Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching & the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
One of my mantras around helping students learn is “connecting the known to the unknown.” In this book, Zaretta Hammond provides a handbook full of practical ways to do that, focused on the reality that, “Culture, it turns out, is the way that every brain makes sense of the world.” (p. 22) The point of the book: if we don’t teach in ways that connect with students’ cultures and ways of knowing, we will never light up their brains and help them transition from dependent-learners to independent learners.
There are so many words of wisdom and concrete ideas in this book about making real this idea of culturally responsive teaching. Hammond guides teachers through four phases of development: awareness, learning partnerships, information processing, and community building. We need to first be aware of our own culture and position in society, develop a “cultural lens,” and learn to manage our own social-emotional response to students. Authentic relationships with students are key; without trust and a sense of belonging, students’ brains can get stuck in the primitive protection mode and no significant learning can occur. Different cultures have a variety of ways to process information; in many, it’s oral transmission through story-telling, music, movement, and rhythm. Teachers need to leverage those methods to engage students’ brains in learning. Community in the classroom means that children are in a “socially and intellectually safe space.” Only then can the automatic-shutdown parts of the brain quiet enough to let the analytical parts of the brain light up for deep learning.
Hammond provides a step-by-step guide to the “inside work” that each teacher has to do to become a culturally responsive teacher, first by getting clear about the layers of our own cultural upbringing. She helps us think about how to form learning partnerships with students, how to examine and rid ourselves of deficit thinking to see students as equal partners in key alliances focused on learning – theirs and ours. In trusting alliances, students are willing to take the necessary risks that are a central part of learning new information and ways of knowing and thinking. She shows us how to assess and evaluate student learning, giving feedback in ways that students will see as valid, a necessary condition for them to use it for improvement.
We know that uncertainty is a huge bandwidth stealer for students. Hammond’s prescriptions for classrooms that are safe for risk-taking and relationship-building help us envision learning environments where all students can recover enough bandwidth to thrive as independent learners.