This may seem obvious: Students learn best in environments where they feel a sense of safety and belonging – environments that the science of learning and development has shown open up the brain to learning. 

But what if children find themselves in spaces, that teacher educator and author Zaretta Hammond calls “inequitable by design?” What is the responsibility for teachers and schools if the obstacle to learning is our educational system itself?  And further, what does it mean to be a culturally responsive teacher – and why is that necessary, not only to stimulate intellectual curiosity, but to move beyond “cognitive redlining” and transition students to “cognitive independence”?

Zarretta Hammond is the author of “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain” and founder of the “Ready 4 Rigor” blog. She is a former English teacher and, for nearly two decades, has worked at the crux of instructional design, professional development, and achieving equity. Hammond’s research explores and analyzes the brain functions that inform how we learn and think. And it delves deeply into how students of color would benefit from culturally responsive teaching, and what it means – and doesn’t mean – for how educators can help students get ready to tackle the rigorous content necessary to succeed.

As you’ll hear, it’s such thought-provoking conversation that it called for two episodes of this podcast.

For more information, go to www.turnaroundusa.org/podcast.