Disciplining Dalmar: a demand to uncover racism and racialization in pursuit of culturally relevant pedagogy

The need for multifaceted analyses of the relationships between how the United States acknowledges racism and how schooling can be structured to mitigate its negative impacts has never been greater, especially given rising attention to the racial “achievement gap.” In suburban, elite Pioneer City, a series of initiatives I will refer to as “the transformation” aimed to eliminate racial disparities in educational achievement through simultaneous efforts to redistribute students from a racially and economically isolated elementary school and train all district staff in a particular brand of culturally relevant pedagogy. This paper draws from a larger yearlong study in which I used critical ethnographic methods to explore tensions between a goal of systemic change and reproductive forces at play in Pioneer City Schools. Focusing on one third-grade student, I offer insights into how the school district’s equity-minded policy changes find their way into one classroom, both reflecting and complicating preexisting ways of viewing the role of race in young children’s lives.     

Culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy in a diverse urban classroom: Challenges of pedagogy for Syrian refugee youths and teachers in Turkey

This study focused on whether and how teachers implemented the principles of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies and the challenges teachers faced while trying to implement these principles with Syrian students in Turkey. The study was built on the four components of pedagogies: academic achievement; cultural competencies; sociopolitical consciousness; and the sustainability of culture. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews and field notes with four teachers who had Syrian students in their classes and four Syrian students. Content analysis was used to examine the data. The findings revealed that both teachers and students had low expectations of academic achievement. Teachers conducted the teaching–learning process entirely according to the perspectives of students who were from the mainstream culture. Teachers tried to improve the cultural competencies and enhance their sociopolitical consciousness of the Syrian students; however, the attempts were limited and inadequate. Although teachers were aware of the importance of sustaining the Syrian culture, they did not know how to do so. The teachers did not have sufficient competencies or experiences to make revisions or to carry out an effective instructional process tailored to the needs of Syrian students because of an absence of skills and knowledge of multicultural education.     

Using modelling to make culturally responsive pedagogy explicit in preservice teacher education in Finland

Despite multiculturalism being discussed in teacher education, teachers still often feel insecure in the classroom around developing meaningful practices. This might be due to several issues about how preservice teachers are taught. In this article, modelling culturally responsive pedagogy is demonstrated as a promising strategy in shaping preservice teachers’ learning experiences and facilitating the finding of pedagogical responses in their future work. The article examines preservice teachers’ awareness of modelling as a teaching strategy in a multicultural education course in Finland, and the ways in which they connected the modelled strategy to their own learning and intentions for future teaching. A total of 246 reflective learning journals were analysed qualitatively, using a constant comparison approach. The results indicate that preservice teachers recognised and reflected on modelling culturally responsive pedagogy. They highlighted several aspects of the culturally responsive activities, environment and teacher educator behaviours modelled for them. For some preservice teachers, this recognition stayed at the level of personal awareness of own learning on the course, but for others these revelations were springboards to start forming ideas about future teaching practice. Preservice teachers articulated their intentions about the kind of teachers they would like to become, their principles in teaching, as well as specific teaching/learning activities. We present how the modelling of culturally responsive pedagogy strategies allowed preservice teachers to self-reflect, critique and connect their own learning experiences to future practice. Therefore, modelling culturally responsive pedagogy is argued to be a fruitful strategy in teacher education.     

Creating supportive and subversive spaces as professional dyads enact culturally relevant teaching

Abstract

In 2013, several leaders of the Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) developed a multi-year project called Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching (PDCRT). Funded by NCTE, early childhood teacher/teacher-educator dyads from various locations across the United States work together for two years to investigate, generate, implement and document culturally relevant pedagogies in their respective early childhood contexts. This article outlines some of the work of two PDCRT dyads conducted from 2013 to 2015. The project was developed in response to the long-time need for culturally relevant early childhood education and teacher education reform by focusing on overturning inequitable practices that ignore, misrepresent or marginalize children and families of Color, emerging bi/multilinguals and children from low-income communities. We argue that the PDCRT dyad model is an innovative avenue for addressing inequitable educational realities in the Eurocentric educational system that persists in the US and for moving equity work forward.     

Racially liberatory pedagogy: a Black Lives Matter approach to education

Abstract

In this study, we sought to understand how Black lives matter (BLM) epistemology, as displayed through six months of social media content from official accounts, can inform a racially liberatory pedagogy in higher education for Black and other racially minoritized students. We found BLM, through Facebook and Twitter, situated intersectional Black culture in the contemporary struggle for liberation. BLM also offered information that can raise its followers’ intersectional critical consciousness. Additionally, BLM content highlighted actions that can support Black liberation. Lastly, BLM content supported the building of relationships and naming of emotions as Black people work toward their liberation. In this sense, BLM connected with elements of a racially liberatory pedagogy and offered nuances that advanced the framework. We discuss the implications of this framework for teaching in higher education.     

Setting the Stage for Action: Teaching Social Justice in the Middle School Classroom

Abstract

In an effort to better understand what it means to enact curriculum that helps students conceptualize issues of injustice and racism, this article describes an approach to comply with mandated responsibilities while offering curriculum that promotes an understanding of social justice and equity in the community. Challenges and barriers to implementation of these curricular changes are also described, as well as guidance to those who wish to begin the process of enacting curriculum that pushes students to critically consider power, justice, and fairness within their community.     

Blogging with pre-service teachers as action research: when data deserve a second glance

The implementation of digital pedagogies (i.e. blogging) is one way to mediate large classroom discussions in culturally relevant ways. This 2.5-year longitudinal mixed-method action research study reflects on the ways blogging can further promote culturally relevant discussions explored in face-to-face classes. Findings include pre-service teachers’ use of blogs in: interrogating issues as a means of developing cultural competence; recognizing their own trepidation and lack of self-knowledge related to topics of diversity; and exploring the disconnect between their current knowledge and future practice. Additionally, this study explores ways in which the authors could have further assisted students in challenging their beliefs and strengthening cultural competencies through blog responses.     

Playful structure: a novel image of early years pedagogy for primary school classrooms

Playful structure is a new pedagogic image representing a more balanced and integrated perspective on early years pedagogy, aiming to blend apparent dichotomies and contradictions and to sustain and evolve play-based practice beyond Year 1. Playful structure invites teachers and children to initiate and maintain a degree of playfulness in the child’s whole learning experience, even when the learning intentions demand a supportive structure. Thus, playfulness becomes characteristic of the interaction between adult and the child and not just characteristic of child-initiated versus adult-initiated activities, or of play-time versus task-time. The paper is based on intensive observations and interviews with teachers in Northern Ireland who participated in a play-based and informal curriculum. This paper explains how playful structure rests on complementary processes of infusion of structure into play-based activities and infusion of playfulness into more structured activities, illustrated by cameos. ‘Infusion’ suggests the subtle blending process that allows apparent dichotomies and contradictions to be resolved in practice.     

Following the Drinking Gourd: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Curriculum Development Through the Arts

This article describes the experiences of three teachers who engaged in culturally relevant pedagogy and an arts curriculum designed to enhance student understanding of critical events in history. Their students attended a professional dance production based on the history of the Underground Railroad and then were exposed to a curriculum guide developed with the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy in mind. Teachers reported that their students’ comprehension of important themes improved, and that the arts experience was deeply beneficial.     

The road to culturally relevant science: Exploring how teachers navigate change in pedagogy

In this study, two middle‐school teachers who participated in a professional development program utilizing the transformative professional development (TPD) model are followed as they embarked upon becoming culturally relevant science teachers of Hispanic students. Using Ladson‐Billings (1994) theory of culturally relevant pedagogy, teacher interviews, focus groups, journals, and field notes are examined to reveal aspects of culturally relevant pedagogy that the participants translate into their daily science instructional practice in this longitudinal case study. Findings revealed TPD enabled participants to transform their practice to focus on culturally relevant science pedagogy resulting in a more effective instructional environment for their Hispanic students. Implications for further research on professional development and other supports for teachers integrating culturally relevant pedagogy are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 48: 170–198, 2011     

A case for culturally relevant science education in the summer for African American youth

Abstract

This article focuses on the impact of culturally relevant teaching and learning during a summer enrichment program for high school students. Culturally relevant science instruction and curriculum helped students to foster a more positive interest in science and STEM careers as it provided students the opportunity to do science in meaningful and relevant ways. Students were able to see themselves represented in the curriculum and recognized their own strengths; as a result, they were more validated and affirmed in and transformed by, their learning. We use this case to warrant increased support for summer learning programs focused on providing African American youth with access to high quality, culturally relevant/responsive science education.     

Raising the Bar: Using Coaching Conversations to Address Issues of Low Expectations for Students in Urban Settings

Abstract

Two instructional coaches explore the effectiveness of targeted coaching conversations to address teachers' perceptions of their students' capacities. In this study, the researchers focus on how specific questions can promote teachers' metacognition of underlying biases held toward their students. Researchers also explore the implications for curricular practices when teachers are prompted to address conceptions of ability.     

Community,love, and culture: pedagogical insights for Black students in White spaces

Abstract

To address the tension between public education norms and the lived experiences of racially marginalized students, this study examines how Brother to Sister (BTS), a community group, promotes sense of belonging and college access among Black high school students using the school as a primary dialogical space. Specifically, through qualitative assessment, this study interprets the pedagogy of Brother to Sister through narrative accounts of how the organization functioned in the lives of its members. As experienced by participants, BTS enacts culturally centered pedagogy and African-centered education to promote personal development and community enrichment outcomes.     

The Ako Conceptual Framework: toward a culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy

ABSTRACT

This article offers a new model, the Ako Conceptual Framework (ACF), as a theoretical proposition to add to the critical discourse and development of culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogies within the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. By drawing on the socio-cultural theory and the concept of Zone of Proximal Development, the ACF conceptualises the intersection of culture and pedagogy using a Tongan epistemology. The ACF positions the vā (a space that is relational which enables authentic relationships to be established, nurtured and maintained) and tauhi vaha`a/vā (a responsibility that teachers, schools, educational leaders and practitioners have to establish, nurture and maintain authentic relationships) as the fundamental concepts in the development of culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogies. It is theorised that by recognising Tongan strengths-based principles, values and educational concepts, the taumu`a `oe ako (the purpose for teaching and learning), founga ako (the concepts of teaching), and feinga ako (the concepts of learning) can be aligned. Thereby, recognising and acknowledging the various knowledge systems that the students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds arrive at school with. The concepts and implications of the ACF are discussed in this article.     

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Higher Education: A Collaborative Self-Study

In this article we discuss findings from a collaborative self-study of how seven teacher educators define, enact, and navigate their roles as culturally responsive educators across various programs within a higher education institution. All participants conducted an individual interview with another team member and engaged in prolonged team meetings in order to understand and conceptualize culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). Findings include the participants' difficulty with defining CRP in higher education; the importance of modeling and building relationships with students when enacting CRP; tensions related to students and institutions; and professional and personal opportunities to continuously evolve. The findings begin to fill in a void for an articulated framework of CRP beyond P-12 classrooms and illustrate the type of support and professional development higher education institutions need to provide for teacher educators to actualize this work.     

Enacting pedagogy in ICT-enabled classrooms: conversations with teachers in Shanghai

ABSTRACT

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) can have positive effects on the learning and development of children. Adults and peers have a critical role in harnessing the potential. The authors’ attention in this article is on teacher practices. Through case studies of four early childhood teachers’ pedagogical roles and practices while children were using ICTs in Shanghai preschools, the authors reveal four main roles: facilitator, observer, guide and knowledge transmitter. Teachers were predominantly instructing and transmitting knowledge and were rarely observed to take responsive mediating approaches, despite proactive Chinese ICT policies which however lack specific curriculum guidance on pedagogy. Teachers were falling back on their traditional training and practices, leading to misalignment between policy which advocates guidance and democratic practice, and teachers’ actual practices. Drawing on Vygotsky’s concept of mediation, the authors advocate further learning about sociocultural approaches that have been shown to be beneficial in supporting teachers to take active and dynamic pedagogical roles and to employ a range of interactive and democratic strategies to empower children’s learning. Further investigation is needed to ascertain whether such teachers are rejecting interactive pedagogical approaches, or have not yet learnt about effective interactive strategies.     

Constructing a High-Stakes Community in the Classroom: A Case Study of One Urban Middle-School Teacher

Abstract

A teacher at an urban middle school worked to become part of her students’ communities and utilized the notion of community within her pedagogy. Her example offers hope that engaging with students’ communities and building community within the classroom are attainable and valuable goals. Her example also demonstrates that the concept of community can be relevant and powerful within a testing-focused environment that traditionally fosters competition and privileges the individual.     

Resisting reductionism in mathematics pedagogy

Although breaking down a mathematical problem into smaller parts can often be an effective solution strategy, when the same reductionist approach is applied to mathematics pedagogy the effects are far from beneficial for students. Mathematics pedagogy in UK schools is gaining an increasingly reductionist flavour, as seen in an excessive focus on bite-sized learning objectives and a tendency for mathematics teachers to path-smooth their students’ learning. I argue that a reductionist mathematics pedagogy severely restricts students’ opportunities to engage in authentic mathematical thinking and deprives them of the enjoyment of solving richer, more worthwhile problems, which would forge connections across diverse areas of the subject. I attribute the rise of a reductionist mathematics pedagogy partly to an assessment-dominated curriculum and partly to a systemic de-professionalisation of teachers through a performative accountability culture in which they are constantly required to prove to non-specialist managers that they are effective. I argue that pedagogical reductionism in mathematics must be resisted in favour of a more holistic approach, in which students are able to bring a variety of mathematical knowledge and skills to bear on rich, challenging and non-routine mathematical tasks. Some principles for achieving this are outlined and some examples are given.