Culturally responsive teaching aims to incorporate students' cultural backgrounds and lived experiences into lessons to help them better understand and engage with the material. Teachers should learn about students' daily lives, languages, interests, and prior knowledge and include relatable aspects in their curriculum. This helps students feel comfortable and focused. While it is a misconception that teachers must teach differently based on students' races, finding common interests and aspects of students' collective cultures that most can relate to is an effective strategy. To be culturally responsive, teachers must get to know their students and families to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and lives outside the classroom.

1. Culturally responsive methods
We can describe culturallyresponsive teaching as a method wherebyteachers impart students intellectuallyand
otherwise by using cultural aids and references to convey knowledge,skills,and enable the students imbibe the
appropriate attitudes.Whatdoes this mean? It means thatteachers design lessons for students in such a way
that they incorporate the children’s’ wayof life and environmentso that students can better understand.To do
this,teachers mustincorporate relatable aspects ofstudents'dailylives into the curriculum.Such familiar aspects
include language,prior knowledge,and extracurricular interests such as music and sports.Once students feel
comfortable with how a teacher talks and discusses academic material,they will feel comfortable enough to focus
and try to learn the content.
A common misconception aboutculturallyresponsive instruction is thatteachers mustteach the "Asian way" or
the "black way". People often get intimidated bythe words culturally responsive because ofthe incredible number
of cultures and mixes of cultures in today's classrooms.Too often, teachers subscribe to the misguided idea that
students ofdifferent races need to be taughtdifferently, and they waste an enormous amountofeffort in the
process. The key pointhere is that we don't need a differentteaching method or curriculum for students based on
race. I teach the entire class in a way that all of my students can relate to and understand, using aspects oftheir
cultures with which I am comfortable.For example,I like to incorporate some differentlanguages into music
during circle time with children because manyof them relate to differentstyles of music. You don't have to be
French, Latino, Yoruba or from any particular cultural background to listen to a specific type of m usic.I try to
capture their attention and find interests thatare common to as many children as possible.I don'tteach by race. I
teach to their collective culture. I find whatappeals to mostof my children that I am also comfortable using and
then exploit these commonalities.Any teacher can do this.Any teacher of any race or gender has something in
common with or can find something thatrelates to most of his or her students.
Not only mustteachers show an appreciation ofcultural diversity, they mustalso endeavor to engage their
students and parents in order to get better acquainted with their personal choices,their homes,parents,leisure
activities and incorporate teaching strategies thatare consistent with the learning styles of their students.It has
been repeatedlyconfirmed;if educators do not have some knowledge oftheir students'lives outside oftheir
classrooms,then they cannotaccurately know their students'strengths and weaknesses.
Let’s continue to make efforts to learn aboutthe children’s individual cultures and interests bybuilding
relationships with them and their parents and ask their parents abouttheir children’s interests.
Oluwatoyin Zoe – Omonkhogbe,
Early childhood education specialist.