Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

ℹ️ Program Overview:

The Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain micro-credential program consists of three separate courses. 

1. Being Culturally Responsive: Climbing Out of the Gap 
2. Building Cultural Proficiency: What’s Culture Got to Do with It?
3. Understanding Neuroscience and Culture: This Is Your Brain on Culture 

These courses must be taken in order. Participants will gain access to the first course upon enrollment and gain access to each subsequent course as courses are fully completed. 

⭐ You can request a copy of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain from District Media when enrolling in these courses as the book is a component of the learning. 

 1️⃣ Course Overview: Being Culturally Responsive: Climbing Out of the Gap 

🎯 Objectives:

At the end of this micro-credential, staff will be able to: 

• Develop a socio-political lens to understand the achievement gap that produces dependent learners
• Uncover assumptions and misconceptions about culturally responsive teaching
• Locate and acknowledge your own socio-political position
• Understand the three levels of culture
• Know your own cultural lens

📝 Content:

You will have the opportunity to explore and expand your understanding of culturally and linguistically diverse students through a mix of publications, examples, and the reading of Zaretta Hammond's Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. 

2️⃣ Course Overview: Building Cultural Proficiency: What’s Culture Got to Do with It?

🎯 Objectives:

At the end of this micro-credential, staff will be able to: 

• Expand how to talk about culture beyond “heroes and holidays”
• Broaden the understanding of two key cultural orientations
• Sharpen and tune their cultural lens
• Recognize cultural archetypes of individualism and collectivism
• Broaden their interpretation of culturally and linguistically diverse students’ learning behaviors

📝 Content:

Through a mix of publications, examples, and reading of Zaretta Hammond's Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, you will have the opportunity to explore the connection between culture, affective neuroscience, and cognitive neuroscience to enhance your teaching practices and support all students' success. 

3️⃣ Course Overview: Understanding Neuroscience and Culture: This Is Your Brain on Culture 

🎯 Objectives:

At the end of this micro-credential, staff will be able to: 

• Take a close look at the three parts of the brain’s nervous system that impact our sense of safety or threat
• Correct our misconceptions around the word “culture”
• Become more culturally competent in order to view student behavior through not only your own cultural lens
• Learn to see beyond your cultural interpretation as the only possible explanations.
• Widen your aperture to allow for multiple interpretations
• Recognize how your reference points may advantage or disadvantage you within the larger socio-political context
• Learn to manage your own socio-emotional response to student diversity
• Understand how the brain learns
• Acknowledge sociopolitical context around race and language
• Recognize brain triggers around race and culture

📝 Content:

Through a mix of publications, examples, and reading of Zaretta Hammond's Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, you will have the opportunity to explore the intersection of culture and neuroscience to better understand how Culturally Responsive Teaching works.

✅ Tasks: 

As you work through each of the three self-paced micro-credentials, you will build knowledge and artifacts that will be leveraged when you apply to obtain a passing evaluation of each micro-credential.