District Certified Culturally Responsive Elementary Teachers and Their Mathematics Teaching Practices

Abstract

This case study examines how three elementary teachers, all certified by their school district in culturally responsive teaching (CRT) through professional development opportunities, implement mathematics teaching practices that support CRT and the development of learners’ cultural identities. Furthermore, this study examines the CRT certification process in the focal district and the structures that supported the teachers in their enactment of CRT. In the focal district, commitment to CRT has been identified by division leaders as one means to best serve historically marginalized learners in achieving academic excellence. Data were collected via interviews, questionnaires, observations, teacher journals, and other reportable data. The teachers’ CRT practices in mathematics fell into four large quadrants aligning with the work of Hammond’s (2015) Ready for Rigor framework. However, such practices were implemented in ways that exemplified particular tenets of CRT that are more thoroughly captured in seminal research-based literature; thus, a revised and adapted model was created to examine the CRT practices enacted in these elementary mathematics classrooms. The findings provide the field with a more informed understanding of what CRT can look like in elementary mathematics classrooms with teachers who have been certified in CRT from a district developed and applied certification model.