Culturally responsive pedagogy: “using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2010, p. 31).
Culturally relevant pedagogy: “a pedagogy of opposition…committed to collective, not merely individual, empowerment” (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 160). Academic achievement occurs alongside the development of cultural competence and a critical consciousness.
Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP): “seeks to perpetuate and foster—to sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of schooling for positive social transformation” (Paris & Alim, 2017, p. 1).
CSP contextualizes culturally responsive/relevant pedagogies in the contemporary realities of education.
How is it anti-racist?
Allows for productive conversations about the exclusion of culturally or racially diverse content
Affirms that educational value can be derived from content outside of white dominant culture
Provides students opportunities to celebrate and grow their own understandings of their racial identity
De-centers Eurocentric or Western Classical art forms
Allows students and teachers to grow their critical racial consciousnesses
Demonstrates the relationship of music to racial and cultural identity
Practical/ Pedagogical Tools
Allow students to share their culture by bringing in cultural artifacts such as songs, art pieces, dances, rituals, poems, family heirlooms, or creative writing pieces.
Develop lesson plans around the musical styles with which students are most connected.
Initiate conversations about which musical genres are most represented in dominant culture.
De-center yourself as the teacher by giving students a platform for sharing or teaching about their culture.
Invite community members or cultural icons into the classroom as guest teachers.
Provide space for students to discuss what is challenging or affirming when learning about cultures other than their own.
Potential Challenges/ Missteps
Including culturally relevant content without critiques of dominant power structures: our students need to understand why their culture is or is not included in dominant institutions.
Using culturally relevant content as a means to an end: cultural competence is a necessary social good on its own, NOT a tool for eventually teaching meritocratic, white supremacist, or Eurocentric values.
Oversimplifying students’ culture: it is important to recognize that our students’ culture will differ from our own. Our goal should not be to re-package their culture from our perspective, but to provide opportunities for the students to share, sustain, and grow their knowledge of their culture.