Improving Educational Experiences for Diverse Learners: Valuing Culture While Combating Stress, Inequality, Bias, and Discrimination

In this webinar, panelists explored how educators and school leaders can use a more comprehensive understanding of student learning environments to improve educational outcomes for diverse populations. Specifically, panelists discussed why culture and identity matter in adolescent education; how stress affects learning and development; how technology influences student learning and relationship building; and​ how school leaders and educators help combat the effects of inequality, bias, and discrimination​.

Improving Educational Experiences for Diverse Learners:
Valuing Culture While Combating Stress, Inequality, Bias, and Discrimination 

Panelists

Deborah Delisle, President and CEO, Alliance for Excellent Education 

Robyn Harper, Policy and Research Associate, Alliance for Excellent Education 

Yvette Jackson, EdD, Adjunct Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University and Senior Scholar, National Urban Alliance for Effective Education 

Moderator

Winsome Waite, PhD, Vice President of Practice, Alliance for Excellent Education  

When students enter school, they don’t leave part of themselves at the door. Instead, students walk into class carrying their cultural and community values with them. They bring pressures of social expectations and continue to feel the influence of poverty, prejudice, and inequity. These out-of-school influences and environmental factors play significant roles in adolescents’ mindsets about learning, their motivation to learn, and their behaviors in schools. 

Recent findings from neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychological research provide a more in–depth understanding of why school culture matters for each student and why it especially is important for adolescent students to learn in environments that are safe, supportive, and culturally responsive.   

In this webinar, panelists explored how educators and school leaders can use a more comprehensive understanding of student learning environments to improve educational outcomes for diverse populations. Specifically, panelists discussed 

why culture and identity matter in adolescent education; 
how stress affects learning and development; ​  
how technology influences student learning and relationship building; and​ 
how school leaders and educators help combat the effects of inequality, bias, and discrimination​. 

The webinar also reviewed findings from All4Ed’s third report on the science of adolescent learning, Valuing Culture, Experiences, and Environments, which includes recommendations for how educators, policymakers, and advocates can support adolescents’ academic, social, emotional, physical, and health needs. 

Additional Material:

Robyn Harper’s PowerPoint
Yvette Jackson’s PowerPoint

The Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) is a Washington, DC–based national policy, practice, and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those underperforming and those historically underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship.   

all4ed.org  

Follow All4Ed on Twitter (twitter.com/all4ed), Facebook (facebook.com/all4ed), and  

High School Soup blog (all4ed.org/blog). 

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