Issaquah teachers and staff receive training on how to be culturally responsive
Issaquah School District (ISD) aims to create welcoming and inclusive learning environments for all students. To support this goal, the district hosted a three-day training for teachers and staff on Culturally Responsive Education (CRE). The training focused on how to connect lessons to students’ lives as well as how to support differing learning abilities.
Top CRE educator Dr. Adeyemi Stembridge led the training during the second week of June at ISD’s Office of Public Instruction. The first two days covered how to build inclusivity. The third day allowed teachers to apply the tools they had learned in a mock classroom setting.
Issaquah High School social studies teacher Rachel Heilman attended the training. She shared that Dr. Stembridge clarified the misconception that classrooms must integrate different cultures just for the sake of it. Instead, CRE means working with the students in the class and connecting their lived experiences to the lessons.
“The point of Dr. Stembridge’s training wasn’t to integrate more diverse perspectives and experiences,” Heilman said. “[It was] to allow students to express the [ideas] that are already there, within our students.”
Dr. Stembridge taught that a CRE mindset equips teachers to better serve different learning abilities. For Heilman, the training changed her mindset on teaching students who learn at different paces.
“We expect struggling students to adapt. But why? Every student should be stretched to engage with multiple strategies, but we don’t always make that happen,” Heilman said. “Equitable learning environments mean everyone has the support they need to reach the desired outcomes.”
ISD is making other efforts to reflect its student body. For example, Richard Mellish, ISD’s Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Services, explained the district is making changes to literary texts to be more inclusive.
“[ISD] is in the ongoing effort to ensure the literature used in [English, literature, and the arts] courses is increasingly representative of the lived experiences of our students and reflective of their cultures and heritage,” Mellish said.
Students will soon be returning to school after summer break. When asked about his thoughts on CRE, ISD student Roshan Ganesh, 16, of Sammamish, said he views it as an essential part of learning.
“By seeing ourselves and others reflected in the curriculum, it becomes easier to relate to the topics,” Ganesh said. “[It] makes me feel more included and valued.”
To learn more about ISD’s equity efforts, visit their equity site here.
