Effects of a Book Study on Culturally Responsive Teaching, Cultural Care, and Empathy: Empowering Educators to Empower Students

Community college students make up nearly half of all college students (41%) and community colleges provide a unique opportunity for educators to instruct students in a more close-knit learning environment. While one goal at Estrella Mountain Community College is to support all students in their learning, some students, particularly Black and African American students, face equity gaps in milestones such as successfully completing classes, which may be due in part to a lower sense of belonging in the classroom. To address this problem of practice, a book study was conducted using the tenets of Communities of Practice (CoPs) to explore Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain (CRT-B) by Zeretta Hammond. The study aimed to enhance educators' self-efficacy in culturally responsive teaching (CRTeaching) and cultural care and empathy towards their students, which was aligned with the goal of increasing inclusion and belonging in EMCC classrooms. This is because CRTeaching has been found to boost students' sense of belonging in classrooms. Pre- and post-measures were used to assess any changes in these constructs, with educator participants also distributing surveys to their students before and after the book study. Both surveys included quantitative and qualitative measures, with additional interviews conducted with four educator participants. The study found a significant increase in educators' self-efficacy for CRTeaching and general instruction, as well as a non-statistically significant increase in cultural care/empathy and students' sense of belonging and inclusion in the classroom. This increase was documented using several measures. Qualitative findings from both groups were also closely analyzed, leading to the development of a conceptual framework that can be used to advance CRTeaching or increase buy-in for such professional development opportunities in the future.