It’s a critical term that focuses on one of the most important things in education: ensuring we’re meeting the needs of all students. “Culturally responsive and sustaining education” is one of those terms. And whenever confusion appears, ineffectiveness can sometimes be close behind. The trouble with many terms but few clear definitions can be, unsurprisingly, confusion.
Education can feel like a sea of buzz words, including terms like “personalized learning,” “differentiation,” “formative assessment,” and “culturally responsive teaching.” These instructional trends can take off while the terms often mean very different things to different people.