Culturally Relevant Teaching Research Articles

Urban educators’ perceptions of culturally relevant pedagogy and school reform mandates

In this article, we examine urban teachers’ perceptions of school reform models (SRMs) and culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). In particular, we examined how urban educators altered mandated reform models in the best interests of their culturally and linguistically diverse students. We discuss data from a phenomenological study, which included in-depth interviews and a focus group with seven urban African-American educators. We explore three facets of the intersection of culturally relevant pedagogy and mandated school reforms: (1) Teachers’ use of CRP to empower urban students; (2) Teachers’ beliefs that SRMs hurt African American students more than help them; (3) Teachers’ adaptations of SRMs with culturally relevant practices. Finally, this article explores the implications for practice and policy when culturally relevant teachers struggle to utilize CRP in the implementation of SRMs.

On negotiating White science: a call for cultural relevance and critical reflexivity

This article is a response to Randy Yerrick and Joseph Johnson’s article “Negotiating White Science in Rural Black America: A Case for Navigating the Landscape of Teacher Knowledge Domains”. They write about research conducted by Yerrick in which videos of his teaching practice as a White educator in a predominately Black rural classroom were examined. Their analysis is framed through Shulman’s (1986) work on “domains of teacher knowledge” and Ladson-Billings’ (1999) critical race theory (CRT). Although we appreciate a framework that attends to issues of power, such as CRT, we see a heavier emphasis on Shulman’s work in their analysis. We argue that a culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) framework has the potential to provide a more nuanced analysis of what occurred in Yerrick’s classroom from a critical lens. Thus we examine Yerrick and Johnson’s work through the five main CRP components (as defined by Brown-Jeffy and Cooper 2011) and ultimately argue that science educators who want to promote equity in their classrooms should engage in continuous critical reflexivity, aid students in claiming voice, and encourage students to become not only producers of scientific knowledge but also users and critics of such knowledge.

Negotiating the “Relevant” in Culturally Relevant Mathematics

Abstract One approach to promoting successful engagement of underrepresented groups in mathematics classrooms is culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). However, it has been argued that CRP risks essentializing students or watering down academic content. We report our analysis of a case study of a group of three sixth-grade students who took part in a 6-week mathematics curriculum. This curriculum used geographical information system (GIS) maps to engage students in designing personally meaningful research projects while learning about measures of central tendency (i.e., learning statistics). The case study was chosen as representative of how students (47 total) in this urban classroom successfully navigated the curriculum. While successful, the intervention highlights the kinds of negotiations that students engaged in with each other, the teacher, and the curriculum as they coconstructed their own meaning of relevance. The goal of our analysis is to illustrate the importance of recognizing multiple forms of ...

Situating Strategies: An Examination of Comprehension Strategy Instruction in One Upper Elementary Classroom Oriented Toward Culturally Relevant Teaching

Drawing on ethnographic and discourse analytic methods, this article examines how comprehension strategies aligned with goals in a classroom oriented toward culturally relevant teaching. Findings indicate that (1) two distinct sets of comprehension were taught in the room and (2) one set aligned more easily with culturally relevant teaching than the other.

The Nuances and Complexities of Teaching Mathematics for Cultural Relevance and Social Justice

Mathematics is not a race-neutral subject. Access and opportunity in mathematics for students of color in the United States continue to be limited. While a great deal of attention has been given to increasing the number of underrepresented minority students in the mathematics pipeline, there is little consideration of who they are as learners or the context in which their mathematics learning takes place. We argue that culturally relevant instruction coupled with teaching for social justice can motivate marginalized students to learn mathematics. Throughout this conceptual article, we (a) explore the theoretical frameworks underlying culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) and social justice pedagogy (SJP), (b) present illustrative cases of mathematics teaching that reveal the possibilities and challenges associated with these pedagogical approaches, and (c) offer to the field of teacher education recommendations related to the successful use of CRP and SJP within today's classrooms.

They Don't Show Nothing I Didn't Know: Emergent Tensions Between Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Mathematics Pedagogy

This article describes data from the Community Mapping Project, a set of statistical activities and inquiry projects within a summer seminar for high school students. In designing the Community Mapping Project, we attempted to create conditions under which urban students themselves would come to recognize how mathematics is relevant to their lives and their communities. Using mixed methods, we analyzed the pre- and postassessments and final projects of 25 high school students to investigate what students learned from their experience. We also analyzed the data from video case studies to begin to understand how learning was organized. Our qualitative analysis revealed several tensions that emerged between the goals and norms of our instantiation of a culturally relevant pedagogy and the goals and norms of our mathematics pedagogy. We argue that how these tensions are navigated mediate what opportunity students have for learning statistics. This article provides some considerations and lessons learned that may help inform both teachers who wish to rethink their mathematics pedagogy, and the designers who wish to create culturally relevant curricula.

Struggling Toward Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in the Latino Diaspora

Increasing numbers of Latinos are settling in parts of the U.S. where few Latinos have lived before. Many of these diaspora Latinos are school-age children who do not yet speak English fluently. Although rural U.S. educators often work hard to serve Latino diaspora schoolchildren, most rural schools do not provide enough support. This article describes the successes and failures of one paraprofessional working in the Latino diaspora. By describing her strategies to make school more culturally familiar, as well as the reactions Latino students and Anglo educators had to her efforts, the article illustrates both the potential and the difficulty of culturally relevant pedagogy in the Latino diaspora.

African-centered schooling in theory and practice

Introduction Historical, Social, and Cultural Contexts of the African American Immersion Schools A Portrait of the African American Immersion Elementary School A Portrait of the African American Immersion Middle School Transformations Surface to Deep Transformations Lessons Learned Talent Development, Cultural Deep Structure and School Reform: Implications for African Immersion Initiatives by A. Wade Boykin by Island We Must Go Across Challenges from Language and Culture among African Americans by Shirley Brice Heath Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in African Centered-Schools: Possibilities for Progressive Educational Reform by Gloria Ladson-Billings African-Centered Education: Critical Questions for Further Considerations by Jocqueline Jordan Irvine Epilogue Index