SOU’s “Culturally Responsive Teaching Innovation Community” to hold CRT workshop
A free workshop on Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) will be held for SOU faculty and staff at 9 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 24 in the Stevenson Union’s Rogue River Room.
CRT is an educational method that recognizes the importance of students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning. The approach was explained last year during a campus theme lecture by Zaretta Hammond, national education consultant and author of the 2014 book, “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.”
Hammond’s lecture touched on the fact that student populations across the country are progressively growing more racially and linguistically diverse. She discussed the real and often positive impacts on learning that result from being more responsive to students’ differences.
Inspired by Hammond, a group of SOU faculty called the Culturally Responsive Teaching Innovation Community applied for and received a grant from SOU’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning to help make SOU’s teaching methods better align with CRT principles. This week’s workshop is part of that effort.
The event will feature Suresh Appavoo, SOU’s senior executive for equity and diversity, and Matthew Reynolds, an educator and teaching consultant. Those interested in attending must complete a registration form and complete pre-session reading materials.
The CRT Innovation Community has also submitted a proposal to present its work at the Oregon Association of Teacher Educators annual conference in February, and plan to present a panel on their implementation of CRT into their own classes at SOU’s annual SOAR event in May.
Members of the CRT Innovation Community include Alma Rosa Alvarez, Amy Belcastro, Amanda Casto, Teresa Coker, Megan Farnsworth, Danielle Hammer, Jamie Hickner, Younghee Kim, Jo-Anne Lau-Smith, Merrilyne Lundahl, Jessie Longhurst, Margaret Perrow and Erin Wilder.
Story by Blair Selph, SOU Marketing and Communications student writer
