{"id":8273,"date":"2024-10-21T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/?p=8273"},"modified":"2024-10-18T10:57:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T15:57:22","slug":"special-considerations-for-culturally-responsive-teaching-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/es\/blog\/special-considerations-for-culturally-responsive-teaching-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Considerations for Culturally Responsive Teaching Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Online learning is meant to be flexible and accessible, but to achieve that promise for every learner, it must incorporate culturally responsive teaching. Many college faculty will be familiar with the case for culturally responsive teaching generally, but what does that look like in an online learning context?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the focus of many of the programs offered by Online Learning Consortium (OLC), including three services delivered in partnership with Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae, Fundamentals of Quality and Equity in Digital Learning<\/a>, Continuous Improvement Strategies for Advancing Quality Digital Learning<\/a>, and Developing a Digital Learning Ecosystem to Ensure Student Success<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an online learning environment, we frame culturally responsive teaching as specific strategies around inclusiveness and equity,\u201d says Josh Herron, Director of Professional Learning at OLC. \u201cThat includes being aware that learners are visible in the examples, and then, when they’re demonstrating their proficiency, that they’re doing so in a relevant way that’s applicable to their own goals, in addition to the goals of a course or program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herron participates in delivering the professional development services with Every Learner mentioned above, and also helps develop customized workshops for unique cohorts, such as a recent program delivered to four tribal colleges that are part of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC). Enhancing Digital Learning: Integrating Equity and Quality, delivered in summer and fall 2024, centered culturally responsive pedagogy in tribal institutions. The customized program emerged because AIHEC members wanted something with more emphasis on program improvement than the established services. Also, because the participants in the cohort are from very small institutions, they wanted more attention on long-term sustainability and capacity building for equitable digital learning.<\/p>\n

Below, Herron shares some of the concepts about culturally responsive teaching online that he and colleagues at OLC emphasize in their established and customized programs.<\/p>\n

Center equity, contextualize quality<\/h2>\n

Herron says he and his colleagues work with workshop participants to evaluate definitions of and frameworks for quality. However, they also caution against letting quality drive the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne phrase I use is that in online learning, we contextualize quality and center equity,\u201d he says. \u201cQuality sometimes can be used to lock folks into a certain way of doing things. If what we\u2019re trying to do is based on equitable access and inclusivity we have to ask what quality means in this particular context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considerations for equitable online teaching<\/h2>\n

Designing a course around culturally responsive teaching in an online context will reveal several special considerations.<\/p>\n