Event Title
Leading the Way Toward Culturally Responsive NGSS Instruction
Description
In order to engage and develop culturally and linguistically diverse learners in a way that supports the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), school leaders must be aware of the tenets of Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and provide teachers with the knowledge and skills to integrate CRT into science education. As students that are of the global majority continue to demonstrate levels of proficiency that do not mirror the rates of their global minority peers in the United States, failing to view science education as a cultural endeavor has further widened the equity gap between subgroups of students. In a science classroom, the Science and Engineering Practices offer a lever for enacting culturally responsive pedagogies to allow students to use culture and native languages in sense-making practices. Moving beyond surface-culture level diversity practices, students should be empowered to use the linguistic and cultural resources that they possess to explore relevant phenomena and develop literacy skills that allow them to be change agents in their communities. This project is derived from the foundational work of Gloria Ladson-Billings and Geneva Gay, and seeks to develop the capacity of an educational leader to support and ensure culturally responsive teaching practices in an NGSS classroom. Using a digital handbook that includes teacher and student surveys, an observation checklist, and slideshow with further resources for consideration, educational leaders can guide teaching staff to examine their own critical consciousness and develop cultural competence with a focus on literacy.
Leading the Way Toward Culturally Responsive NGSS Instruction
In order to engage and develop culturally and linguistically diverse learners in a way that supports the vision of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), school leaders must be aware of the tenets of Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and provide teachers with the knowledge and skills to integrate CRT into science education. As students that are of the global majority continue to demonstrate levels of proficiency that do not mirror the rates of their global minority peers in the United States, failing to view science education as a cultural endeavor has further widened the equity gap between subgroups of students. In a science classroom, the Science and Engineering Practices offer a lever for enacting culturally responsive pedagogies to allow students to use culture and native languages in sense-making practices. Moving beyond surface-culture level diversity practices, students should be empowered to use the linguistic and cultural resources that they possess to explore relevant phenomena and develop literacy skills that allow them to be change agents in their communities. This project is derived from the foundational work of Gloria Ladson-Billings and Geneva Gay, and seeks to develop the capacity of an educational leader to support and ensure culturally responsive teaching practices in an NGSS classroom. Using a digital handbook that includes teacher and student surveys, an observation checklist, and slideshow with further resources for consideration, educational leaders can guide teaching staff to examine their own critical consciousness and develop cultural competence with a focus on literacy.