Culturally Responsive Education

Janine Dillabaugh • Cahn Fellow 2023

Culturally Responsive Education is a buzzy term that everyone in the education world aspires to provide to their students. However, in order to do that, we need culturally competent educators who are willing to be vulnerable in their equity learning in order to have a positive impact on their instruction and their students.

As a school, we embarked on a journey to become culturally competent individuals and we quickly learned that this requires time and vulnerability. Vulnerability turns into fear. When fear creeps in, so does resistance. Resistance manifests in interesting ways and it is our responsibility to create psychological safety so that all staff can work towards increased cultural competency. As a staff, we are engaging in learning about issues of equity, learning about our cultural selves and determining how to apply that learning into our practice for the benefit of our diverse student population.