An effort to make American Classrooms culturally responsive

The situation for immigrant children is often difficult because, in the course of their lives in the United States, they encounter many different kinds of borders (Patel, 2013). One way to ameliorate their situation is to provide culturally responsive teaching. Twenty one early childhood teachers working in the Midwest in the United States took part in this research project, and two hundred eighty children. This project was based on action research addressed to answer two main questions: How culturally responsive is my classroom environment, my curriculum and my teaching strategies? and How can I improve my practice to make it more culturally responsive? The teachers assessed their classrooms using Kendal’s (1983) checklist and initially came up with thirteen activities that could be implemented. The results of the assessment demonstrated that every classroom needed some modifications and implementation of new strategies, materials and projects. This paper discusses the detailed outcomes of their project.