overview
The purpose of Culturally Relevant Teaching is to make culture the central topic of discussion in children's classrooms. Furthermore, the purpose is to use these discussions to awaken a marxist sociopolitical consciousness (critical consciousness) in students by situating lessons in the context of cultural conflict.
student/teacher relationships
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is deeply influenced by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire’s Marxist education program required educators to enter into “critical dialogue” with their students to generate new, shared knowledge, unbounded from what he considered to be traditional and oppressive student-teacher relationships. From the perspective of a Culturally Relevant Teacher, traditional teaching methods program children into the current racist and sexist sociopolitical order. To combat this, Culturally Relevant Teachers must blur the boundaries of traditional teacher-student relationships. They see themselves less as teachers and more as students involved in conversation with other students.
"Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation. The content of that dialogue can and should vary in accordance with historical conditions and the level at which the oppressed perceive reality. But to substitute monologue, slogans, and communiques for dialogue is to attempt to liberate the oppressed with the instruments of domestication. Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects which must be saved from a burning building; it is to lead them into the populist pitfall and transform them into masses which can be manipulated." (Freire, 1970)
Under a Culturally Relevant Paradigm, teachers must “validate learner’s knowledge construction.” In other words, white supremacy culture influences each student’s culture, thus influencing how those students perceive and see themselves in the world. Operating under such assumptions, Culturally Relevant Teachers are to believe that whatever their students tell them is "the truth." All lived experiences must be validated. There no longer is such a thing as “right” or “wrong” answers, only conversations between students educating their teachers and teachers validating their students.
identity development
Developing one’s identity and critical consciousness is a cornerstone of Culturally Relevant Teaching. Educators must take up intersectional practice to understand which aspects of their identity benefits from or contributes to white supremacy culture and whiteness so they can understand their social position as it relates to their students.
To achieve this end, educators in culturally relevant schools often undergo mandatory training to “reconnect with their own backgrounds” and “lay the groundwork for students to reclaim their histories and voices.” These trainings are little more than marxist reeducation camps, where educators are coerced into buying Critical Race Theory’s intersectional framework so they can “meet their students where they are at.”
To achieve this end, educators in culturally relevant schools often undergo mandatory training to “reconnect with their own backgrounds” and “lay the groundwork for students to reclaim their histories and voices.” These trainings are little more than marxist reeducation camps, where educators are coerced into buying Critical Race Theory’s intersectional framework so they can “meet their students where they are at.”
"Critical race theory adds that cultural awareness does not and should not include colorblindness or race-neutral policies. Liberalism does not mean that teachers should be colorblind or race neutral because these two approaches ignore the centrality of race and racism within American society. Colorblindness would devalue the experiences and realities of students of color by denying that race preferences and racism exists. Instead, teachers need to be aware of the White power and privilege system in American education. When teachers acknowledge that the system is racist, they can move forward to not only avoid socially reproducing the racism, but also to rethink the system, recognize their actions in it, change them if need be, and embrace all cultures as equally important." (Brown-Jeffy, 2012)
equity and excellence
Culturally Relevant Teachers believe that all cultures produce truths that come into conflict with one another in the classroom. They argue that white supremacy culture is the dominant culture in schools, marginalizing all other “ways of being and knowing.” They believe whiteness is the set of specific cultural benchmarks that all students are compared to when determining academic achievement. These benchmarks include “aspects and assumptions of white culture in the United States”:
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To disrupt and dismantle whiteness in their schools, Culturally Relevant Teachers develop new metrics of academic achievement to equalize what they perceive to be structurally determined student outcomes.
"The focus will not be on cultural inclusions during a specific time of year (such as Black History Month), but interweaving the acknowledgement and inclusion of culture throughout the entire academic process. More explicitly, Whiteness should not be the only determinant of entry into high-level courses and programs because equity and excellence are not the exclusive ownership of Whites." (Brown-Jeffy, 2012)
Equity is both justification and vehicle by which curriculum and assessments are revamped to acknowledge “multiple forms of excellence.” The point is less to get every student to achieve at a high level in the current system and more to change the current system to reflect the assumptions of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Critical Race Theory.
developmental appropriateness
Culturally Relevant Teachers consider their teaching styles, their student’s learning styles, and “cultural variation in psychological needs” when entering the classroom. They believe that students from different cultures must be taught in unique ways because different cultures produce students with different motivations, morale, and levels of engagement — all of which are influenced by and in constant tension with white supremacy culture. Culturally Relevant Teachers care less about whether their lesson plans are age appropriate and more about how “diversity of culture” impacts when topics are addressed.
"Not only does developmental appropriateness focus on the implementation of activities designed to meet the cognitive, emotional, social and psychological needs of students, it also integrates teaching styles and student learning styles. In this arena, teachers should realize that the psychological needs of students may vary and that students do have different motivations to learn. The key is generating teaching styles that incorporate the vast differences in culturally-based learning styles and learning preferences of students." (Brown-Jeffy, 2012)
In determining what is and isn’t developmentally appropriate for their students, Culturally Relevant Teachers are called to manipulate their academic standards. White supremacy culture, it is argued, shapes how students develop. Culturally Relevant Teachers must acknowledge that their “culturally diverse” student’s reading, writing, and mathematics proficiency is hampered by structural racism that determines those student’s learning outcomes. To combat the cultural influence of white supremacy culture, Culturally Relevant Educators alter their assessments to test for the structurally determined views of the world that they believe their students have.
"Developmental appropriateness also means that teachers are cognizant of the dominant and sometimes racist, non-inclusive ideology that has been institutionalized and legalized in American education. Critical race theory forces teachers to critique liberalism and challenge the dominant ideology. This includes the development and use of diverse assessment opportunities which begins with high standards and expectations for all. CRP teachers have to advocate for and perform a paradigm shift in assessment." (Brown-Jeffy, 2012)
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© 2022 It's Not In Schools. All Rights Reserved.