Picture two classrooms. In the first, a teacher celebrates Lunar New Year with a craft table, some lanterns, and a plate of snacks. In the second, a teacher asks students to share how their families mark the new year, invites a parent to explain what the holiday means to them, and connects the stories to a unit on traditions and community.
Both teachers mean well. Only one of them is practicing culturally responsive teaching.
For multilingual learners, the difference is not small. It shapes whether a child feels that school is a place where their language, family, and identity belong, or a place where they must leave those things at the door. Here is what culturally responsive teaching really looks like, and how to start this week.
What Is Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Culturally responsive teaching, a field shaped by scholars such as Gloria Ladson-Billings, Geneva Gay, and Zaretta Hammond, is an approach that uses students' cultural knowledge, languages, and experiences as assets for learning. It rests on three ideas:
High academic expectations for every student
Cultural competence, meaning students maintain connection to their own culture while building understanding of others
Critical awareness, meaning students learn to notice and question how the world works
For multilingual learners, it adds one more layer: the home language is treated as a strength to build on, never a problem to fix.
Why It Matters So Much for Multilingual Learners
Students who are learning English are doing two jobs at once. They are learning new content, and they are learning the language the content is taught in. When they also feel invisible or out of place, learning gets harder. When they feel known and valued, they take more risks, speak more, and learn faster.
Culturally responsive classrooms reduce anxiety, increase participation, and send a clear message: you belong here exactly as you are.
Six Practices You Can Start This Week
1. Learn and say every name correctly
A name is the first piece of identity a child brings to school. Ask students and families how a name is pronounced, write it phonetically in your roster, and practice it. Never shorten or Anglicize a name for convenience. This takes five minutes and changes how a child sees your classroom.
2. Get to know students' stories
Use a short, low-pressure family and language survey at the start of the year. Ask which languages are spoken at home, what students enjoy doing outside school, what they are proud of, and what they want you to know. Then use what you learn in your examples, word problems, and book choices.
3. Audit your classroom materials
Look at your books, posters, and examples. Do your students see themselves in them? Scholar Rudine Sims Bishop describes good books as mirrors, where students see their own lives, and windows, where they see into other lives. Aim for both. Replace one outdated or one-sided text each month with something more representative.
4. Build on funds of knowledge
Every family holds knowledge: cooking, farming, music, building, caring for siblings, running a small business, navigating two languages and cultures. Researchers call this funds of knowledge. When a student explains how their family measures ingredients for a recipe, you have a math lesson. When a student interprets for a relative, you have an expert in language.
5. Avoid the "tourist curriculum"
Food, festivals, and flags are a fine starting point, but they are not enough on their own. The tourist approach treats culture as a once-a-year visit. A responsive approach weaves cultures into daily content, such as the contributions of scientists and writers from many backgrounds, texts from different traditions, and honest conversations about why people hold different perspectives.
6. Create routines that make every voice safe
Use partner talk before whole-class sharing, accept responses in the home language as a thinking tool, and make mistakes normal. Students will not take risks in a language they are still learning unless the room feels safe.
A Mandarin Classroom Example
In a Mandarin immersion classroom, Lunar New Year is a natural place to go deeper. Instead of only teaching vocabulary for red envelopes and dumplings, a teacher can:
Ask students from all backgrounds to share how their families mark new beginnings
Compare Lunar New Year with other celebrations of renewal, such as Nowruz or the Jewish New Year
Invite a family member to share a story in Mandarin or another language, with a visual support for understanding
Connect the celebration to math, such as the zodiac cycle and the lunar calendar
The students learn language and culture, and every child sees that their own story matters too.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Assuming one culture per language. Spanish speakers come from many countries, and Chinese speakers come from many regions with different dialects, histories, and traditions. Ask, don't assume.
Asking one child to represent a whole culture. Invite sharing, but never put a student on the spot as a spokesperson.
Lowering expectations in the name of support. Responsiveness means high expectations with strong scaffolds, not easier work.
How Leaders Can Support This Work
Culturally responsive teaching is not just an individual effort. School and district leaders can support it by providing ongoing professional development rather than one-time workshops, giving teachers time to review and update materials, and building family partnerships that bring community voices into the school. When the whole system values students' cultures and languages, teachers do not have to do this alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is culturally responsive teaching only for diverse classrooms? No. Every classroom benefits when students learn to see multiple perspectives. It is valuable in every school.
How do I start if I do not speak my students' languages? Start with names, stories, and materials. Learn a few words, invite families in, and use translation tools as a bridge. Respect and curiosity matter more than fluency.
Bringing It Together
Culturally responsive teaching does not require a new curriculum. It requires attention, curiosity, and a steady habit of asking, "Whose voices are in this room, and whose are missing?" Start with one practice, make it routine, and add another. Over time, you build a classroom where every language and family is part of the learning.
Work With Language Leap Consulting
Language Leap Consulting is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports teachers and schools in building classrooms and programs that honor every student's language and culture. If your school or district would like professional development on culturally responsive teaching for multilingual learners, please reach out through the contact page on this website.
Joanna Graham is the Executive Director of Language Leap Consulting and the creator of the LEAP Framework. She has more than 16 years of experience in Mandarin education.
