in the classroom commemorating this holiday.
   Also, as much as I like tulips, I found those on
   the bulletin board paled in contrast to the Mexican
   golden poppies and other beautiful desert flowers
   that surrounded the school but didn't make it into
   the classroom. (Jones & Fuller, 2003, p. 93)

In contrast to the teacher who designed the classroom in this vignette, culturally responsive classroom managers filter their decision making about the environment through the lens of cultural diversity. In other words, they think about the ways the environment can be used strategically to communicate respect for diversity, to reaffirm connectedness and community, and to avoid marginalizing and disparaging students. A map of the world, for example, can highlight students' countries of origin. A sign or banner can welcome students in the different languages they speak. Posters can depict people of various cultural groups (although care must be taken to avoid stereotypical representations such as Mexicans sleeping under large-brimmed sombreros). Children's individual photographs can be mounted on poster board and then used to create a jigsaw puzzle, reinforcing the idea that everyone comes together to form a whole. In elementary classrooms, the literacy corner can prominently display books that promote themes of diversity, tolerance, and community, such as Crow Boy (Yashima, 1983), The Sneetches and Other Stories (Dr. Seuss, 1989), The Crayon Box That Talked (DeRolf, 1997), and Chrysanthemum (Henkes, 1991).