Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is a framework that rests on three notions: academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness (Escudero, 2019). To be a culturally relevant educator, you must acknowledge that all three notions work together and that it’s something that just can’t be added to instruction. Gloria Ladson-Billings is the voice of CRP, and I had to conduct further research to fully understand what CRP embodies. Thankfully, Barbara Escudero broke it down in an article on Teach for America. Barbara (2019) states that academic achievement rests on student learning and academic rigor while cultural competence is the knowledgebase of one’s culture and the culture of others, and lastly, sociopolitical consciousness deals with current events and individual empowerment to make change happen. CRP is a framework that encompasses a way of being and thinking that then changes to a way of doing.

            As I am looking at teaching opportunities at various school for next year, I can see how CRP is relevant. Each school has different demographics and values that I can adapt to. As a science teacher, I want to plan activities that not only challenge students cognitively, but also strengthen their inquiry skills. Not every student loves or even likes science so I need to find things that I can make science relatable, and culture is a good start. I always talk about how my parents are from the Philippines and I mentioned that again when I was teaching protein synthesis and its two steps: transcription and translation. I provided an analogy of a recipe that was my grandmother’s, but the recipe was in a Filipino language. I related transcription to me copying down her egg roll recipe as is which is in a Filipino language. I then related translation to me telling them the recipe in English. That analogy was relatable to students who had a non-American heritage and I had students sharing their family background afterwards. The act of me sharing information about myself builds rapport with my students and it also encourages them to share information with me so I can get to know them better. My lesson on protein synthesis is a good example of how rigor and culture can work side-by-side. As for sociopolitical consciousness, my students practice service and compassion to be the change in surrounding communities. As a school, service opportunities are always available to both students and teachers. Those types of opportunities allow students to help others and it also allows them to feel empowered. Students also have time to reflect on their actions.  

As I mentioned above, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is a way of thinking that helps us as educators get to know our students holistically. The biggest thing for me, especially for next school year, is to be aware of my classroom so that I can lay a solid foundation for my instruction to best help my students.

Reference

Escudero, Bárbara (2019). How to practice culturally relevant pedagogy. Retrieved from https://www.teachforamerica.org/stories/how-to-engage-culturally-relevant-pedagogy