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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Implications for Urban Classroomsby Dr. Andrea Brown Thirston

As the student population shifts from mostly White, middle-class students to mostly culturally diverse students from various economic backgrounds, teachers and administrators, as well as colleges of education at universities, must respond. We find an example of this shift in Chicago Public Schools (CPS): Approximately 90 percent of CPS students are non-White, while almost 50 percent of their teachers are. Furthermore, 85.6 percent of CPS students are low-income, while their teachers are mostly middle-class. What implications do these disparities have for the classroom?

The issue of cultural mismatch is certainly not a new one, particularly since the mandatory desegregation of schools in the 1950s and ’60s. However, just recently have universities and school districts begun to address the need for more teacher preparation in this area. One trend that has grown over the last decade is preparing teachers, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, to utilize culturally relevant pedagogy in the classroom.

Culturally relevant pedagogy refers to instruction that is modified to include specific knowledge about the culturally influenced and varied ways of thinking, believing, learning and communicating, and how they impact the educational process (King, 1994)1. The term was first coined by Gloria Ladson-Billings in her 1994 book, The Dream Keepers and referred specifically to strategies for effectively teaching African-American students. As America’s public schools become increasingly diverse, however, teachers of all students will find that culturally relevant pedagogy is an effective way to engage their diverse students in the classroom.

Culturally relevant pedagogy is particularly valuable to classroom teachers because it provides a theoretical framework as well as practical applications. Some of the tenets of culturally relevant practice include the following beliefs:

• Teachersareanintegralpartofthelearningcommunity.

• Teachingisanartandteachersthemselvesareartists.

• Teachingis“diggingknowledgeout”ofstudents(ratherthan pouring it in).

• Studentsshouldmakeconnectionsbetweentheircommunities, and national and global identities.

• Ateachershouldhaveaconnectednesswitheachstudentin the classroom.

• Teachersshouldviewknowledgeassomethingthatiscontinuously shared, recreated, and recycled.

Once a teacher commits to this theoretical framework, he or she must also make a commitment to applying it in the classroom. Examples would include reading literature that explores themes relevant to the students in the classroom. In one middle school classroom in a predominantly Latino community, students read a book, Tomas and the Library Lady 2, which focused on the son of migrant workers and his love for reading books. Not only did the book explore cultural themes that were familiar to the mostly first-generation immigrant students, it also included text in Spanish and English, which added to the authenticity of the literature. A high school biology course might include a unit on genealogy and the use of DNA in determining the ancestry of African-Americans. The film series, African American Lives3, hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., could be used as a supplement to this unit and perhaps inspire African-American youth to explore their own cultural backgrounds and family histories.

The possibilities are endless in terms of developing lesson plans and instructional strategies that are culturally relevant. The most important element for its implementation is essentially the teacher’s commitment and passion for providing educational equity and empowerment for culturally diverse students.

1 King, J.E. (1994). The purpose of schooling for African American children: Including cultural knowledge. In E. Hollins, J. King, and W. Hayman (eds). Teaching diverse populations: Formulating a knowledge base (pp25-26). Albany: State University of New York Press.

2 Mora, P. (2000). Tomas and the library lady. Albuquerque, NM: Dragonfly Books.

3 From the PBS Web site, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/index.html.

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35.8% African-American

47.3% Caucasian

13.2% Latino

3.1% Asian/Pacific Islander

0.6% Native American

48.6% African-American

37.6% Latino

8.1% Caucasian

3.2% Asian/Pacific Islander

2.4% Multi-Racial

0.1% Native American

2006-2007 Chicago Public School Teachers were...

2004-2005 Chicago Public School Students were...

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