Students bring different backgrounds, languages and experiences into school each day. Culturally responsive teaching, or CRT, treats those differences as a resource for learning. Rather than asking students to set their identities aside, CRT asks teachers to draw on them. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s online Master of Science in Education (MSEd) in Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) with Emphasis in Advanced Teaching Strategies prepares teachers to use this approach in their own schools.
This guide explains what culturally responsive teaching means, where the idea comes from and how it shows up in day-to-day instruction. It closes with practical strategies teachers can start using in their own classrooms right away.
What Is Culturally Responsive Teaching?
Culturally responsive teaching is a pedagogy that connects instruction to students’ cultural backgrounds and lived experience. Gloria Ladson-Billings introduced the concept in the 1990s. She described three core goals: academic success, cultural competence and critical consciousness.
Geneva Gay built on that work. She defined CRT as the use of cultural knowledge and prior experience in the classroom. Her goal was to make teaching more relevant and more effective for all students. CRT differs from traditional models. A traditional approach treats the curriculum as fixed. CRT asks teachers to connect the curriculum to who students are and where they come from.
What Are the Core Principles of CRT?
Several principles guide CRT in practice. Together, they shape how teachers plan lessons, manage the classroom and build relationships with students.
Students are not blank slates. They arrive with knowledge shaped by family, community and experience. Teachers who activate that prior knowledge give students a bridge into new content.
Culture shapes how people learn. Some students learn best through discussion. Others learn through hands-on tasks. CRT asks teachers to notice these patterns and respond to them.
High expectations remain in place. CRT does not lower the bar. It builds more paths to reach it. CRT works closely with differentiated instruction, which adjusts content, process and learning environment for each learner. Together, the two approaches give teachers multiple ways to reach every student in a diverse classroom.
Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies
Five strategies help teachers bring CRT into everyday instruction. Each one gives teachers a concrete way to connect lessons to students’ own lives.
- Activate prior knowledge: Ask students what they already know. Connect new content to what they have seen or done at home or in their community. This step turns a new lesson into a continuation of something students already carry with them.
- Make learning contextual: Tie lessons to events that matter to students. A chapter on immigration means more when students can link it to people in their lives.
- Honor cultural capital: Each student brings knowledge that the school does not always recognize. Find ways to draw on what students know outside the building.
- Review the classroom environment: Look at the books, images and materials in the room. Ask whether students from different backgrounds can see themselves in what is on display. Small changes, such as adding new titles or updating bulletin boards, can shift how welcoming a space feels.
- Build relationships: Students learn more from teachers who know them. Spend time learning about students’ lives and show that you value what they share.
SIUE’s online MSEd, C&I – Advance Teaching Strategies program gives teachers structured practice in these strategies. Coursework is built for people already working in the classroom, so they can apply what they learn right away.
Examples of CRT in the Classroom
A middle school English teacher adds books by authors from backgrounds her students represent. Students discuss those texts through the lens of their own experience.
A high school history teacher connects a civil rights unit to current events in the community. Students compare what happened decades ago to what they observe now.
An elementary teacher invites families to share a skill or tradition with the class. Students see their home lives reflected in the school day.
A math teacher ties word problems to situations students recognize from their own neighborhoods. The numbers stay the same. The context makes them easier to access.
In each case, the teacher adjusts instruction without changing the standard. The content stays the same. The path students take to reach it changes.
Why CRT Matters
Research links CRT to gains in student engagement. When students feel seen in the classroom, they engage more and stay in longer. Teachers who use CRT also report stronger relationships with students.
Illinois schools reflect a wide range of student backgrounds. The Illinois State Board of Education has named CRT a key framework for teacher development. Illinois teacher preparation programs are now required to build CRT into their coursework.
CRT also supports teachers. Research links CRT practices to stronger student-teacher connectedness, which can support students’ sense of belonging in class.
Today’s classrooms serve a broader range of students than ever. CRT gives teachers strategies to reach every student, regardless of background.
Teachers who want to build their own evidence base can pair CRT with action research. Collecting classroom data on what is and is not working helps turn CRT from a general approach into specific, tested practice.
Apply CRT in Your Teaching
Teachers who understand CRT can change how students experience school. SIUE’s online MSEd in Advanced Teaching Strategies includes coursework on CRT and how to apply it, such as the Classroom Learning Environment course, which covers culturally relevant pedagogy for diverse classrooms. The program is designed for working teachers and is completed fully online. For a closer look at the curriculum, see this overview of SIUE’s MSEd, C&I – Advanced Teaching Strategies program.
Building that kind of practice takes more than a single strategy or a single semester. It comes from ongoing coursework, feedback and reflection, the same cycle CRT asks teachers to bring to their own classrooms. SIUE’s School of Education, Health and Human Behavior built the advanced teaching strategies degree around that kind of sustained practice, so teachers leave with strategies they can use on day one and keep refining for years afterward.
Start building a culturally responsive classroom with SIUE’s online MSEd, C&I – Advanced Teaching Strategies program.
About Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois, part of the Metro East region near St. Louis. Its P-12 teacher preparation programs are accredited through the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), and the university has been recognized for 12 consecutive years with a Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award.
For working teachers, SIUE’s online MSEd, C&I – Advanced Teaching Strategies degree offers a flexible way to build on that foundation. The program is delivered fully online with multiple start dates each year, so teachers can apply what they learn, including culturally responsive teaching, directly in their own classrooms while continuing to teach. Learn more about SIUE’s online MSEd, C&I – Advanced Teaching Strategies.
