Culturally Responsive Teaching And Learning In India: Rethinking, Revisiting And Revising The Curriculum

Abstract

In order to effectively progress the field of teacher education past the fragmented and superficial approach to diversity that is currently prevalent, teacher educators need to develop a vision for teaching and learning within a diverse society. This vision will serve as a framework for methodically integrating multicultural issues into the preservice curriculum. A picture of culturally aware educators is presented, which might act as a springboard for discussions among teacher educators involved in this process.According to this objective, culturally responsive teachers are: (a) aware of sociocultural issues; (b) affirming of students from different backgrounds; (c) believing that they can and should make changes in schools to make them more equitable; (d) understanding how students construct knowledge and able to promote knowledge construction; (e) aware of their students' lives; and (f) creating lessons that build on their students' prior knowledge while pushing them beyond the familiar.