Zeichner (1992) has summarized the extensive literature that describes successful teaching approaches for diverse populations. From his review, he distilled 12 key elements for effective teaching for ethnic- and language-minority students.
- Teachers have a clear sense of their own ethnic and cultural identities.
- Teachers communicate high expectations for the success of all students and a belief that all students can succeed.
- Teachers are personally committed to achieving equity for all students and believe that they are capable of making a difference in their students’ learning.
- Teachers have developed a bond with their students and cease seeing their students as “the other.”
- Schools provide an academically challenging curriculum that includes attention to the development of higher-level cognitive skills.
- Instruction focuses on students’ creation of meaning about content in an interactive and collaborative learning environment.
- Teachers help students see learning tasks as meaningful.
- Curricula include the contributions and perspectives of the different ethnocultural groups that compose the society.
- Teachers provide a “scaffolding” that links the academically challenging curriculum to the cultural resources that students bring to school.
- Teachers explicitly teach students the culture of the school and seek to maintain students’ sense of ethnocultural pride and identity.
- Community members and parents or guardians are encouraged to become involved in students’ education and are given a significant voice in making important school decisions related to programs (such as resources and staffing).
- Teachers are involved in political struggles outside the classroom that are aimed at achieving a more just and humane society.
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