Culturally Responsive Instruction in HSIs: Specific Instructional Strategies that Work

In this webinar, Dr. Melissa L. Salazar, CEO of ESCALA Educational Services, will familiarize faculty and administrators with the concept of culturally responsive instruction as applied to the specific context of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Dr. Salazar will draw on her organization’s work with more than 300 HSI faculty and staff over the past 7 years to show how culturally responsive instruction can close achievement gaps for Latinx students. Dr. Salazar will outline the principles that underlie culturally responsive instruction, and use these principles to explain why certain instructional strategies are more important than others in HSIs.  Dr. Salazar will also provide attending faculty with a student survey tool that can help faculty hone in on what students need, and help them to create a learning environment that is both academically rigorous and culturally balanced. The seminar will provide concrete examples of how STEM faculty in ESCALA’s programs have used results of their student surveys to adapt their course to be more culturally responsive. Additionally, Dr. Elena Ortiz, Biology faculty from Phoenix College will share how she has implemented an ESCALA-based practice and the impacts to her classroom. Bobby Alvarado, Welding Instructor from Arizona Western College (AWC), will present practices he uses at AWC to help his students feel welcome, respectful of each other's culture and backgrounds, engaged with STEM, and/or prepared for the cultures they may encounter as they transition to the workforce.