EDUCATOR SPOTLIGHT | CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS

Credit Edutopia

Culturally Responsive Classrooms: Creating a Welcoming Environment

by Stephanie Clagnaz, Ed.D.

New York State’s Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework defines a welcoming classroom environment as an “environment (that) feels safe. It is a space where people can find themselves represented and reflected, and where they understand that all people are treated with respect and dignity. The environment ensures all cultural identities are affirmed, valued, and used as vehicles for teaching and learning.” As our school year winds down, consider ways that classrooms can provide a more welcoming environment for all students. Which of these strategies speaks to improving a sense of belonging and welcome for your learners? 

Enhancing Classroom Appearance

One simple way of making your classroom more inviting and welcoming is to display current student work on bulletin boards and walls. Displaying student work that demonstrates growth over time gives children a sense of pride in their accomplishments. Along with student work, think about posters, anchor charts, and photos that your students see every day. Are they motivating? Do they include images that represent the children you teach? Are students’ cultures, native languages, and preferences reflected in the classroom? These are easy changes and additions that can be used to make your classroom more welcoming. Why is this important? Research indicates that students who feel a sense of belonging to a classroom and school community perform better academically than those who feel isolated or different. 

Strengthening Relationships with Students

At times, our relationships with students are not as strong as they could be. Factors such as disability, language differences, behavioral or mental health challenges, or cultural identities may stand in the way of our ability to develop strong relationships with students. Now is the time to change this! When we view all students as having assets rather than deficits, factors that may interfere with our ability to form meaningful relationships with students become less important and may, in fact, disappear. Using an asset-based approach to students leads us to understand that  diverse groups of students make our classrooms richer rather than more difficult. In order to move toward an asset-based approach to children, we may have to examine our own implicit biases. This can be difficult work, but it’s important to reflect on attitudes that are “baked” into ourselves: what are our internal attitudes toward race, culture, language differences, sexual orientation, poverty, or ability? Are we holding back in forming meaningful relationships with any of our students because of our own inherent biases? Think about picking one student with whom you’ve struggled this year. Make up your mind to better that relationship before the year is over. 

Increasing Family Engagement

If you’ve struggled to engage families in a positive way this year, how can you extend a hand of welcome to one or more of them? One of the easiest ways to improve relationships with families is to communicate positive news about their children. A simple phone call, text, email, or app message, such as on Class Dojo or Whatsapp can make family relationships more positive. This takes very little time, yet the effort can go a long way to creating a more welcoming environment for a family. Did their child extend a helping hand to a peer? Was there an improvement academically? Did their student take a leadership role in a class activity? Taking a moment to report student strengths to a family member goes a long way in creating positive family relationships. Which one of your families would benefit most from hearing a positive message from you today? Take a moment to send that message!

Incorporating New Behavior Management Techniques

Is there an ongoing struggle with some students to get them to comply with your requests? Are certain students frequently in “time-out” or missing sorely needed recess due to their lack of compliance to your requests? If you haven’t implemented or developed restorative practices or social-emotional learning in your classroom, this is the time to do it. Restorative practices focus on engaging students in processes to repair harm and to return them to the learning environment when harm has been restored. This eliminates the need for periods of extended isolation from the classroom or activities that children enjoy and need, like recess or special area classes. The simple implementation of social-emotional mindfulness practices that improve self-management, such as a moment of deep breathing or reminder to focus on a goal can bring a distracted student back to attending to the task at hand. Another consideration is to plan for a few moments of reflection with a small group or with the whole class after an academic work period. This will help to increase the childrens’ self-awareness, making them more likely to attend to academic goals. Any of these strategies can be implemented in the last weeks of the school year. 

The end of the school year is a perfect time to reach out for unique and individualized support to increase a sense of belonging in classrooms, schools, and districts. Experts at LEDbetter are available to create distinctive professional development or coaching sessions that are targeted to help you strengthen the end of your school year. Contact us today for a free consultation and more information.

To learn more about how we can support you, please email excelerator@led-better.org, or schedule a call with us.

---

Additional Resources & Links:

• Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework

• Building a Belonging Classroom

• Creating WELCOMING classrooms!

• Creating Culturally Affirming Spaces: School and Classroom Practices (Webinar 1) (REL West)

• How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment

• Slides-Creating Welcoming and Affirming Learning Environments

• Integrate Content and Practice to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment | New York State Education Department

• Creating a Welcoming Classroom Environment | Colorín Colorado

• Affirming student differences: Creating an environment of inclusion - National Center for Families Learning

• Welcoming & Affirming Environment | Home

• Tips for creating a welcoming environment in your classroom - National Center for Families Learning

• 7 Strategies to Activate Students’ SEL Skills

• 12 Calming Exercises to Teach Your Child | Connecticut Children's

• Increasing Family Engagement: 10 Effective Strategies

• 5 Culturally Responsive Family Engagement Strategies