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Blurring the Borders: Voices of African Liberatory Pedagogy in the United States and Canada
... Recently, scholars have begun to examine variation in beliefs among Black pre-service (e.g., Bakari, 2003;Mawhinney, Mulero, & Pérez, 2012) and in-service teachers (e.g., Natesan & Kieftenbeld, 2012), finding both strengths-based and deficit beliefs (e.g., racial/cultural stereotypes) about African American students. Additionally, a small number of studies on the experiences and pedagogy of bi-cultural 4 educators of African descent further reveal diversity in the meaning and significance individuals attach to race and culture in the U.S., as well as variation in how Black educators think about their African American students (e.g., Bailey, 2013;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990;Shady, 2013). These recent studies suggest a building 4 Here I use "bi-cultural" to refer to Black educators who were born outside of the United States but currently teach in the U.S. and (in most cases) have spent a significant amount of time living in the U.S. Individuals in this group of Black educators may identify as "African American" but are influenced by cultural norms in the U.S. as well as their immediate country(ies) of ancestry and/or birth. ...
... Most Black educators in the first generation studies are described as culturally responsive instructors who use African American students' cultural backgrounds "as a vehicle in instruction" (Irvine, 1989, p. 61). They integrated African American discursive styles into their classroom communication (Foster, 1993;Irvine, 2002), established trusting relationships with African American students and their families (Foster, 1997), and used Black students' cultural knowledge to scaffold instruction (Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990). Additionally, Black educators are described as demonstrating commitment to teaching African American students by "often act [ing] as surrogate parents to the children they taught" (Foster, 1993, p. 378). ...
... They used a wide range of instructional strategies and curriculum content, and had different degrees of affiliation with African American communities. Yet, they all held strengths-based beliefs about African American children's abilities and culture; this finding prompted Ladson-Billings to emphasize the importance of teachers' beliefs toward their enactment of liberatory pedagogy for Black youth (Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990). ...
Black educators are often presumed to possess pedagogical skills that benefit Black students, particularly race- and culture-related practices aimed toward addressing social inequities in schooling (i.e., culturally grounded pedagogy). However, there is limited research on the underpinnings of culturally grounded pedagogy among Black educators. Building on scholarship from both education and psychology, I hypothesized that racial identity undergirds Black educators’ pedagogy and beliefs. I conceptually disentangled racial identity from race-related beliefs and behaviors, and (using the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity) outlined a framework to explain Black educators’ culturally grounded pedagogy. Three questions were addressed: 1) In what ways does racial identity relate to Black educators’ culturally grounded pedagogy? 2) Does racial identity relate to Black educators’ beliefs about African American children and their educational needs (strengths-based, deficit, and colorblind)? And, 3) Does racial identity also relate to culturally grounded pedagogy through associations between racial identity and beliefs? Self-identified Black educators (N=217; 113 teachers, 101 instructional staff; Mage=43.3, range 22-76 years old) were recruited through U.S. professional organizations and completed a survey on racial attitudes, beliefs, and pedagogy. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression models, with beliefs as mediators between racial identity and pedagogy. Descriptive results revealed that Black educators are a diverse group who endorse three dimensions of culturally grounded pedagogy to varying degrees; variation in pedagogy was systematically related to their racial identities and beliefs. First, nationalist ideology was directly associated with Black educators’ culturally enriched curriculum use. Second, oppressed minority ideology was directly associated with culturally responsive teaching, while private regard related to culturally responsive teaching through associations between private regard and strengths-based and deficit beliefs. Third, centrality related to Black educators’ commitment through strengths-based beliefs. Results highlight the importance of conceptually and empirically disentangling racial identity and beliefs from practices to illuminate within-group differences in how Black educators think about themselves and Black students in regard to race and culture. Findings may inform how racial identity is considered in pre-service and in-service teacher training; education research; and contributes to psychology scholarship on how racial identity operates in relation to beliefs and behaviors among Black adults.
... Cultural congruence is a theoretical framework that explains why a teacher of the same racial/ethnic background facilitates student learning more effectively. For example, cultural continuity between students and teachers enhances the quality of student-teacher interactions and, in turn, promotes positive student outcomes (Delpit, 2006;Henry, 1994;Hollins, 1982;Howard, 2003;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990). By contrast, teachers who lack the understanding of students' cultures may have less favorable perceptions about student behavior (Downey & Pribesh, 2004), and less favorable teacher perceptions may also lead students to misbehave, which may contribute to higher rates of school discipline . ...
... *p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. (Delpit, 2006;Henry, 1994;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990;Villegas & Irvine, 2010), resulting in better behavior and reduced disciplinary rates. Given the reciprocal relationship between teacher perceptions and student behavior (Downey & Pribesh, 2004), both factors can collectively contribute to disciplinary outcomes. ...
Studies persistently show disparities in exclusionary discipline across racial/ethnic groups in U.S. schools. Using administrative data from kindergarteners through fifth graders in Indiana, we examine the effects of student-teacher race/ethnicity matching on disciplinary outcomes. We find that Black students exhibit lower rates of suspension and expulsion when they study with Black teachers—driven mainly by fewer defiance and profanity offenses. By contrast, for Latinx and White students, having a teacher of the same race/ethnicity is not associated with suspension and expulsion. In light of the shortage of Black teachers in the teacher workforce, our findings underscore the vulnerability of Black students to exclusionary discipline in the early stages of schooling.
... In primary and secondary education in the US, the roots of this pedagogy can be seen in the work of Black scholar-educators Lisa Delpit (1988Delpit ( , 2006, Geneva Gay (2000Gay ( , 2002 and Gloria Ladson-Billings (1994, who distinctly operated from a critical theory paradigm, but also incorporated theory of care. These authors emphasized the importance of creating empowering, culturally relevant classrooms where diverse students are valued and supported. ...
... Gay (2000Gay ( , 2002 argued for the use of culturally relevant curriculum in pursuit of building up students and drawing out their strengths. Ladson-Billings (1994 envisioned a pedagogy that connects to students' lives, thereby engaging and enriching them in meaningful ways. Ladson-Billings (1995) also argued for holding high expectations and caring for the whole student. ...
... A few theories help us to understand why same race/ethnicity teachers can positively affect student development. Cultural congruence theory posits that teachers who know students' cultural backgrounds likely communicate more effectively with their students, and understanding students' home culture enables teachers to build stronger relationships with them (Delpit, 2006;Hollins, 1982;Howard, 2003;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990;Nieto & Boda, 2012). In addition, role model theory suggests that a teacher of the same race/ethnicity could promote students' motivation and engagement, in light of the fact that race/ethnicity is a salient social identity that consistently influences students' self-perception and that students likely see themselves in teachers who look like them (Egalite & Kisida, 2018;Stewart et al., 1989). ...
... The roles that teacher race/ethnicity play in student developmental trajectories can be especially important for Black students (Milner, 2006). For example, given that Black students likely experience cultural discontinuity between home and school, teachers who understand students' home culture at a deeper level may be in better positions of promoting student learning (Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990;Nieto & Boda, 2012). Moreover, since students from historically underserved populations may lack opportunities to interact with role model figures who look like them, Black teachers can function as role models (Milner, 2006), which can enhance the efforts, motivation, and achievement of Black students. ...
Existing research examines whether studying with teachers of the same race/ethnicity affects student achievement, but little is known about whether those effects vary by timing and frequency. We use 7 years of administrative data from third through eighth graders in Indiana to estimate the heterogenous links between same race/ethnicity teachers and achievement by school level (i.e., elementary vs. middle schools) and self-contained classroom (i.e., self-contained vs. departmentalized classrooms). We find that the positive links between same race/ethnicity teachers and improved achievement are stronger for elementary school students and students in self-contained classrooms, particularly for Black students. Our findings highlight the importance of timing and frequent exposure to same race/ethnicity teachers in academic trajectories.
... This growing literature base features qualitative snapshots that describe the beliefs and practices of BWEs who consistently bolster the learning and development of students before, during, and after de facto public school desegregation. These studies explicate the nature of teacher care among BWEs (Case, 1997;Cholewa, Amatea, West-Olatunji, & Wright, 2012), their political activism and agency (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 1999;Dixson, 2003), their pedagogical practices and beliefs (Hollins, 1982;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990;Ware, 2006), and their educational theorizing (Acosta, 2015b). Indeed, BWEs have made, and continue to make, significant contributions to student achievement and the field of education through their orchestration of a sophisticated pedagogy rooted in a struggle for justice and equity. ...
... Taken together, their ethics and race-conscious perspectives function as a theoretical framework through which they make sense of their professional role and responsibilities. More importantly, this framework provides the impetus for their instructional strategies and interactions with colleagues (Foster, 1993;Irvine, 2003;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990;Siddle-Walker, 2000). ...
Research has documented that effective Black educators ignite the torch and light the path toward effectively meeting the needs of all students, particularly African American. However, descriptions of “highly qualified” teachers often ignore the critical insights and practices that undergird the success of Black teachers, and one consequence of this pedagogical negligence has been the professional alienation of effective Black female educators. This article shares findings from a study with five community-nominated Black female teachers, and uses the theories of intersectionality and positionality, along with discourse analysis, to investigate the groups’ perceptions of their professional positionality. Findings reveal a distinctive narrative in which participants expressed being positioned in ways that reflect negative stereotypical images of Black women despite their effectiveness in promoting student success. Implications and recommendations for teacher effectiveness research, teacher preparation, and teacher quality policy are included.
... First, anti-racism education is rooted in critical theory. Drawing from the work of Ladson-Billings and Henry (1990) and Estrada and McLaren (1993), Dei (1996) pointed out that learning/teaching becomes culturally relevant when it allows students to draw from their home ethno-cultures in critically interrogating school knowledge. In an atmosphere of inquiry, critical educators assist students to delve into multiple, alternative, and -at times -oppositional forms of knowledge linked to various histories, experiences, and viewpoints (Dei, 1996). ...
In this paper, the author reflects on a personal experience he had while attempting to establish a Ramadan Music Accommodation to support four Muslim students who hoped to be exempted from their music lessons during the month preceding Eid-al-Fitr. While this paper outlines a context–and degree–of cultural responsiveness, it also details some of the challenges and concessions that can arise when one fails to foster robust inclusion. Following a reflective discussion that is organized into the four themes of curriculum, policy, dialogue, and inclusion, the author outlines a series of recommendations that can lead to richer culturally responsive pedagogy.
... This call specifically speaks to the need for culturally relevant pedagogy that accounts for the cultural background of students (Gay, 2000;Irvine, 1992;Ladson-Billings, 2014;Murrell, 2002) by taking into account their social, historical, political and economic needs and realities. Gay (2002) defines culturally responsive teaching as perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits empower them to critically examine educational content and processes and ask what role they have in creating a truly democratic and multicultural society (Christ & Sharma, 2018;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990). Many researchers affirm the need for pedagogy to enable students to take an active role in changing oppressive systems, institutions, and society as a whole (Banks, 1996;Durden, Escalante, & Blitch, 2015;Ginwright, 2004;Sleeter & McLaren, 1995). ...
This essay articulates the benefits of teacher diversity by illustrating six themes: a) leading for social justice through local and global civic engagement; b) developing an inclusive school culture; c) culturally relevant pedagogy; d) cultural translators and transformers; e) role models; and (f) benefits accrued by White students. The authors draw from evidence in supporting arguments surrounding the benefits accrued when teacher diversity reflects the demographics of students served and the role educational leaders can play in advancing efforts to recruit and retain a diverse faculty pool. They challenge readers to consider the benefits accrued when deliberate efforts to increase teacher diversity are made in light of advancing student academic success.
... The students should be able to ask for their role in a democratic and multicultural community in the classroom (Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990;Ladson-Billings, 2014) through a culturally relevant pedagogy of supporting and engaging them with funds of knowledge (Gay, 2002;Civil, 2016;Gallivan, 2017). However, the practice of culturally relevant mathematics in the classroom depends on the national curriculum policy, framework, curriculum, teacher preparation and training, assessment, and daily classroom activities. ...
The main purpose of this paper was to explore mathematics educators' perception of the cultural relevance of basic level mathematics in Nepal. The design of this study involved an interpretive qualitative approach by administering in-depth interviews with five purposively selected mathematics educators teaching at five higher education institutions in the Kathmandu valley. Each interview was audio-recorded and transcribed for coding and constructing themes. The major themes that emerged were teaching in a mother language, contextualized Ethnomathematics, and the local knowledge in the curriculum as a teaching approach. The findings of the study can be helpful to curriculum designers and teachers at the basic level of mathematics. The study also adds to the literature of cultural aspects of mathematics teaching and learning and curriculum design. Abstrak Tujuan utama dari artikel ini adalah untuk mengeksplorasi persepsi guru matematika tentang relevansi budaya terhadap matematika tingkat dasar di Nepal. Desain penelitian ini melibatkan pendekatan kualitatif interpretif dengan melakukan wawancara mendalam kepada lima guru matematika yang dipilih secara purposif yang mengajar di lima institusi pendidikan tinggi di lembah Kathmandu. Setiap wawancara direkam dan ditranskrip untuk pengkodean dan membangun tema. Tema utama yang muncul adalah pengajaran dalam bahasa ibu, etnomathematika yang dikontekstualisasikan, dan kearifan lokal dalam kurikulum sebagai pendekatan pengajaran. Temuan studi ini dapat membantu perancang kurikulum dan guru pada konten materi matematika tingkat dasar. Hasil penelitian ini juga menambahkan literatur tentang aspek budaya pada kegiatan belajar-mengajar matematika dan desain kurikulum.
... Consequently, Black teachers regularly enter the profession with a heightened awareness of the challenges facing communities of color (Godwin 2018;Hughes and Berry 2012;Tafari 2018). Successful Black teachers often leverage pedagogy and practice that potentially run counter to the culture of the schools in which they are employed (Ladson-Billings and Henry 1990). Such counter-pedagogy comes from emic understandings of how White middle class beliefs, norms, and values of schools frequently conflict with those of Black and Brown communities and individuals (e.g., Noguera 2009). ...
University-based teacher education programs struggle with recruitment and retention of Black teachers. While the enrollment of children of color in K-12 public schools has held steady for over a decade, Black teachers continue to represent only a small percentage of classroom teachers and leave the classroom at higher rates than their White counterparts. In this article, drawing from an in-depth interview sequence (Seidman in Interviewing as qualitative research: a guide for researchers in education and the social sciences, Teachers College Press, New York, 2013), we theorize one Black teacher’s racialized lived experience with colleagues and institutions to explore the factors that contributed to her early exit from the profession. With a Subject-Object Theory analytic framework (Kegan and Lahey, in: Lyons (ed) Handbook of reflection and reflective inquiry: mapping a way of knowing for professional reflective inquiry, Springer, Boston, 2010), our analysis underscores how a series of racially hostile encounters undermined her motivation and ability to enact change at the institutional level. Findings suggest that focusing primarily on consciousness and awareness raising in teacher education programs may fall short for Black educators.
... (주미경, 2009;Ascher, 1991;D'Ambrosio, 2010 (Howard, 2003;Ladson-Billings, 1994 (Bennett, 2007;Leonard, 2008 (Bishop, 1988;D'Ambrosio, 2010;Powell & Frankenstein, 1997 (Bennett, 2007;Gibson, 1976;Ladson-Billings & Henrry, 1990 (Fennema, 1980;Leonard, 2008;Sells, 1980 (Apple, 1992;D'Ambrosio, 2010;Gutstien, 2003;Nieto & Bode, 2008 (김수환, 1996;Ascher, 1991;D'Ambrosio, 1997;Zaslavsky, 1996) (Gay, 2000;Howard, 2003;Ladson-Billings, 1994 (Barton, 2004;Maher & Tetreault, 1994;Solar, 1995 (Leonard, 2008;Zaslavsky, 1996) 수학적 교구 및 구체물 언어적 자원이 부족한 학생들을 위해 시각화 또는 구체물 등을 활용 (Leonard, 2008) 수학적 대화 학생에 대한 높은 기대를 바탕으로 고등수준의 인지적 기능을 요구하는 과제 를 제시하여 수학적 담화, 논의, 토론을 진행 (Gutstein et al., 1997;Hufferd-Ackles et al., 2004;Leonard, 2008) 협동학습 경쟁적인 관계보다는 협력적인 관계 속에서의 평등한 참여를 유도하는 소집 단 협동학습, 전체 협동학습 활용 (Hufferd-Ackles et al., 2004;Leonard, 2008) 수학적 신체활동 모든 학생이 중요한 역할을 담당해야 하는 체험, 실험, 조사, 게임 등을 활용 (김수환, 1996;Leonard, 2008;Zaslavsky, 1996) 다. 개혁성 원리에 따른 다문화수학 교수-학습 방법 ...
... The educational potential of teachers from diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds to construct linkages between learning and pupils is witnessed by a vast amount of empirical research. To introduce culturally relevant teaching and to establish cultural harmony between the experience of pupils' families and the school represents another approach employed particularly by Black American teachers (Henry, 1994;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1991). Pupils can gain a direct benefit when they have a teacher with the same ethnic origins as themselves, and indirectly when they attend schools where teachers from ethnic minorities are proportionally represented (Villegas & Irvine, 2010). ...
Research has drawn attention to a certain gap between the increasing ethno-cultural diversity of school enrolment and the relative ethno-cultural homogeneity of the teaching body. In French-speaking Switzerland very little attention has been paid to this matter. The purpose of this article is to analyse the potential added value associated with teachers coming from diverse backgrounds. Ten teachers from heterogeneous backgrounds were questioned about how they see themselves as role models among the pupils and in society. The findings indicate that they have assumed additional competences arising from their experience of migration, while others question the legitimacy of those experiences.
... We find this fact embarrassing and we rush to deny its relevance, or we excuse our exclusionist practices by reminding ourselves, incessantly, "at least we are not like the Americans." -George Elliott Clarke (2000) "Blurring the Borders" (Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990) explored the culturally relevant practice of Black teachers in Canada and the United States. From a diasporic and cross-cultural perspective, this journal article was significant. ...
Background/Context
Ladson-Billings's concept of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for African American children has been widely reinterpreted in various contexts for racialized students. In this reflective essay, I consider its challenges in Canadian contexts.
Focus
I use my early ethnographic work to illustrate important aspects of culturally relevant pedagogies, to raise cross-cultural differences, and as a springboard to engage with newer theorizations.
Research Design
These studies took place in a majority Black K–5 school; in addition, I conducted two studies in Illinois. I argue that the goals of culturally relevant education for Black students within the formal mechanisms of Canadian schooling are impeded by the official policy of multiculturalism that frames the Canadian imaginary and does not include Black people.
Conclusions/Recommendations
In the quest for pedagogies relevant to students’ lives, I call for fuller conceptualizations of Blackness that complicate notions of culture, transnational relationships, and global migrations. Lastly, I call for teachers to embrace the nexus of issues that students negotiate in their daily lives as part of any potentially transformative pedagogy.
... bell hooks proposes mind-body-spirit through a liberatory education lens that challenges the compartmentalization of our bodies through oppressive schooling (hooks 2014). Pedagogical practices whether classrooms, homes, and communities should promote critical consciousness, so that thought is transformed to recognize oppression but also move towards liberation of the mind-body-spirit (Freire 1970;Akom 2009;Ladson-Billings and Henry 1990). Through "practicing freedom" we humanize the mind-body-spirit where we acknowledge the interconnectedness of our thought, feelings, being, becoming, and knowing (Freire 1976). ...
This chapter investigates how urban education reproduces oppressive colonial legacies and how the Latina body experiences the schooling process. We especially retrace the ideological, methodological, and dialectic footing of the (mis)education of Latinas – a purposeful project rooted in racist heteronormative patriarchy ideology. Using an intersectional framework to provide a multidimensional analysis, we recognize Latinas as active agents of their educational experiences. We read the Latina body through a mind-body-spirit lens to unpack the embodiment of urban Latina schooling. We investigate how educational “crisis” scholarship primes Latinas as objects, barriers, and adversaries to Latinx educational achievement and how her sexed-gendered-sexualized identity is misrepresented by these scholarly discourses. We also deconstruct the ideological footings of urban education systems and practices to expose an investment in the subjugation of Latinas through an onslaught of binarist dichotomies, particularly gender and sexuality. We end this chapter with a proposal of intersectionality as a social justice project rooted in resistance, transformative pedagogies, the disruption of binaries, and towards a revolution in thought, practice, and theory.
... They also have strong attachments to the Black community and deep understandings of their own racial, political, and cultural identities (Foster, 1994;Ladson-Billings, 1991a, 1991bMilner, 2006;Murrell, 1999). Academically, Black teachers hold high expectations for Black students (Beady & Hansell, 1981;Irvine, 2003) and link their students' lived racial and cultural experiences to classroom content (Foster, 1994;Henry, 1998;Ladson-Billings, 1991a, 1991bLadson-Billings & Henry, 1990;Milner, 2006). The classrooms of Black educators featured as an important political space in the Black struggle for freedom (Anderson, 1988). ...
This article examines the teaching philosophies of Black male teachers of Black male students in manhood development classes in a district-wide program in Oakland, California. Drawing on observations and instructor interview data, we explore the teachers’ histories, teaching philosophies, and the trajectory of their racial-educational understandings. We utilize Gramsci's (197115.
Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci: Hoare, Q. & Smith, G. N. (Eds.). (Hoare, Q. & Smith, G. N., trans.) New York, NY: International. View all references) theory of the organic intellectual, Mills’ (199733.
Mills, C. W. (1997). The racial contract. Cornell, NY: Cornell University Press.View all references) and Leonardo's (201328.
Leonardo, Z. (2013). The story of schooling: Critical race theory and the educational racial contract. Discourse: Studies in the cultural politics of education, 34, 599–610. doi: 10.1080/01596306.2013.822624View all references) theories of the subperson and substudent, and Dumas’ (20149.
Dumas, M. J. (2014). “Losing an arm”: Schooling as a site of Black suffering. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 17(1), 1–29. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2013.850412 View all references) notion of Black suffering to theorize the ways that race comes into play in the teaching of African American male students. We find that racialization and re-humanization are key to instructors’ teaching, and we identify two key aspects of their teaching philosophies: (1) Humanization/Love and (2) Reciprocity.
... In recent work Mutegi (2011, in review) argues that the histories of colonialism and enslavement have uniquely positioned African American students; and that science curricula should grow out of and address that sociocultural experience. Ladson-Billings' (1995;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990) scholarship on culturally relevant pedagogy add credence to this perspective. In her foundational work on the practices of exemplary teachers of African American students, Ladson-Billings (1994) identifies a range of practices that she characterizes as "culturally relevant." ...
Although there is a significant body of work that underscores the importance of pedagogy aimed at being responsive to students' unique racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, there is relatively little work that helps science practitioners to understand what this pedagogy looks like in practice. Drawing on Mutegi's (2011) description of socially transformative mathematics and science curriculum and Ladson-Billings' (1995) framing of culturally responsive pedagogy, this article describes a four-week summer science camp for African American adolescent males. The article employs the methodological approach of Critical Race Theory in order to illustrate for the reader what socially transformative and culturally relevant science instruction might look like in practice.
... Instead, this Black humanist agenda prioritizes the vision, values, knowledge, experiences, and concerns that together comprise a more complete culture-systemic conception of being (King, 2005;Tuck, 2009). Each research meeting with the educators was framed against this philosophical backdrop and converged to form a powerful, emancipatory pedagogy (King, 1991a;Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990). Emancipatory pedagogy uses cultural knowledge to formulate interpretations of African American experiences and generate relevant learning experiences for students. ...
This article presents findings from a qualitative, collaborative inquiry with community-nominated effective Black educators to argue that teacher educators must better understand the culture-systemic influences on effective pedagogy for African American children. Teacher educators must also convert these understandings into comprehensive designations of teacher quality. Framed around an emancipatory theoretical perspective, the findings of this study discuss teacher quality from a culture-centered standpoint and illuminate the importance of why good teachers of African American children employ the instructional approaches and practices they do. Findings make explicit connections between participants’ consciousness, or ways of thinking and being; and their instructional practices. Implications for teacher education are included.
... The kind of multiculturalism that will construct viable social understanding and civic efficacy for the twenty-first century is inclusionary (Baber, 1993), emancipatory (Crichlow et al ., 1990 ;McCarthy 1990), liberatory (Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990), critical , and transformative (Banks, 1994) . This kind of multiculturalism demands that we engage in additional ways of knowing, thinking, and being, including transformation of the western canon . ...
As changing demographics alter the ethnic make-up of the United States, social studies, in partnership with multicultural education, can play an important role in constructing new conceptions of this expanded, multicultural community. These new and challenging times pose key questions to social studies educators: Can we have unity without uniformity? When we talk about a government of, by, and for the people, to whom are we referring? What civic competencies should our students acquire to fulfill Barber's concept of an artistocracy of everyone? The degree to which the expanding community is able to facilitate unity and diversity among us culturally pluralistic members is one indication of success or failure.
... The kind of multiculturalism that will construct viable social understanding and civic efficacy for the twenty-first century is inclusionary (Baber, 1993), emancipatory (Crichlow et al ., 1990 ;McCarthy 1990), liberatory (Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990), critical , and transformative (Banks, 1994) . This kind of multiculturalism demands that we engage in additional ways of knowing, thinking, and being, including transformation of the western canon . ...
In this article the author examines the construction of civic competency in a multicultural society as a factor in explaining why people of color should act as catalysts for community building. First, ways of knowing in a multicultural society are described, and then the following questions are addressed: What is the nature of social studies education and citizenship efficacy in the twenty-first century? What is the role of multiculturalism in constructing social understanding and civic efficacy? Why do scholars and activists of color need to assume a leadership role in constructing civic competency in a multicultural society? The central issue in this article is not an advocacy of exclusivity, but an explanation of the particular leadership role demanded of scholars from microcultures of color to give authentic voice to those microcultures in the expanded community.
... On the basis of an analysis of the knowledge and practice of successful teachers of African American students, Ladson-Billings advances a theory of culturally relevant teaching (1995). According to Ladson-Billings and Henry (1990), culturally relevant teaching uses the students' culture to empower students to be able to critically examine educational content and process and ask what role they have in creating a truly democratic and multicultural society. It uses students' culture to help students create meaning and understand the world. ...
This article examines mathematics instruction and its intersection with culturally relevant teaching in an elementary/middle school in a Mexican American community. The findings are based on a collaborative-research and school-change project involving university researchers, teachers, and the school's principal. On the basis of ethnographic data and an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, we propose a three-part model of culturally relevant mathematics instruction. The 3 components are (a) building on students' informal mathematical knowledge and building on students' cultural and experiential knowledge, (b) developing tools of critical mathematical thinking and critical thinking about knowledge in general, and (c) orientations to students' culture and experience. I was 15 (when I came to the U.S.) The first thing I learned was that I was different. Even with my Latino peers. There are levels of being Mexican. I didn't know how bad it was to be who I was. There were so many pressures from name calling, insults in the street, said aloud because I was so Mexican … I had a lot of anger. It was this anger, and anger at the experiences of my brother in school. We all did not do as well because of the school experiences. That made me want to be a teacher. —Ms. Salinas, a sixth-grade teacher in the school In this article, we hope to contribute to a theory of culturally relevant teaching (Ladson-Billings, 1995) of mathematics in a Mexican immigrant community. Our analysis is based on the ideas and practices of five teachers. The teachers are par- ticipating in a school-change project in a public school located in a low-income Mexican American community in a large midwestern U.S. city. The purpose of the project is to help teachers use what they know about their students' culture to improve stu- dents' learning of mathematics, and of other subjects as well, and to help students develop critical approaches to knowledge and the tools they will need to be agents
... "Culturally-relevant teaching" (Ladson-Billings & Henry, 1990) allows students to use their home culture as a basis from which to interrogate "school knowledge" (p. 82). ...
Developing an "inclusive curriculum" that highlights Afrocentric knowledge will be a difficult task in Canadian schools. Nevertheless, the educational stories and experiences of Black/African-Canadian high school students demonstrate the need for a very different approach to both curricular offerings and pedagogic practices. Afrocentric knowledge not only is important for the intellectual and social growth of such students, but plays a part in the multi-centric education of all students. A curriculum which is inclusive in this broad sense will entail transformation of educational structures in Canada.
The endeavors aimed at enhancing diversity within the K–16 educator workforce have regrettably overlooked the multifaceted demands imposed upon Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) educators, as well as the intrinsic value they bring to both their students and the institutions they serve. Within this scholarly undertaking, the authors commence by interweaving the critical issues of educator recruitment, retention, and the pivotal role of transformative leadership. They utilize the Benefits Accrued from BIPOC Educators as a guide to exploring and researching the student perception of contributions made by BIPOC educators. Finally, by synergistically uniting the Benefits Accrued from BIPOC Educators with the transformative leadership paradigm, the authors offer well-informed recommendations for human resource leadership, affording them guidance to foster an equitable and efficacious support system that strengthens the diversification of the educator workforce.
The continued underrepresentation of Black students in science education in Ontario has highlighted issues of social justice within the province, and the ways in which this impacts minoritized groups, curriculum design, and teacher education. Critics of a post-colonial education system that reinforces existing biases against certain groups have pointed to culturally relevant and culturally responsive pedagogies for enhanced student success. The lack of attention to Black history, experiences, and perspectives in science has resulted in the needs of Black student populations being underserved. This small-scale qualitative study examines the self-reported pedagogies of three purposefully selected, successful science teachers, effectively utilizing culturally relevant and responsive pedagogies to improve Black student engagement and achievement in Ontario classrooms. Responses from participants recorded via Zoom using in-depth semi-structured interview protocols, along with additional notes taken in informal conversations, were inductively and deductively analysed. Three major themes emerged: successful teachers of Black students practice inclusion by incorporating Black references and experiences in classroom teachings, actively work to build empowering relationships with students and their caregivers, and are life-long learners, motivated and committed to supporting the academic, social, and cultural needs of their students. In addition, our findings suggest that science teachers, regardless of race, can promote Black student success through being critically reflexive practitioners and adopting culturally responsive strategies. As a result, these success stories can inform broader school administration policy regarding diverse student populations, and improve science teacher preparation and education programmes in Ontario and beyond.
Research at the intersection of race, dance, and education is often discussed descriptively or as a cultural intervention, one tracked by what is physically seen (identity of students) rather than how it operates unseen (such as how race operates on students in the classroom). I contribute empirically to the sociocultural frames of the current race literature within the dance classroom. By framing the experience of teaching under historic, racialized logics of curriculum and the “marked body,” I use critical phenomenology to analyze the ways race plays out in perception, emotion, and the relationship between teacher and student. I suggest that hidden curriculums of dance classrooms that are veiled, marked narratives of the student, must be acknowledged to fully expand the potential of culturally relevant classroom interactions. This study offers suggestions for supporting teachers in anti-racist teaching and has implications for professional development for dance educational spaces.
The purpose of this article is to examine culturally relevant teaching as a political pedagogy and a contemporary manifestation of what was considered “good” teaching in many African American communities served by black segregated schools. Through examining several ethnographies and autobiographical accounts of segregated schools that were valued by black students and families, I assert that the “good” of these institutions hinged not simply on the cultural similarities between teachers and students, but more importantly on the “political clarity” of the teachers. That is, these educators recognized the existence of oppression in their students’ lives and sought to use their personal, professional, and social power to encourage children to understand and undermine their subordination. I also contend that because they use their knowledge of society's inequities and their influence to empower their marginalized students, the pedagogy of contemporary culturally relevant teachers might be more accurately called “politically relevant teaching.” I conclude the article by discussing how recognizing the political and historical dimensions of culturally relevant teaching may broaden its application, as issues of racism and social injustice are relevant to all Americans and not only to people of color.
Black men have remained largely absent from the educational discourse on teachers and teaching. Even more important, their perspectives have not been fully considered in the debates over what constitutes culturally relevant classroom practice. In this article, portraits of the teaching lives of three Black men who worked as full-time teachers in urban schools in California are drawn. The portraits outline the teachers’ entree into teaching, their views on pedagogy, and their culturally and racially sensitive pedagogical practice.
Calls to transform the initial Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) standards to reflect social justice have garnered little attention. Recent events have magnified the racial injustices inflicted upon Black people in America and their ability to participate as full equals in a society influenced and characterized by white supremacy. Using critical race theory (CRT) as a framework, the authors examine the racial formulation of the historical and current installations of SHAPE America’s initial PETE standards. Illustrated is the influence of white supremacy in PETE programs, the relationship to physical literacy, and the impact on Black students. After analysis, the authors integrate culturally relevant frameworks, and provide a blueprint of socially just PETE standards that challenge structural racism, and diversity initiatives promoted by SHAPE America and in higher education. The authors conclude that infusing Black perspectives is essential to the advancement of inclusive social justice standards in PETE.
Emerging research shows that the number of young people experiencing trauma is alarmingly high and continuously increasing. In the midst of such pervasive trauma, teachers generally—and particularly in urban schools—must be equipped with a language and paradigm that prepares them to intervene in the traumatic stressors impacting the lives of students. Recent educational and trauma—informed scholarship suggest that in order for young people to heal from trauma and develop higher levels of resiliency, they must be around loving adults. By drawing from research that spans the fields of public health, psychiatry, psychotherapy, and education, as well as literature about love, critical pedagogy, and culturally sustaining pedagogies, I theorize and illustrate how Compa Love is a framework that enables us to practice love as an intervention to trauma within the context of urban classrooms.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how, and to what degree, culturally responsive field experiences influence the knowledge, beliefs, perspectives and abilities of teacher candidates in an educator preparation program (EPP).
Design/methodology/approach
Researchers conducted a mixed methods study using a pre-/post-Likert scale survey regarding pre-service teacher beliefs, reflections, Professional Learning Communities (PLC) meetings and observations by the researchers.
Findings
Teacher candidates expressed greater confidence in their ability to perform culturally responsive tasks by the end of their first field experience, but also indicated ambivalence toward the importance of those tasks.
Research limitations/implications
The paper’s limitations include the small number of participants, the short timeframe of the study and it was year one implementation of a new model.
Practical implications
A community mapping experience called the Neighborhood Treasure Hunt (NTH), in conjunction with the other components of the educator preparation program, impacted teacher candidates’ understanding of culturally responsive teaching practices, their perception of their ability to perform them and the importance of culturally responsive teaching. Each program component is necessary to raise awareness and effect change.
Originality/value
Based on the research of Ladson-Billings (1994) and Author 1 (2007), the NTH was intentionally integrated into the field experience component. Author 1 (2007) was involved in this process adding integrity, authenticity and originality to the research study with teacher candidates in an EPP.
Community-based literacy learning spaces are crucial to the enduring African American pursuit of literacy. This article reports findings from a study exploring the impact of a community-based literacy tutoring program for African American readers in grades 3-5. Findings also report on ways the community literacy site was similar to historic African American figured communities. Mixed methods analysis revealed significant improvements in decoding, and counternarratives that existed with the figured community cultivated by community volunteers. Taken together, both highlight the powerful role communities’ can play in promoting African American student success. Recommendations for community organizations, teacher educators, and literacy researchers are included.
In interviews, urban African American students (Grades 1–8) were asked to compare the memorization of noncontroversial information with the learning and discussion of information designed to help students develop personal stances on controversial matters. Younger students did not clearly see one curriculum as more fair. Older students, more so than younger students, saw collaborative inquiry about controversial topics as fair and as likely to foster motivation. They also more strongly agreed that school should foster motivation and understanding, and they valued memorizing less than did younger students. That is, older students' views resembled the view of critics who argue that schools place undue emphasis on "fixed facts and skills to be acquired" (J. I. Goodlad, 1984, p. 209). Possible roles of student voice in curricula matters are noted.
The research highlights a growing ethno-cultural gap between the student body and the faculty. This issue has received little attention in practice and in research, especially in Switzerland. The aim of this contribution is to analyze the potential added value of teachers and pre-service teachers from diverse backgrounds. Seven teachers and three pre-service teachers from ethno-cultural diversity were interviewed about the significance of being a role model for students and society. Findings show that participants have explicit examples of how their migration experiences enrich role model characteristics, and at the same time those experiences lead others to question their legitimacy.
African American teachers in the United States have remained enmeshed within two intervening discourses. In one sense, African American teachers have consistently been part of the wider racial discourse of African American social change. Just as Black leaders, activists and ministers have played a vital role in the racial politics of African Americans in the United States, the Black teacher as well has remained linked to the racial imagination of African American equity and social justice. In another sense, Black teachers experiences have been framed by the wider racial politics in the United States. The contexts of race and schooling have helped to shape the discourse about the necessity for Black teachers in schools. Thus the contingent histories of race have made the Black teacher a proxy for wider ideological or racial interests.
Diversity is a fact of life in the United States, as evident in the student population served by the nation’s public schools. Already, students of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds account for a full one-third of elementary and secondary enrollments (National Center for Education Statistic [NCES], 1993), and it is projected that by the year 2000 nearly 40% of all school-aged youths will be of color (Hodgkinson, 1986).1 The composition of the teaching force, however, does not mirror the demographic profile of the student body. At present, racial and ethnic minorities account for approximately 13% of the teaching force (NCES, 1993). Unless active measures are taken to attract more people of color into teaching, their representation could drop to a meager 5% by the end of the century (Darling-Hammond, 1990; Smith, 1992). This striking discontinuity between the cultural backgrounds of teachers and their students has come to be seen by some as a matter with serious social and educational implications for the nation and its schools (Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, 1986; Hidalgo & Huling-Austin, 1993; Mercer & Mercer, 1986; Smith, 1989).
The limited presence of talented African Americans in the teaching profession has been and continues to be a serious problem confronting the education profession and the African-American community in the United States. This review summarizes what is known from the research literature. It explores the reasons that African-American teachers are important as well as overall demographic, entry, and retention trends and the distinctive factors that influence the limited presence of African-American teachers. Finally, a suggested research agenda is presented.
Background/Context
The current era of educational reform targets teacher education and aims to improve the performance of children who have traditionally underperformed and are underserved in public schools. Although educational policy has tried to address the ways in which “good teaching” contributes to improved student educational outcomes, research that examines such teaching must develop ways to make the tacit explicit. In doing so, the research and scholarship on teachers mask, ignore, and overlook the unique experiences of African American women teachers who bring a unique angle of vision to their work among historically underserved populations. The researchers argue that the pedagogy of Black women teachers provides much-needed insights that can inform the practices of all teachers.
Focus of Study
This article integrates findings from two separate studies on Black women teachers. It examines reasons underlying the professional entry of Black women into teaching and uses a Black feminist/womanist framework to examine how the nexus of race, gender, and class impacts Black women's decisions to enter teaching while also informing their teaching missions. The article is situated in novelist Alice Walker's metaphorical gardens to examine the intergenerational connections of Black women teachers to teaching.
Setting
Participants hailed from different geographic regions, including Southern California and the Midwest. All were teachers in urban districts serving primarily African American, Latino/Latina, and Asian American students.
Participants
The participants were 5 Black women teachers from two separate studies. All participants were elementary teachers: a novice; experienced veteran teachers; and a semiretired teacher. Three of the teachers were members of the same family, representing three generations of Black women teachers. The remaining two teachers live, teach, and attend the same church in a medium-sized midwestern city.
Research Design
The data for this article come from two separate qualitative studies on Black women teachers.
Data Collection and Analysis
Both studies used ethnographic interviews. Dixson interviewed two participating teachers, the teachers’ colleagues, principals, and parents of students. Dixson also conducted weekly classroom observations over 10 months. Dingus conducted two to three individual interviews with the participating family. She also conducted a group conversation with the family. Participants provided written reflections on their entry into teaching using metaphors of teaching. Dingus also collected documents including email correspondence, newsletters, and print articles featuring the participants.
Findings
Three convergent themes emerged that represent the teachers’ views of why Black women enter teaching. The first finding, that teaching is tending our mothers’ gardens, highlights the intergenerational encouragement of Black women, including mothers and community othermothers, as influential factors on their professional entry. Participants cited the teaching legacies of Black women in schools, families, and communities as inspirations to become teachers. The second finding, teaching as community work, highlights the ways in which the decision to enter teaching allowed them to remain connected to Black communities and students, function as cultural workers, and act as community othermothers. The third finding, that teaching is nurturing our mothers’ spiritual gardens, illuminates how participants connected their professional entry to a larger spiritual mission. Participants perceived their teaching as a moral, communal, and ethical endeavor incorporating humanistic pedagogical approaches.
Conclusions/Recommendations
The researchers argue that educational research, in keeping with a policy focus on quality instruction, must continue to examine the practices of Black women teachers, who have effective pedagogical practices with underserved populations. In doing so, we caution against operationalizing such pedagogical practices in ways that trivialize their teaching practices and render them invisible. Furthermore, we encourage researchers to examine how teacher education can make explicit the experiences, knowledge, wisdom and spiritual aspects of Black women's pedagogical practices. Research must also consider the ways in which Black women teachers draw on intergenerational networks in their teaching practices and how these relate to their conceptualizations of their roles as teachers.
By inviting educators from diverse backgrounds to participate in creative
conversations I had hoped to reflect on experiences that had helped construct our
theories of environmental education, and inform practice. I sought consistency
across the espoused ethics of co-participants, namely critical perspectives
grounded in environmental justice. However, this quest was interrupted by a
growing awareness of the interference of power dynamics between myself and the
other participants, and of my own commitment to respect the stories being told.
This narrative describes my “dance” of meaning making.
The community dance examining privilege, identity and meaning is a
study of how I may be contributing to the same oppressive situations I
passionately strive to work against. Concepts of knowledge, power, and identity
ebbed and flowed within stories drawn from the mountains of Tanzania to the hills
of Colombia, and from the frozen shores of Kirkland Lake to the trout filled
streams of Karman, Iran. Making meaning is itself an act of power and privilege,
so I danced to make room for multiple understandings of these stories, of
environmental education, and of research. This work offers an experience of
disruption that raises questions and broadens the inclusion of people, ideas and
other life into “accepted” research and pedagogical practices.
Conventions embedded within research and education were disrupted
throughout this reflexive process. As the author of this text, I was uncomfortable with the role of being the dominant voice, and consciously chose not to impose
my interpretation on the stories shared by co-participants. The struggle to resist
the very privilege in which my own education practice and this research process
are so deeply steeped revealed normative forces that often threaten to undermine
attempts by educators and researchers to act according to critical theories and
environmental justice ethics. To accept the invitation to dance with the text is to
step into the rhythmic intricacies of a collaborative process of reflexion. Circling
hand-in-hand and giving weight to fellow dancers’ movements shifts individuals
from being carriers of truths to being community members sharing in the
collaborative process of dancing the world into existence.
When children first start school, they encounter many new kinds of interaction. They have to learn to take turns in much larger groups than they experience in a family setting; they discover that some topics of discussion are more acceptable than others; they also find that their contributions are evaluated by teachers in ways which often differ markedly from those they have experienced at home. All children, then, are expected to adapt to the new circumstances which prescribe patterns of talk in school. However, the different behaviours and expectations which distinguish children in inter-ethnic classrooms ensure that some children experience far greater cultural discontinuity between home and school than others. This is an area which has been the focus for a growing body of research in recent years.
At seventeen per cent, Black students represent the second largest school age minority population in public schools in America, while Black teachers make up only six per cent of the nation's teachers. Research explored in this paper demonstrates why there is a discrepancy between the percentage of Black students and teachers and how racial mismatches between teachers and students have negative implications for Black students’ academic achievement and behavior evaluations. There is a specific focus in the paper on a lack of ‘cultural synchronicity’ between White teachers and their Black students and how this disconnect may affect the existence and persistence of the racial academic achievement gap on standardized national achievement tests. Recommendations for recruitment and instructional strategies are presented.
I examine the hypothesis that ethnocultural minority teachers bring to their pedagogy characteristics and experiences which create a positive learning environment. This environment contributes significantly to the academic success not only of students of colour but also of all other students. By tracking candidates of colour from pre-admission to a teacher education program through their first year as graduate teachers, I reveal their transgenerational commitment to role modelling and representation in their pedagogy. Nevertheless, the expectations and demands exerted on these young educators by students, parents, and colleagues resulted in unforeseen and potentially debilitating social, cultural, and psychological pressures. As a result, teacher education programs are challenged to prepare all practitioners for the complex pedagogical task of working equitably with diversity. /// L'auteur examine l'hypothèse selon laquelle les enseignants faisant partie de minorités ethnoculturelles apportent à leur pédagogie des caractérisques et des expériences qui créent un contexte favorable à l'apprentissage. Ce contexte contribue nettement à la réussite scolaire non seulement des élèves de couleur, mais aussi de tous les autres. En suivant l'évolution des candidats de couleur depuis leur préadmission à un programme de formation à l'enseignement jusqu'à leur première année comme enseignants diplômés, l'auteur a pu mettre en lumière, d'une génération à l'autre, leur souci du modelage et de la représentation dans leur pédagogie. Quoi qu'il en soit, les attentes et les demandes des élèves, des parents et des collègues de travail par rapport à ces jeunes enseignants créent des pressions sociales, culturelles et psychologiques imprévues et potentiellement débilitantes. Les responsables des programmes de formation à l'enseignement ont donc à relever le défi de préparer tous les intervenants à cette tâche pédagogique complexe qui consiste à travailler de façon équitable avec une clientèle diversifiée.
Utilizing a cultural ideology and an explicit discourse of spirituality, this paper seeks to answer three questions. First, what does spirituality mean for the ways in which African-American women educate and research? Second, how does the enactment and embodiment of a spiritually centered paradigm impact the learning of both teacher and student in the context of the classroom? Finally, what might such work imply in terms of theory and praxis, particularly in teacher education? Arising from a case study of an exemplar African-American female professor at a large Midwestern university, three narrative tales are shared which explicate the power and influence of a spiritual pedagogy in the lives of three African-American scholar/teachers and that challenge taken-for-granted assumptions of singularity in epistemology and representation in teaching and research.
Many researchers have emphasized the connection between teachers' thinking and their autobiography, noting that much of teachers' knowledge of teaching has been derived from their life experiences. Since teachers have spent many years watching teachers teach, those experiences become part of the process of learning to teach. This article examines the role of former or remembered teachers in the shaping of the beliefs and practices of eleven successful African-American teachers who teach in urban schools in a major metropolitan area. Both the remembered teachers and the teachers in this study used their pedagogy to enable their students to achieve in spite of circumstances that often militated against success.
A collective case study guided by reconceptualized critical theory explored the teaching of four elementary teachers as they incorporated a model of culturally relevant teaching into their mathematics instruction at four predominantly Black schools in Bermuda. The study examined how teachers sought to (a) foster critical mathematical thinking and critical consciousness, (b) build on informal mathematical and cultural knowledge; and (c) utilize empowerment orientations toward students' culture and experience. The teachers embraced culturally relevant teaching but varied in their efforts to incorporate these perspectives into instruction. Four facets of their teaching are illuminated. These complexities included situations were teaching focused on sustaining empowered relationships;building on or to students' cultural knowledge; and fostering critical thinking as framed in the model, or personal definitions.
The National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) and Science for all Americans (AAAS, 1989) explicitly state that all students regardless of their age, cultural or ethnic backgrounds, gender, abilities, aspirations, or interest in science should have access to equitable educational resources in science. These equitable resources also include access to efficacious teachers of all students. However, the Standards fail to explicate what practices, if any, lead to the development of these teachers. The primary purpose of this study was to identify teacher education practices that positively influenced preservice elementary teachers' self-efficacy beliefs about equitable science teaching and learning. More specifically, this research study explored the effects of community-based service-learning on the self-efficacy and pedagogical beliefs of preservice elementary teachers regarding equitable science teaching and learning.This study utilized a mixed-methods research design. Data were collected from 67 participants registered in three elementary science methods courses. One of the science methods courses had an embedded service-learning component. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used to analyze teacher beliefs, attitudes, and sources of self-efficacy. A quasi-experimental design was used to quantitatively measure changes in science teacher efficacy beliefs in regard to equitable science teaching and learning. Changes in participants' scores were analyzed using two 3 x 2 Factorial Repeated-Measures ANOVAs. The results of this study support the value of preservice teachers engaging in community-based service-learning experiences as a way to improve their self-efficacy beliefs and pedagogical beliefs regarding equitable science teaching and learning.
This ethnographic in nature study explores how two middle school science teachers who have classes populated by urban African Americans teach their students and how their students perceive their teaching. Since urban African American students continue to perform lower than desired on measures of science achievement, there is an urgent need to understand what pedagogical methodologies assist and hinder urban African American students in achieving higher levels of success in science. A pedagogical methodology that theorists posit assists subordinated school populations is culturally responsive pedagogy. Culturally responsive pedagogy is defined as a teaching methodology concerned with preparing students to question inequality, racism, and injustice. Teachers who use culturally responsive pedagogy respect the culture students bring to the class, and require that the teachers willingly do whatever is necessary to educate students (Nieto, 2000). The teacher participants were two female African Americans who were identified by their school supervisors as being highly effective with urban African American students. The researcher presented the teachers in separate case studies conducted over a data collection period of nine months. Data were collected by participant observation, interviews, and artifact collection. Data were analyzed by application of grounded theory techniques. Findings of the teachers' (and the students') beliefs about pedagogy that both assisted and hindered the students' performance in science were reported in a rich and nuanced storytelling manner based on multiple perspectives (teachers', students', and the researcher's). Pedagogical methodologies that the teachers used that assisted their students were the use of cultural metaphors and images in science and applications of motivational techniques that encouraged a nurturing relationship between the teacher and her students. Pedagogical methodologies that hindered students varied by teacher. Metaphorically, the teachers differed vividly. One was a nurturing mother, sister, and friend who assisted her students to cross the cultural line between the science classroom and their home and community. The other was a stern disciplinarian who painted a picture of order and hard work as keys for her students' success in school science. The researcher, who promotes a social justice ideology, made implications and recommendations for science teacher education and public policy.
By inviting educators from diverse backgrounds to participate in creative conversations, I had hoped to reflect on experiences that had helped construct our theories of environmental education, and inform practice. I sought consistency across the espoused ethics of co-participants, namely critical perspectives grounded in environmental justice. However, this quest was interrupted by a growing awareness of the interference of power dynamics between myself and the other participants, and of my own commitment to respect the stories being told. This narrative describes my "dance" of meaning making. The community dance examining privilege, identity and meaning is a study of how I may be contributing to the same oppressive situations I passionately strive to work against. Concepts of knowledge, power, and identity ebbed and flowed within stories drawn from the mountains of Tanzania to the hills of Colombia, and from the frozen shores of Kirkland Lake to the trout filled streams of Karman, Iran. Making meaning is itself an act of power and privilege, so I danced to make room for multiple understandings of these stories, of environmental education, and of research. This work offers an experience of disruption that raises questions and broadens the inclusion of people, ideas and other life into "accepted" research and pedagogical practices. Conventions embedded within research and education were disrupted throughout this reflexive process. As the author of this text, I was uncomfortable with the role of being the dominant voice, and consciously chose not to impose my interpretation on the stories shared by co-participants. The struggle to resist the very privilege in which my own education practice and this research process are so deeply steeped revealed normative forces that often threaten to undermine attempts by educators and researchers to act according to critical theories and environmental justice ethics. To accept the invitation to dance with the text is to step into the rhythmic intricacies of a collaborative process of reflexion. Circling hand-in-hand and giving weight to fellow dancers' movements shifts individuals from being carriers of truths to being community members sharing in the collaborative process of dancing the world into existence.
Critical pedagogy challenges the exclusionary practices of racism, sexism, ablism, and heterosexism in the dominant society. The exponents of critical pedagogy have rejected the traditional view of classroom instruction in favour of approaches that challenge the status quo. In this paper, by reviewing some of my teaching experiences as a woman of colour, I demonstrate that not all teachers teach pedagogy in the same way. Based on my observations, I argue that debates on critical pedagogy should include voices from outside the dominant social groups and ethnicities, be they teachers' or students' voices. Furthermore, the success of teaching for social change depends on our ability to incorporate these critical approaches in conventional courses and subject matters where, in my experience, not all students would welcome unconventional classroom relations. /// La pédagogie critique conteste les pratiques d'exclusion que sont, dans les groupes sociaux dominants, le racisme, le sexisme, l'hétérosexisme et la discrimination fondée sur les déficiences. Les chefs de file de la pédagogie critique rejettent l'enseignement traditionnel au profit d'approches qui mettent en question le statu quo. Dans cet article, l'auteure démontre, tout en analysant certaines de ses expériences pédagogiques en tant que Noire, que tous les enseignants n'enseignent pas la pédagogie de la même manière. Se fondant sur ses observations, l'auteure soutient que les débats sur la pédagogie critique devraient inclure des points de vue provenant d'ethnies ou de groupes sociaux non dominants, qu'il s'agisse des points de vue des enseignants ou des élèves. Le succès de la pédagogie eu égard aux changements sociaux dépend de notre aptitude à incorporer ces approches critiques dans les matières et les cours traditionnels où, d'après l'expérience de l'auteure, tous les élèves ne sont pas disposés à accueillir favorablement des méthodes d'enseignement non traditionnelles.
This article, based on a larger, autoethnographic qualitative research project, focuses on the first-hand experiences of 27 faculty of color teaching in predominantly White colleges and universities. The 27 faculty represented a variety of institutions, disciplines, academic titles, and ranks. They identified themselves as African American, American Indian, Asian, Asian American, Latina/o, Native Pacific Islander, and South African. This article reports on the predominant themes of the narratives shared by these faculty of color: teaching, mentoring, collegiality, identity, service, and racism. These themes, consonant with findings from the research literature, can be used to offer suggestions and recommendations for the recruitment and retention of faculty of color in higher education.
Many studies have shown that academic achievement is highly correlated with social class. Few, however, have attempted to explain exactly how the school helps to reinforce the class structure of the society. In this article Dr. Rist reports the results of an observational study of one class of ghetto children during their kindergarten, first- and second-grade years. He shows how the kindergarten teacher placed the children in reading groups which reflected the social class composition of the class, and how these groups persisted throughout the first several years of elementary school. The way in which the teacher behaved toward the different groups became an important influence on the children's achievement. Dr. Rist concludes by examining the relationship between the "caste" system of the classroom and the class system of the larger society.
The general objective of this volume is to present and discuss different modes of existence in women’s texts and feminist identity in political and poetic discourse on the one hand, and to analyze the factors which determine differing relationships between women and society, and which result in specific forms of identity on the other. The essays in this volume explore language, gender, mass media, sexuality, class and social change, women’s identity as Blacks and in the Third World as well as the nature of domination, feminine criticism and female creativity. The volume opens with a challenging question by the feminist poet Adrienne Rich, ‘Who is We?’
Too many American families unstable, broken, often poor are in serious peril, and both the reality of the situation and the myths obscuring that reality call for attention and swift action. In this most incisive analysis of the parlous state of the family today, Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, charts what is happening, exposes myths, and sets a bold agenda to strengthen families and protect children. In brilliant strokes and with abundant detail, Edelman describes family conditions over a generation the rising curve of teenage pregnancy, the overwhelming joblessness of young blacks, the trend toward single-parent households, the increase in hungry and neglected children.Dispelling common assumptions about these bleak phenomena, she shows that the birth rate for black unmarried women is stabilizing while that for unmarried whites continues to rise, that Aid to Dependent Children does not cause teenage pregnancy or births, and that the child poverty rate has increased two-thirds for whites in recent years, as opposed to one-sixth for black children. Overall, whites are losing ground faster than blacks. Speaking for a growing number of social commentators, she finds the key to explain the rising proportion of births to single black mothers: a lost generation of fathers young black males unable to marry and support a family, jobless from lack of education and training.What can be done? Edelman links the family and child poverty crisis to the fragile and ephemeral commitment of government to assist the needy. She suggests establishing a partnership between government, the private sector, and the black community to ensure children food, clothing, housing, medical care, and education. Preventive investment strategies providing health, nutrition, and child care, raising the minimum wage, preventing teenage pregnancies, and opening up educational and employment opportunities for heads of families will benefit us all. A passionate call to act now, to give real meaning to traditional American instincts for decency, this book is essential reading for everyone committed to preserving the nation's future."
Lee S. Shulman builds his foundation for teaching reform on an idea of teaching that emphasizes comprehension and reasoning, transformation and reflection. "This emphasis is justified," he writes, "by the resoluteness with which research and policy have so blatantly ignored those aspects of teaching in the past." To articulate and justify this conception, Shulman responds to four questions: What are the sources of the knowledge base for teaching? In what terms can these sources be conceptualized? What are the processes of pedagogical reasoning and action? and What are the implications for teaching policy and educational reform? The answers — informed by philosophy, psychology, and a growing body of casework based on young and experienced practitioners — go far beyond current reform assumptions and initiatives. The outcome for educational practitioners, scholars, and policymakers is a major redirection in how teaching is to be understood and teachers are to be trained and evaluated.
This article was selected for the November 1986 special issue on "Teachers, Teaching, and Teacher Education," but appears here because of the exigencies of publishing.
Black women have long occupied marginal positions in academic settings. I argue that many Black female intellectuals have made creative use of their marginality--their "outsider within" status--to produce Black feminist thought that reflects a special standpoint on self, family, and society. I describe and explore the sociological significance of three characteristic themes in such thought: (1) Black women's self-definition and self-valuation; (2) the interlocking nature of oppression; and (3) the importance of Afro-American women's culture. After considering how Black women might draw upon these key themes as outsiders within to generate a distinctive standpoint on existing sociological paradigms, I conclude by suggesting that other sociologists would also benefit by placing greater trust in the creative potential of their own personal and cultural biographies.
Four recommendations for research and educational policy to achieve culturally responsive education are made and discussed: (l) because children differ in sensory modality strength, and the learning of all children in bilingual-bicultural education schools may be depressed in overly verbal environments, all such schools should plan more multisensory instruction; (2) differences in field dependence-independence should be researched; (3) because classroom participation is an indicator of children's engagement and thereby of their learning, and also a valuable learning activity in itself in BBE programs, monitoring of that participation and subsequent planning for change where needed should become a part of formative evaluation procedures in all BBE schools. In a few communities, field research projects of a larger range should be supported, projects in which an ethnographer works with staff and community members on a specific diagnosis of incompatibilities between the interactional styles of community and school, and suggests directions for change and then helps to monitor the results; (4) all school systems should bring the invisible culture of the community into the school through parent participation, hiring and promotion of minority group personnel, and inservice training for the school staff. That inservice training should include both experiential and formal education components along the lines described in the Master Plan for San Francisco. (Author/CLK)
Minorities educated in urban school systems are unlikely to select themselves into teacher training programs. This article shows the direct connection among societal conditions, the quality of schooling offered minority children, and minority teacher recruitment. Suggestions for developing alternative certification and recruitment approaches are presented. Part-time teaching and job sharing may help. Includes 22 references. (MLH)
Marva Collins' teaching style includes positive reinforcement, high teacher expectation, high motivation, and love. Cultural congruence, or the relationship between curriculum and the pupil's cultural experiences outside the school, is also a significant factor. Although she uses a traditional curriculum, Ms. Collins' success lies in the integration of the family, peer group, and church with instruction. (JN)
Despite the dismal academic outlook for black students in urban schools, some teachers are capable of helping black students attain academic and cultural success. These teachers have notions of school success that transcend standardized tests. They engage in culturally relevant teaching ‐ in their conceptions of themselves and their students, in their classroom social relations, and in their conceptions of knowledge. Having successful teachers talk about and analyze their teaching may provide insight into the kinds of models that need to be developed in order to assist preservice teachers in meeting the challenge of teaching in urban settings.
This article describes how anthropological knowledge has been applied in the Kamehameha Elementary Education Program (KEEP), a multidisciplinary educational research and development effort to create a successful language arts program for underachieving Native Hawaiian children. Special attention is given to the process of translating anthropological knowledge into effective educational practice. Possible implications of the KEEP work for similar efforts are described.
Research has consistently documented that teacher expectations influence student outcomes. These expectations are communicated via specific classroom behaviors and practices that differ substantially for high- vs. low-expectation students. Expectations, to a large extent, are a part of a personal belief system influenced by prior experience with diverse students, teachers' role definition, knowledge of appropriate strategies and techniques, and support services available. In urban schools where there are large proportions of academically at-risk students, these factors interact to determine whether or not students receive instruction necessary to improve their low achievement levels.
- Collins P.
Teaching reading to Hawaiian children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution
- K Au
- C Jordan
African traditional education: A tool for intergenerational communication
- F Boateng
The heart of the race
- B Bryan
- S Dadzie
- S Scafe
December) Cultural responsiveness in teacher education: Strategies to prepare minority teachers for successful instruction of minority students
- J Irvine
Cultural differences in teaching styles in an Odawa school: A sociolinguistic approach
- G Mohatt
- F Erickson
Racial oppression in Canada
- B Bolaria
- P Li
Why America may go to hell
- M W Edelman
Urban teachers: Their new colleagues and curriculum
- C Grant
Developing discipline and positive self-images in Black children
- J Kunjufu
A tale of two teachers: Exemplars of successful pedagogy for Black students. Paper presented at the Tenth Anniversary Colloquium of the College Board
- G Ladson-Billings
Three women: Cultural rules and leadership roles in the Black community
- J Mitchell
The disappearing Black teacher
- L Whitaker
Cultural differences important in education of Black children
- G Gay
Toward Black American empowerment
- M Marable
White norms, Black deviation
- A Murray