Online curriculum tools. We recommend starting with a half or full day workshop on curriculum alignment followed by a few weeks of conversations. We recommend including school administrators and teachers in discussions around curriculum needs, though you may host the first workshop with a core district team to start. GUIDE TO SELECTING CURRICULUM. General Disclaimer The content (frameworks, tables and images) within this website, including The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks and The Progressive Capacity Matrices is: Made available to the general public to inspire people and schools to strive for excellence in the implementation of effective curriculum ideas.

“Culturally responsive and inclusive curriculum” – let’s break that down.

Culture, what is it and what kinds of cultures are there? One definition of culture reads, 'Broadly, culture is a collection of information (or meanings) that is (a) nongenetically transmitted between individuals, (b) more or less shared within a population of individuals, and (c) maintained across some generations over a period of time.' (1)

So what kinds of cultures might exist within a classroom? Culture is often thought of in terms of ethic or national groups, but we can also look at cultures, within or beyond ethic groups, in terms of race, gender, sexuality, abilities, or class. These are only a few ways to look at culture, there are many more. A person may belong to many cultures and so these ways of looking at culture will naturally intersect. It is important too to examine 'invisible' cultures within a classroom. For example, what is the culture of academia? What cultures make 'the higher education classroom what it is today? What ethic groups, classes, sexualities, and abilities have been privileged in the creation and maintenance of higher education, and how can we make these assumptions more apparent?

What does it mean to 'respond and include culture in our curriculum?' Another way to look at this is how do we become culturally responsive teachers? Geneva Gay states:

“Culturally responsive teaching can be defined as using cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them. It teaches to and through the strengths of these students. Culturally responsive teaching is the behavioral expression of knowledge, beliefs, and values that recognize the importance of racial and cultural diversity in learning. It is contingent on a set of racial and cultural competencies amply summarized by Teel and Obidah (2008) (2). They include

• Seeing cultural differences as assets
• Creating caring learning communities where cultural different individuals and heritages are valued
• Using cultural knowledge of ethnically diverse cultures, families, and communities to guide curriculum development, classroom climates, instructional strategies, and relationships with students
• Challenging racial and cultural stereotypes, prejudices, racism, and other forms of intolerance, injustice, and oppression
• Being change agents for social justice and academic equity
• Mediating power imbalances in classrooms based on race, culture, ethnicity, and class
• And accepting cultural responsiveness as endemic to educational effectiveness in all areas of learning for students form all ethnic groups. (3)

Researchers have found that culturally responsive classrooms motivate students to learn. 'The essentials of this motivational framework are that it 1), respect diversity; 2) engages the motivation of a abroad range of students; 3) create a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment; 4) derives teaching practices form across disciplines and cultures; and 5) promotes equitable learning.' (4)

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(1) Kashima, Yoshihisa. Xbox com liquid metal controller driver windows 7 upgrade. 'Culture.' In Encyclopedia of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, edited by John M. Levine and Michael A. Hogg, 177-181. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2010. doi: 10.4135/9781412972017.n55.

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(2) Teel, Karen Manheim., and Obidah, Jennifer E. Building Racial and Cultural Competence in the Classroom : Strategies from Urban Educators. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2008.

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(3) Gay, Geneva. Canabalt?. Culturally Responsive Teaching : Theory, Research, and Practice. 2nd ed. Multicultural Education Series (New York, N.Y.). New York: Teachers College, 2010

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(4) Wlodkowski, Raymond J., and Ginsberg, Margery B. Diversity and Motivation : Culturally Responsive Teaching. 1st ed. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1995.