Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Primer

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 of 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 diverse students.

A culturally relevant pedagogy builds on the premise that “how people are expected to go about learning may differ across cultures. In order to maximize learning opportunities, teachers must gain knowledge of the cultures represented in their classrooms, then translate this knowledge into instructional practice” (Villegas, 1991, p.13). However, student achievement is not the only purpose of a culturally relevant pedagogy. Teachers must also assist students to change the society not simply to exist or survive in it.

Ladson-Billings (1995) outlines three criteria for culturally relevant pedagogy:
1. An ability to develop students academically. This means effectively helping students read, write, speak, compute, pose and solve higher order problems, and engage in peer review of problem solutions.
2. A willingness to nurture and support cultural competence in both home and school cultures. The key for teachers is to value and build on skills that students bring from the home culture.
3. The development of a sociopolitical or critical consciousness. Teachers help students recognize, critique, and change social inequities.

March to the Mailbox, a classroom example of how one culturally relevant teacher helped her students develop their writing skills, connect with their home and community, and critique social inequities in society.

Some of the culturally relevant instructional behaviors identified in the literature by Villegas and Lucas (2002) and Irvine and Armento (2000) include:

Involving students in the construction of knowledge,

Learn more about building on students’ interests and linguistic resources:

Learn more about tapping community and home resources:

Helping students examine the curriculum from multiple perspectives,

Learn more about using a variety of valid assessment practices that promote learning:

Using examples and analogies from students’ lives, to learn how to use a classroom activity that uses examples and analogies from students’ lives, read NEA’s C.A.R.E. publication, Know-Want-Learn Activity.

Instituting positive a classroom climate,

Developing positive relationships with parents and community,

Helping students find meaning and purpose in what is to be learned, read about reforms that helped Native American students connect with their school in "Learning Lakota"

Using interactive and constructivist teaching strategies,

Preparing students to effect changes in society,

Helping learners construct meaning by organizing, elaborating, and representing knowledge in their own way.

Educated Guesses, a classroom example of how one culturally relevant teacher taught her students higher level critical thinking skills by drawing on their interests and using the knowledge of their teachers and the cars they drove.

Using primary sources of data and manipulative materials, and

Aligning assessment with teaching through activities like teacher observations, student exhibitions, and portfolios.

John O’Flahavan, discusses a related topic about the validity and reliability of large, statewide testing programs. Such programs are often criticized for discouraging CRP: