As the United States suffers an attack on the public education system by Republican policymakers, which has been a contributing factor to the widespread educator shortage, it is imperative that legislators who run on campaigns of diversity, equity, and inclusion take initiative to ensure that students enrolled in K-12 schooling receive an education that effectively utilizes culturally responsive pedagogies that focus on teaching students how to understand topics that have been heavily politicized — like race, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Culturally responsive pedagogies are a kind of teaching style that has gained popularity in K-12 education in recent years because they incorporate students’ cultures and identities into the classroom curriculum. These teaching practices embrace diversity and allow students to connect with material that they previously would have disengaged from because they did not understand how it was relatable to them.

One culturally responsive pedagogy that teachers often use in their classroom is having students discuss their cultures with peers. This exercise not only allows students to openly discuss and embrace the culture to which they belong, but also allows other students to learn about different cultures and develop a sense of cultural competency — a skill that is extremely important for people to develop early in their lives.

Cultural competency

Cultural competency is a skill that is developed through the use of culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom. It refers to the ability to have empathy and understanding for people who belong to different cultures. Learning about and understanding one’s peers’ cultures from an early age will not only have positive impacts on their future in the workplace, but also will help them develop a better sense of self so that they can advocate for themselves in multiple facets of life.

Conservative lawmakers and politicians have recently conflated ideas of critical race theory with culturally responsive learning because culturally responsive learning practices center on nonwhite, LGBTQ+ stories. These lawmakers have reacted by banning culturally responsive pedagogies and resources from in-classroom use. Culturally responsive pedagogies can consist of many different techniques that cater to the cultures of one’s current students, but they do not teach “liberal politics” like many Republicans claim.

Policies that harm diversity, equity, and inclusion

Since 2021, 44 states have brought forth legislation that limits teachers’ abilities to discuss topics that have been highly politicized — like race and gender — within their classrooms. These bills and discussions of banning critical race theory in K-12 classrooms gained popularity after former president Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2020 that labeled diversity training in federal agencies as divisive and even banned diversity training within these agencies. Even though President Joe Biden rescinded this executive order the day he took office in 2021, Republican policymakers have taken it upon themselves to continue Trump’s wish by banning discussions and curriculum that embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion.

One policymaker that tends to be outspoken on any topic involving minority groups is none other than Florida governor Ron DeSantis. In 2022, Governor DeSantis signed the “Stop W.O.K.E Act”, which effectively prohibited individuals from teaching that people are oppressed because of their race or sex. This act was put into place following the Florida State Board of Education’s banning of The 1619 Project (a book written by Nikole Hannah-Jones that reframes America’s history to center Black Americans’ stories) and the teaching of critical race theory.

The eagerness from policymakers to pass legislation that bans discussion of race and sex harms teachers, students, and America’s education system as a whole. These bills and pieces of legislation are unlawful under the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. America’s education system is already undergoing a massive educator shortage following the pandemic, and the passage of anti-critical-race-theory legislation exacerbates this crisis because teachers in almost every state across the country are being forced to silence themselves on topics of race and gender. Many teachers have left the field of education because they either did not want to face the consequences of teaching curriculum that may be considered too diverse, or simply because they do not want to teach in an education system that uplifts the racist, oppressive foundations of America.

Culturally responsive pedagogies allow students of color to express their cultures without fear of discrimination. With the increase in legislation that bans culturally responsive pedagogies from being used, students of color will continue to feel marginalized in spaces where curriculum that implements diversity, equity, and inclusion should be a requirement. Additionally, culturally responsive pedagogies incorporate stories that center people of color into the curriculum, which results in students of color being more engaged because they can see themselves as the main character. When students are more engaged, their learning outcomes tend to improve along with their cultural competencies, which leads to better outcomes for their future.

Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom, then, should be a main goal of policymakers to ensure students of color who disproportionately suffer from poverty and mental health crises achieve social mobility and better life outcomes. Instilling in students that no race or gender should be superior to the other and that cultural differences should be embraced rather than looked down upon will only have positive outcomes not only for students of color, but also white students. Through the implementation of culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom, all students have developed cultural competencies that will benefit them in the workplace and narrow the achievement gaps that greatly hinder the social mobility of marginalized groups.

Within the education system, there are achievement gaps that are extremely prevalent between white, higher-income students and their peers. Achievement gaps are the gaps in performance between one group of students with another group of students. Students of color and socioeconomically disadvantaged students experience the negative consequences of these achievement gaps at higher rates than their white, higher-income peers because of the systemic racism that is prevalent in the education system.

The structure of the education system is unjust, with just one example being the deprivation of resources from students who need them most — socioeconomically disadvantaged students — and reallocation of those resources to their white peers who are better off. Students of color and socioeconomically disadvantaged students are more likely to attend schools that lack resources and are underfunded, which then perpetuates these achievement gaps between the two groups.

This lack of resources is also extremely prevalent when it comes to mental health and well-being support for these students. Since students of color and socioeconomically disadvantaged kids are used to the limited resources they have, they learn from a young age to just take the resources explicitly given to them without questioning authority. However, with the numbers of children experiencing poor mental health conditions increasing in more recent years, it is crucial that we create an education system that teaches kids the skills needed to advocate for themselves so that they can become comfortable with advocating for themselves once they enter the workforce.

Mitigating a mental health crisis

One system in particular where it is important for people of color to have the cultural capital to advocate for themselves is in America’s healthcare system, which disproportionately discriminates against people of color. People of color are too often excluded from healthcare resources simply because of their race or ethnicity, English not being their first language, or their socioeconomic status.

If the development of cultural competency was at the forefront of everyone’s educational goals in the United States, the healthcare system would look completely different. Healthcare providers would actually listen to and understand the issues that patients come to them with, instead of brushing off their patients’ concerns because they have implicit biases against overweight people, nonnative English speakers, and people of color in general. Mental health providers would understand how race, socioeconomic status, and culture greatly influences an individual’s mental health and overall well-being.

In a world where children, especially Black children, are suffering from mental health conditions at increasing rates, it is critical for lawmakers to understand the impact of culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom. By confusing culturally responsive teaching methods with the teaching of critical race theory, politicians are only exacerbating the current crises we are facing in the United States.

If lawmakers continue to propose bills that inhibit teachers’ abilities to discuss race in their classrooms, children will not develop the cultural competencies necessary to learn how to advocate for themselves in a healthcare system that frequently does not respond to their needs. Healthcare providers will also lack cultural competency, which will perpetuate the issues we see (particularly in communities of color, which face disproportionate disparities in obtaining mental health care that benefit them). Without this understanding, we will continue to see disparate treatment of people of color, particularly Black adolescents, who are more likely to attempt suicide and typically suffer from a number of socioeconomic and discriminatory disadvantages that result in poorer mental health conditions.

The use of culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom allows children to feel valued as individuals and feel like their teachers actually care about them, their strengths, and their abilities. This results in children feeling like they can seek support from teachers. This is extremely important for students of color or socioeconomically disadvantaged students to do because they are the students that need support most. Giving children a space to express themselves and trust an adult figure has shown to greatly improve their mental health.

The implementation of culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom is a necessary step forward to achieving equitable access to K-12 education for all, but it cannot be the only solution. Marginalized students need to be provided with sufficient resources to become successful after K-12 schooling. It is unfair to send students who have been deprived of resources their whole lives into a workforce that requires them to compete with people who have a plethora of resources at their fingertips simply because they are white or socioeconomically advantaged.

The attack on America’s public education system must come to a halt soon; otherwise, the disparities seen between white students and students of color will continue to grow. What Republican legislators who are proposing bills that further harm already marginalized groups do not realize is that uplifting and giving resources to socioeconomically disadvantaged and students of color does not harm white students in the process. In fact, white students even benefit from attending schools that embrace integration efforts and implement culturally responsive pedagogies because they allow white students to develop cultural competencies that allow them to be successful after their educational journey.

Even with clear evidence that everyone benefits from becoming more culturally competent and literate, Republican legislators continue to pass legislation that limits these benefits in effort to preserve white supremacy. By banning culturally responsive pedagogies in K-12 education, Republican policymakers are harming every group of students. Ultimately, marginalized groups experience the most harm because they are forced to suppress their cultures and identities to conform to an education system that values preserving a predominately white curriculum to begin with.