WHAT IS CRP?
Defining the What and Why of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.
WHAT IS CULTURALLY RELEVANT PEDAGOGY?
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (sometimes also known as Culturally Relevant Teaching), was first defined by Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) as: "A pedagogy that is specifically committed to the collective empowerment of students, that is held up student academic success, student cultural competence, and student critical consciousness” (p.160). Ladson-Billings (1995) has also said that culturally relevant pedagogy is constructed of three pillars: “students must experience academic success, students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence; and students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order” (p.160).
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is not only concerned with individual empowerment, but collective empowerment (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Geneva Gay (2000) states that the key to Culturally Relevant Teaching is: “teaching to and through’ students’ background cultures and experiences” (p.29).
Teachers need to understand that they will, at some point, need to teach students who are from a different background than themselves. The homogeneous teaching community will be coming into contact and mixing with the heterogeneous student community (Howard, 2003). Teachers need to be able to build a learning environment that acknowledges and appreciates students’ diverse cultures and backgrounds (Howard, 2003).
Click here to learn more about Gloria Ladson-Billings' Three Pillars of CRP!
WHY IS CULTURALLY RELEVANT PEDAGOGY IMPORTANT?
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is important because CRP is concerned with developing students’ cultural, democratic, social, and personal knowledge. CRP has to extend beyond academics, because schools are a microcosm that reflect the values of the society in which they are based (Gay, 2015). It challenges students to develop what Gay (2015) calls “multi-cultural competencies,” which means that students should be learning about other cultures and that they can learn from and share with one another. This is very different than historical American attitudes toward culture, which was assimilation and shunning of any culture that did not conform to American values. Gay (2015) also raises the curious point of how many cultures in America live in close proximity to one another, but don’t actually know much about each other. CRP exists to eliminate racial hierarchies (Howard, 2003), which is necessary if we wish to create a more equitable society. It is all about viewing out students’ cultural backgrounds as powerful assets, instead of detriments.
MULTICULTURALISM IN EDUCATION: A NATURAL COMPLIMENT TO CRP.
Multiculturalism is a term that spans different fields, and can mean many things to different professionals in those fields. In the realm of education, the definition that I have found to be the most holistic and encompassing, is the definition stated by Cherry A. Banks and James A. Banks (2001):
“An idea, an educational reform movement, and a process whose major goal is to change the structure of educational institutions so that male and female students, exceptional students, and students who are members of diverse racial, ethnic, language, and cultural groups will have an equal chance to achieve academically in school. (p. 1).”
Based on this definition, it is not hard to imagine how multiculturalism and culturally relevant pedagogy can provide an excellent compliment to one another. Both multiculturalism and culturally responsive pedagogy are both about empowering our students and using their backgrounds as powerful assets for our classrooms. To further explain multiculturalism in education, James A. Banks (1993) described five dimensions that make up multiculturalism in an education context: content integration, the knowledge construction process, an equity pedagogy, prejudice reduction, and an empowering school culture and social structure.
Each dimension, when implemented through a multicultural lense, and in combination with culturally relevant pedagogy, can help teachers and educators to create lessons, as well as a classroom environment, that fosters cultural development, reinforcement, and competence in their students.
CULTURALLY SUSTAINING PEDAGOGY: A MORE EQUITABLE TERM?
The term “culturally sustaining pedagogy” has also been suggested as an extension or partner of culturally relevant pedagogy, as proposed and supported by Django Paris in 2002. Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) takes a more active stance in the classroom and asks teachers how they can sustain cultures of students of colour, and not try and change or mold them into the dominant American culture (Paris & Alim, 2017). It is a complete rejection of the deficit-based perceptions unfairly ascribed to students of colour, whose cultures are seen as something to overcome, rather than something to be embraced (Paris, 2012). According to Paris and Alim (2017), CSP differs from CRP, because topics, aspects, etc. can be relevant, and not be sustained (p.88). CSP is focused on taking an active role in sustaining students’ culture(s). (Paris & Alim, 2017).
Paris (2012), (as cited by Paris & Alim, 2017) describes CRP as the groundwork for the act of CSP. CSP also has a strong emphasis on cultural pluralism and rejects assimilation and monolingual/monoculturalism (p.88). Also, Paris and Alim (2017) suggest that asset based education models, like culturally relevant pedagogy, view culture as static, while culturally sustaining pedagogy views culture as a blend of traditional and evolving concepts (p.91). It seeks to have a fluid view of race, culture, language, and meaning that these things are never static and are never “finished” evolving and changing (Paris & Alim, 2017).
Interestingly, CSP asks students to critique parts of their culture(s) that might be problematic, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. and perhaps shift those perceptions (Paris & Alim, 2017). This does make sense, as there is a strong focus on social justice and plurality of identity and culture in culturally sustaining pedagogy.