Putting students at the center: Empowering urban alternative education teachers through culturally relevant and sustaining unit planning

Abstract

Conducted in an urban alternative education program for adolescents ages 17—21, this study provides an overview of a professional development program that sought to support teachers in developing unit plans that incorporated backwards design principles and culturally relevant and sustaining instruction. The authors offer a qualitative thematic analysis of teachers’ subsequent instructional products and classroom observations, highlighting the ways in which the teachers addressed cultural competence, potential for student academic success and intellectual growth, and sociopolitical consciousness. Implications for future professional development and research are highlighted, particularly for administrators, coaches, researchers, and teachers who work within urban alternative settings with students of various abilities and who are linguistically and ethnically diverse.