Culturally Responsive Teaching

Geneva Gay is renowned for her contributions to multicultural education, particularly as it relates to curriculum design, professional learning, and classroom instruction. Gay has made many important revisions to keep her foundational, award-winning text relevant for today’s diverse student population, including: new research on culturally responsive teaching, a focus on a broader range of racial and ethnic groups, and consideration of additional issues related to early childhood education. Combining insights from multicultural education theory with real-life classroom stories, this book demonstrates that all students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through students’ own cultural experiences. This perennial bestseller continues to be the go-to resource for teacher professional learning and preservice courses.

While retaining its basic organization and structure, the Third Edition features:

• New research that validates the positive effects of culturally responsive teaching.
• Examples that broaden the racial and ethnic groups that can benefit from culturally responsive teaching.
• More information on the needs and benefits of culturally responsive teaching with young children.
• More attention to the quality of life for students of color in colleges and universities.
• The addition of Practice Possibilities at the end of chapters that describe how culturally responsive teaching can be implemented.

She received the 2023 AERA Division B (Curriculum Studies) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Geneva Gay is professor of education at the University of Washington–Seattle. She is the recipient of several awards, including the first Multicultural Educator Award presented by the National Association of Multicultural Education. She received the 2023 AERA Division B (Curriculum Studies) Lifetime Achievement Award.

“While the structure and premise of the book remain unchanged, the third edition responds to the question educators continue to ask: How do we do it?...This book is an invaluable resource to preservice and inservice teachers as well as teacher educators. Gay continues to challenge the reader to be proactive and stay the course. She offers a framework that remains relevant and continues to challenge us to do better, reminding us that the need for culturally responsive teaching persists.”

—Teachers College Record

“Beginning with the assertion that the PreK–12 educational system as it exists now is inequitable, particularly for children of color, Gay demolishes the deficit-based models of achievement remediation, instead arguing for a more holistic appreciation for the gifts and strengths children from diverse cultural backgrounds bring to the classroom environment and how teachers can better prepare to act in culturally-responsive ways.”

—The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching

"A comprehensive account of the important role that culture plays in the teaching and learning process."

— Urban Education (for previous edition)

"Inspiring! A book every teacher should read. As one of the founders of the field of multicultural education, Gay has updated her exceptional resource for teachers."
— Valerie Ooka Pang, San Diego State University

"Gay clearly explains how culturally responsive teaching can be used to dramatically influence the academic achievement of students of color and other marginalized students."
—Carl A. Grant, University of Wisconsin at Madison (of previous edition)

2023 AERA Division B (Curriculum Studies) Lifetime Achievement Award, to Geneva Gay