Use Culturally Responsive Pedagogy to Personalize and Engage Students

To some, terms like “personalized learning” and “culturally responsive pedagogy” may sound like hot air. But keeping today’s students engaged—while their attention is pulled in half a dozen directions—requires a departure from rigid. In this second article of 2, Content Specialist Eboni Hogan reflects on how teaching playlists can motivate students by using the CRP framework.

Are today’s students unmotivated – or unengaged?

I’ve come to embrace a more comprehensive vision for how CRP can be implemented in a classroom and its link to personalized instruction. In the Framework for Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, researchers Raymond J. Wlodkowski and Margery B. Ginsberg address the relationship between engagement and motivation.

The question of how to motivate students implies that they require a teacher to motivate them, as though we are not all born curious. This framework posits that when students are continually engaged, when their perspectives, interests, and diverse learning styles are taken into account, they become motivated students. And motivated students will learn.

The Framework for CRP goes on to outline four ways of creating “motivation conditions.” Learning playlists have the potential to support the establishment of motivation conditions in a classroom.

1. Establishing inclusion—creating a learning atmosphere in which students and teachers feel respected by and connected to one another.

Implementing playlists involves a level of trust between teacher and student. It illustrates that a teacher believes in their students’ abilities to lead themselves. When playlists are customized to include resources that they know will speak directly to their unique classroom, they are creating a learning environment built on inclusivity and mindfulness.

2. Developing attitude—creating a favorable disposition toward the learning experience through personal relevance and choice.

When you invite students to engage with a learning playlist, you’re saying “I believe in your ability to interpret this information in ways that work for you, at your own pace. See you on the other side.” Students are called on to become their own teachers.

“When students are continually engaged, when their perspectives, interests, and diverse learning styles are taken into account, they become motivated students. And motivated students will learn.”

3. Enhancing meaning—creating challenging, thoughtful learning experiences that include student perspectives and values.

Kiddom playlists contain materials that encourage students to make meaningful connections between the content, the world, and themselves. I often choose topics that are included in many curricular frameworks but may be difficult to cover in depth, due to a lack of age-appropriate resources available. Additionally, our SEL playlists allow for students to explore topics like identity, gender, sexuality, race, and politics, so that they can refine their own value systems, no matter what developmental stage they’re in.

4. Engendering competence—creating an understanding that students are effective in learning something they value.

In the life of the average American student, technology is king but in many schools, the moment they enter the school building, their devices are seen as distractions. Inviting students to engage with playlists digitally shows them that their school believes in the value of having access to technology by showing them alternative ways to harness its power. More importantly, in my opinion, Kiddom playlists take care to highlight perspectives and narratives that many students may find familiar, but that are noticeably absent from textbooks. When we show students their own reflections within the context of history, literature or science, we are telling them that their stories and ideas are important. We are affirming their humanity. We are creating what the CRP framework describes as a “common culture” where different vantage points are mutually respected.

One day, perhaps, the focus will be placed firmly on the students in every classroom and they will be encouraged to learn because they will have been given the tools to do so on their own terms. If I could speak with my former co-teacher-gone-rogue I’d explain that effective teaching is not always good teaching. Choice does not equal chaos. Deciphering the learning language of your classroom may be bells and whistles—but at least your students are awake.

Eboni Hogan has extensive experience in curriculum development, with a focus on culturally-responsive and arts-based approaches. Having spent years creating academic content and providing professional development to teachers, she now curates themed playlists meant to provide educators with valuable, time-saving resources.