The goal of this qualitative case study was to investigate the influence of culturally responsive teaching on the academic engagement of Black third and fourth grade students. For many years, schools have been faced with evidence that shows classrooms and schools are failing to meet the academic needs of students of color, particularly Black students. There are significant gaps in achievement among different student subgroups, with Black students consistently performing worse than their White peers on academic measures. One possible factor contributing to these gaps is a lack of teaching strategies that encourage engagement and are responsive to the cultural backgrounds of all students. The existing systems and structures in classrooms may also have an impact on students' academic engagement, particularly for Black learners who may not have equitable access to the learning experience. This study aimed to fill gaps in current research by examining how culturally responsive teaching influences the academic engagement of Black students in classrooms. The study took place in an elementary school in a metropolitan school district in North Carolina. This district included schools whose students represented a wide range of racial identities and socioeconomic backgrounds; that diversity was reflected in the participating school's student demographics. The study involved two teacher participants who were selected by their school principal and assistant principal based on their observations of the teachers' teaching practices and dispositions that were culturally responsive. The study addressed one central research question that was supported by seven sub- questions. The central research question was: How does the implementation of culturally responsive teaching strategies influence the academic engagement of Black students in elementary schools? The supporting sub-questions explored teachers' perceptions of culturally responsive teaching and the academic engagement trends of Black students. I analyzed the emergent themes from an analysis of responses to questions in two interviews with each participant. The interview process was supported by my observations of three sessions in each participants classroom. During these observations, I completed fieldnotes; I then completed a culturally responsive instruction observation protocol (CRIOP) after each observation. I found that certain teaching strategies occasionally employed by the teachers are identified in the literature as non-responsive; these techniques had low rates of engagement among students. The teachers culturally responsive teaching strategies, on the other hand, produced higher rates of engagement than the non-responsive strategies among Black students. I also found that teachers felt that they received little formal training or resources for understanding and implementing culturally responsive teaching strategies. They valued learning from observing other teachers and teaching diverse populations. While the teachers lacked explicit understanding of culturally responsive teaching strategies, they believed that these strategies were effective for all students. Participants acknowledged the importance of culturally responsive teaching strategies in meeting the varying needs of students. While teachers acknowledged factors that influence students' classroom experiences, they did not specifically consider racial identity as one of those factors. Further, the teachers did not directly mention race when discussing student academic engagement and instead focused on individual students and their behaviors. Finally, I found that teachers recognized the positive impact of strong classroom relationships on Black students'. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]