51 pages • 1 hour read
Zaretta L. HammondCulturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Disparities in Public Education
Hammond argues that a lack of culturally responsive teaching has led to achievement disparities that hinder academic progress for students of color. These students are most statistically susceptible to poverty due to systemic structures. Culturally responsive pedagogical practices, Hammond argues, are necessary to address historical achievement gaps.
Hammond shares personal experiences from her own childhood. These experiences illustrate the achievement gaps that exist in public education across the United States. She writes: “After many decades of attention, the achievement gaps I witnessed as an elementary school student are still with us” (2). Despite a seemingly endless succession of programs and initiatives, funded by millions upon millions of dollars, the achievement gap remains in schools, contextualized by systemic inequities far more powerful than classroom practices.
Hammond draws attention to the intrinsic limitations of “teaching to the test,” a method of teaching that instructs students how to pass a test rather than to cultivate independent thinking. This method burgeoned as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. The act revised the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In 2002, it was signed into law by former president George W. Bush. According to the act:
States must test students in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. And they must report the results, for both the student population as a whole and for particular ‘subgroups’ of students, including English-learners and students in special education, racial minorities, and children from low-income families (Klein, Alyson. “No Child Left Behind: An Overview.” Edweek.org, 2015).
The act was implemented to increase academic achievement across the nation. However, it drew criticism for its emphasis on testing. Furthermore, the practice of “teaching to the test” meant that students from historically low-income neighborhoods, mostly populated by Black and brown students, would be taught how to pass a test and not how to think critically and creatively. Hammond argues that programs such as No Child Left Behind prevent students from learning in a culturally responsive manner, which hinders their cognitive development.
The Intersection of Science and Social Justice
Hammond’s central premise is that neuroscience can explain and justify the urgency of adopting culturally responsive teaching practices, which are a conduit of social justice. While Hammond did not coin the term “culturally responsive teaching,” the connection to neuroscience differentiates her book. Hammond argues that “cognition and higher order thinking have always been at the center of culturally responsive teaching, which makes it a natural partner for neuroscience in the classroom” (4). Culturally responsive teaching within the context of social justice is further justified by neuroscience, which supports its practice.
According to Hammond, intellective capacity shows how culturally responsive teaching practices are not simply tools for motivation and building rapport. Instead, they are transformative ways of developing neuroplasticity in students. Culturally responsive teaching practices also make students feel comfortable enough to learn. They avert “amygdala hijack,” where the brain signals that one isn’t safe in their environment. If educators understand this, they are more likely to adopt culturally responsive teaching practices.
This understanding requires a profound reflection on the nature of systemic oppression in education. As Hammond writes: “Recognizing how we have created intellectual apartheid in schools is the first step in knowing how to build intellective capacity” (33). Here lies the intersection of science and social justice, the book’s key concept.
The Responsibility of Consciousness
Hammond emphasizes the need for educators to seek a higher level of awareness. They should understand the sociopolitical factors that influence the landscape of education, particularly public education in the United States, where achievement disparities have become the norm. Once an educator becomes aware of systemic inequities, the responsibility to act is unavoidable. Hammond describes this responsibility as a task, which consists of helping dependent learners “shift their mindset by helping them create a powerful counternarrative about who they are as learners” (119). To do this, educators must be educated and conscious of the systemic dynamics that have led students to internalize a low self-image about their capabilities as learners.
Hammond’s consciousness is rooted in her lived experiences. In her Introduction, Hammond tells the story of her elementary school experience. Her mother insisted that she and her siblings receive a better education than what was offered by the local public school, and was able to enroll them at a higher-performing school in a neighboring community. Hammond recalls the experience vividly, as evidenced in the following passage: “[I]t slowly became clear to me that my brother, sister, and I were getting a different kind of education at Lafayette than the kids in the projects who went to the local school” (1). She explains that the awareness that emerged from these childhood experiences have remained with her. As a result, she grew up to be a culturally responsive educator. She is deeply rooted in personal consciousness. This enables her to share the importance of creating counternarratives for students who have been ostracized or forgotten.
