Does culturally relevant pedagogy have a theoretical base?

Culturally relevant pedagogy is based on the theory that the learning process relies on social interaction and is related to students' cultural experiences. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), a Russian psychologist, argued that learning is socially mediated and occurs when students participate in culturally meaningful activities with the assistance of someone who is more competent than they are. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory acknowledges the importance of culture in the teaching and learning.

Cultural variables are powerful—yet often overlooked—factors that help to explain the school failure of diverse, non-mainstream children. Through socialization culture passes important survival strategies from one generation to another through offering a type of roadmap that serves as a "sense-making device that guides and shapes behavior" (Davis, 1984, p. 10). To learn more about features of culture and how everyone has a culture, use Features of Culture, an activity from the NEA CARE program. Culture includes forms such as rites, rituals, legends, myths, artifacts, symbols, language, ceremonies, and history. To learn more about culture, listen to Geneva Gay:

Culturally diverse students may have a distinctive set of values, beliefs and norms that is often incongruous with middle class cultural norms and behaviors of schools. When there is a cultural mismatch or cultural incompatibility between students and their school, certain negative outcomes might occur, such as miscommunication; confrontations among the student, the teacher, and the home; hostility; alienation; diminished self-esteem; and possibly school failure. For an activity exploring how different cultures value individualism and collectivism in school settings, see Mismatches in Cultural Expectations.

Wilma Longstreet (1978) identified five aspects of ethnicity that help describe how cultural differences are manifested in classrooms and how they influence teaching and learning. The five aspects are verbal communications, nonverbal communications, orientation modes, social values and intellectual modes. For example, in the area of verbal communications "language and culture are so inextricably intertwined that it is often difficult to consider one without the other" (Padron and Knight (1990, p.177). Not only are there obvious differences in ethnic students' pronunciation, vocabulary and phonology (rhythm, tempo, pitch) but differences in assumptions regarding what is spoken and left unspoken, whether one interrupts, defers to others, or asks a direct or indirect question. Gollnick and Chinn (1998) add that teachers need to understand how semantics, accents, dialect and discussion modes manifest themselves when communicating with diverse students. Jackie Jordan Irvine points out that the significance of culture is most often manifested in teachers' verbal and non-verbal communications:

Although an understanding and appreciation of culture is essential for culturally relevant teachers, UCLA professor Kris Gutierrez notes there are cautionary issues about overgeneralizations and stereotyping. She suggests the need to problematize the concept of culture in classrooms: