Group leaders can use the facilitator's guide to enhance participant understanding of this tool.
The term culturally relevant pedagogy is used interchangeably with several terms like culturally responsive, culturally appropriate, culturally congruent and culturally compatible to describe effective pedagogy in culturally diverse classrooms. The purpose of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is the maximization of learning for racially and ethnically diverse students.
It is important to recognize, however, that all students—regardless of race or ethnicity—bring their culturally influenced cognition, behavior and dispositions with them to school. Thus the efficacy of CRP is not limited to students of color even though the term is most often used to describe effective teaching of racially and ethnically students.
This introduction to culturally relevant pedagogy addresses five questions:
- What is culturally relevant pedagogy?
- Why is culturally relevant pedagogy important?
- Does culturally relevant pedagogy have a theoretical base?
- Does culturally relevant pedagogy reinforce stereotypes about students of color because it categorizes and labels students based on their race and ethnicity?
- Does CRP address the national content standards in the various subject areas?
