Read the Report | by Erin Sailor and Mike Wojtaszewski
Every educator has those moments when they wish they knew more. Maybe they wish they knew more about reaching a challenging learner, or maybe they wish their use of technology was more effective. Whatever the challenge, educators will work tirelessly to equip their instructional tool belts, all for the improvement of their learners’ academic achievement. Yet, for many, becoming a culturally responsive educator has remained in the “realm of magic and mystery, knowledge that only a select few possess” (Hammond, 2015, p. 5).
Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain presents a “serious and powerful tool for accelerating student learning” (Hammond, 2015, p. 3). The Ready for Rigor Framework combines evidence-based instructional practices with neuroscience. Educators equipped with this tool are empowered to strive to close the achievement gap and to do so with rigor and consistency. Time and time again, dependent learners, or those who struggle to complete higher-order thinking tasks independently, are mistaken for being deficient. For many culturally and linguistically diverse learners in the American school system, dependency is the first step in the “school-to-prison pipeline”. The pipeline, suggested by Michelle Alexander in New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, is a compounding of innocuous educational structures and instructional decisions that leave learners of color falling academically further and further behind. Hammond provides concrete examples and strategies that help build the capacity of educators and school leaders to resource dependent learners with the tools needed to practice and grow into self-directed independence.
We have summarized 10 concepts from Hammond’s powerful resource to engage you on your journey to culturally responsive teaching.
#1. Let’s get ready for rigor!
Traditionally, when a learner is academically progressing at a slower pace, the response is to exchange rigorous activities with low-level basics. These low-level activities tend to be boring, unstimulating, and generally void of any meaningful context. As this continues throughout the learner’s life, the learning gap increases. Hammond suggests that the answer is not to maintain rigor for rigor’s sake, but rather to increase the learner’s neuroplasticity by teaching them new habits of mind. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s response to a productive struggle or cognitive challenge. When a productive struggle is removed, learners’ intellective capacity becomes stagnant rather than supported to process complex information. Hammond’s Ready for Rigor Framework is built on four key areas to build an educator’s capacity to rethink traditional responses to dependent learners. The four areas to build culturally responsive instructional practices are awareness, information processing, learning partnerships, and a community of learners and learning environment. These key concepts will be unpacked throughout the summary (Hammond, 2015, p. 12-16).
#2. Culture is like a tree.
Hammond argues that culturally responsive teaching is less about being sensitive to every surface culture in the classroom and more about understanding shallow and deep culture. Culture not only shapes the way we interpret the world, but also how we learn. Hammond suggests that schema is built by our cultural experiences and plays a role in our perceptions. Each of the three levels of culture triggers increasingly intense emotional responses. Hammond breaks down each cultural level likening it to a tree. The first key area of culturally responsive teaching is increasing our own awareness of how deep culture is encoded into the brain. Threats to surface culture produce a low emotional response, yet, its elements are the most observable. Comparable to leaves or fruits of a tree, surface culture includes fashion, family dishes or holidays – to name a few. Hammond describes the next level, shallow culture, as the branches and trunk of the tree because it is dynamic and changes over time. Threats to shallow culture produce a stronger emotional response because it dictates all social norms and interactions. We may perceive these cultural behaviors as disrespectful or defiant because shallow culture often informs nonverbal cues such as eye contact, touching, and nonverbal communication. Finally, threats to deep culture can trigger the brain’s fight or flight response because this level includes the “tacit knowledge and unconscious assumptions that govern our worldview” (Hammond, 2015, p. 23). In other words, deep culture is the roots of our tree – it is who we are and how we learn. Building awareness of the three levels of culture improves an educator’s ability to understand which behaviors are rooted in culture and which are not (Hammond, 2015, p. 21 – 14).
#3. It’s not all about you.
Hammond introduces the idea of cultural archetypes as another element to culture that helps educators to be more culturally responsive. Cultural archetypes are defined as universal patterns that manifest in all cultures. Hammond argues that collectivism and individualism are two archetypes of which educators should be most aware due to blending of these types in many American schools. Collectivist cultures value interdependence within a community. In other words, learning is cooperative, collective, and collaborative. Many of these cultures are found in the Eastern and Southern hemisphere. Alternatively, individualist cultures value independence and individual achievement. Learning is individual and academic progress is a reflection of what the individual achieves. Western cultures tend to exhibit a higher level of individualistic characteristics. What does this mean for culturally responsive teaching? Many culturally and linguistically diverse learners have cultures deeply rooted in collectivist practices where talking and sharing is commonplace. Many of these same collectivist learners find themselves in the individualistic American school systems and consequently, within the achievement gap. The learner’s native culture is mismatched with the education system’s dominant culture. With a greater understanding of how deeply rooted culture is, culturally responsive educators can begin to reinterpret the perceived behaviors of their learners by asking “is the behavior a cultural response or is it defiance?” Reviewing these scenarios from a collectivist lens provides cultural responsiveness and a more inclusive classroom community (Hammond, 2015, p. 25 – 28).
#4. When the amygdala hijacks the brain, learning stops.
You have two brains – one is your reptilian brain and the other is your limbic. The reptilian brain is made up of your cerebellum and your brain stem. It is always on and reacting. It does not think. It perceives using the reticular activation system to notify us of anything that may be a potential threat or reward. Your limbic layer is the humanizing brain as it is responsible for remembering past experiences and related emotions, behaviors, and decisions. The limbic layer is made up of the thalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala, which are responsible for communication, memory, and guarding the brain, respectively. The amygdala acts as a gatekeeper between the limbic and reptilian brain. At a moment’s notice, the amygdala can initiate the fight, flight, freeze, or appease response by sending distress signals to the reptilian brain. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is produced in order to bypass all other cognitive functions unrelated to survival. Hammond connects that when marginalized learners perceive microaggressions or subtle verbal and nonverbal slights, the brain is hijacked by the amygdala, and the limbic layer responsible for working and long term memory is bypassed. The compounding impact of this biological process is that culturally and linguistically diverse learners begin to slowly fall behind academically. To reverse the hijacking process, oxytocin, our bonding hormone, is needed. This hormone is released when we feel safe, which is observable through laughing, talking, and hugging. Hammond concludes that when culturally responsive educators can recognize the perceived threats that hijack the brain, they can begin to adjust their own practices in order to avoid unintentional threats (Hammond, 2015, p. 37 – 41).
#5. Know your triggers.
Hammond emphasizes that one way to avoid the unintentional threats is by understanding who you are and what triggers you. Common classroom triggers stem from social interactions. Social neuroscience suggests that when the brain feels socially threatened, it is usually one of the five social interaction elements that are at risk. The five social interactions are standing, certainty, connection, control and equity. Hammond posits that educators who are able to reflect on their own triggers will allow them to self-manage their consequential emotions. One self-management strategy, S.O.D.A, takes advantage of the 10 second delay between our triggers and our reactions. The first step is to stop and consider that there may be an alternative explanation for the trigger. Then, observe, check yourself, and breathe. It takes about 10 seconds for cortisol to reach your prefrontal cortex, which in turn results in an emotional response. Hammond suggests that if educators can leverage this time period to rethink the originally perceived threat, a more culturally responsive reaction is possible. The next stage advocates that educators detach, cognitively, by imagining happier memories or images. If that does not work, detaching physically may be necessary. The final stage Hammond suggests is to awaken by removing your focus from your own emotions to the person who caused the trigger. Following these steps manages the biological responses to perceived threats and prevents an amygdala hijacking of the brain (Hammond, 2015, p. 62 – 68).
Pause to Process:
Throughout the book, Hammond intentionally models appropriate places to stop and reflect on the content. On page 41, Hammond poses these three questions in order to provide a moment to process what was presented on the brain:
- What did you read that squared with your understanding?
- What questions are going around in your head about how the brain structures interact?
- What three points stood out for you? Why?
#6. Trust starts with listening.
In the second part of Hammond’s book, titled “Building Learning Partnerships”, she shifts focus from educators building their own self-awareness to placing attention on the learners, classroom and the content. Strengthening the relationship between educators and learners is what Hammond calls the “learning partnership” (Hammond, 2015, p. 72). Hammond challenges readers to reflect on and observe their relationships and interactions with all learners, but with particular focus on those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Reflecting on the relationships and interactions between learners and educators allows us to begin positions ourselves as an ally or partner in supporting learners in building self-efficacy and cognitive insight. The author explains how rapport and affirmation are the building blocks of a learning partnership. In order to build rapport and affirm learners’ personhood, there must be trust. Hammond provides educators concrete strategies to support developing trust with learners, starting with listening. Whether it’s through characteristics of “Learning with Grace” or reading about “Trust Generators”, educators learn more about how to be a culturally responsive teaching ally, explore examples, and process inquiry questions to apply to their practice (Hammond, 2015, p. 78).
#7. Work to restore hope.
In working to create a learning partnership, Zaretta Hammond highlights how the alliance phase “provides an opportunity for teachers to restore hope” for learners who have deficit perceptions of self as a result of learned helplessness, stereotype threats, and internalized oppression (Hammond, 2015, p. 91). As an ally in the learning partnership, educators work to empower through validation. Culturally responsive educators acknowledge inequities that impact learners and validate who they are as a people, thereby negating mainstream messaging about their being that has branded characteristics as “wrong”. Acknowledgement and validation can support the restoration of hope. Hammond emphasizes the value of highlighting communities’ resiliency and vision for social change to empower learners. In addition, the author cites research clarifying types of hope that impact real change and that are essential to a learning partnership alliance (Hammond, 2015, p. 93).
#8. Feedback is an essential element.
In earlier chapters, Zaretta Hammond breaks down concepts of neuroplasticity and describes how it is “the brain’s ability to grow itself in order to meet the challenges presented to it from the environment” (Hammond, 2015, p. 101). When educators create opportunities for learners to reflect on feedback and monitor their own progress, engagement increases. When learners are reflecting and engaging with the feedback, they are building their brain power or neuroplasticity. The brain depends on regular feedback from the environment to adjust and strategize to minimize threats and maximize wellbeing. Activities that promote reflection, feedback, and analysis can cause the brain to literally grow and therefore allow learners to reach higher-order thinking tasks. Hammond states that feedback is an “essential element in the culturally responsive teacher’s arsenal” to support culturally and linguistically diverse learners in being able to change their learning moves, acquire new ones and develop plans for approaching a task. Through this text, readers learn more about the power of providing relevant and timely feedback and are presented tangible examples and protocols to promote instructive and corrective feedback. (Hammond, 2015, p. 101-104)
#9. Culturally responsive teaching is for all classrooms.
The power and effectiveness of culturally responsive teaching, as posited by Zaretta Hammmond, is in the ability to support learners in deepening their understanding and building independence in their learning through skill development and empowerment. Through the text, readers learn that culturally responsive teaching is not just for English or social studies but for all subjects, including math and science. Hammond clarifies how culturally responsive teaching is not just relating all instruction to a learner’s race or culture. Rather, culturally responsive teaching includes the validation of the learner’s personhood by demonstrating authentic care, acknowledgement, empowerment, and support of the learner’s independence through deeper conceptual understanding and personal connection building to the learner’s life. Hammond explains the neuroscience of information processing to unlock understanding about how to promote higher order thinking in learners. Hammond identifies cognitive strategies to incorporate in any classroom setting, grade level and content area to provide possible next steps to support learning (Hammond, 2015, p. 132-138).
#10. Create a culturally responsive community.
In the last chapter of her book, Hammond invites educators to inquiry as they reflect on the learning environment they have set up for their learners. Through the chapter, readers reflect on how they would characterize the ethos in the classroom – the spirit of the classroom. Hammond provides the reader with considerations on how their classroom environment creates a physically, socially and intellectually safe space for learners to engage in meaningful learning. Readers also learn about routines, rituals, learner voice and agency strategies, and structures for social and academic discourse to incorporate in the classroom. Hammond summarizes that attending to the classroom environment is an important part of culturally responsive teaching in supporting a learner’s journey to independence in learning (Hammond, 2015, p. 142-150).
In conclusion, Zaretta Hammond’s book, Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain, provides neurological insight and research to explain how culturally responsive pedagogy can optimize learner engagement and facilitate deeper learning for culturally and linguistically diverse learners. This powerful text provides readers with concrete connections between brain science and instructional strategies in order to begin their journey to becoming allies to their learners and culturally responsive educators.
References:
Hammond, Zaretta. (2015). Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain. Corwin.
Erin Sailor, Senior Learning Leader/Curriculum and Quality Assurance Coordinator – Eduscape
Erin was a Teach for America corps member, teaching high school students prior to joining as a Senior Learning Leader at Eduscape. Erin holds a Bachelor’s in History and Sociology from Loyola University Maryland and a Master’s in Special Education from Fordham University. During her time in the classroom, Erin taught in an integrated co-teaching setting as a special education teacher predominantly in 11th grade English and US History. Erin served as a tenured teacher leader, leading various grade teams, the special education team and was selected as a Model Teacher in the NYC DOE. As a teacher leader, Erin supported the development of school wide curriculums, including a humanities curriculum and social-emotional learning curriculum. Erin also designed, facilitated and monitored the effectiveness of professional development of teachers and served as an instructional coach.
After teaching, Erin pursued a SCRUM project management certification and joined Eduscape, ready to support the sustainability of education by providing purposeful professional development to school leaders and educators. As a Senior Learning Leader, Erin obtained certifications as a Google Educator, Microsoft Innovative Educator and ISTE Educator. Her love for continuous learning and self-growth has supported Erin’s ability to engage educators and school leaders in developing their skills and knowledge to implement equitable and meaningful learning experiences for all learners.
Mike Wojtaszewski, Senior Learning Leader/Instructional Design Coordinator – Eduscape
Mike was an elementary and middle school teacher before joining Eduscape as a Senior Learning Leader. Throughout his time teaching, Mike worked alongside classroom teachers as well as created district workshops to support his colleagues’ use of educational technology tools and research-based pedagogical strategies. These skills have been translated into work with a variety of university partners including an adjunct position with Harvard Extension School in digital media design. His willingness to try new things and position himself as a lifelong learner led him to acquire a unique breadth of experience. Mike is also a certified Google Educator and Microsoft Innovative Educator.
Mike’s passion for helping those around him become the best they can be does not stop in the classroom. He translates his instructional skills to the gym setting as a certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor. He enjoys staying active and exploring the outdoors. He’s an avid traveler and has been to 35 countries and visited 5 of the 7 continents. Mike holds a Graduate Certificate in Learning Design and Technology from Harvard University Extension School, a Master’s degree in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum from Drexel University, and a Bachelor’s degree in History from Drexel University. He hopes to add to this list in the future.
Zaretta Hammond is a national education consultant and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. She is a former high school and community college expository writing instructor and has published articles in Educational Leadership, The Learning Professional, and Kappan. She is passionate about the intersectionality of equity and culturally responsive teaching as a way to help educators close opportunity and learning gaps for underserved students. She has consulted widely with school districts, regional education service agencies, and coaching organizations across the country on ways to help students accelerate their own learning through the science of learning. Hammond sits on the Board of Trustees for the Center for Collaborative Classroom and is involved in a number of working groups committed to educational equity through improvement science.