1 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Timeline
1995
The teachers saw themselves as a part of the community and teaching as a way to give back to the community. They encouraged their students to do the same. They believed their work was artistry, not a technical task that could be accomplished in a recipe-like fashion.
-Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, “But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy”
Dr. Ladson-Billings research and publications throughout the 1990s define culturally relevant pedagogy and found our practices today. In culturally relevant teaching, three criteria are met:
- Students must experience academic success
- Students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence
- Students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order
2000
When academic knowledge and skills are situated within the lived experiences and frames of reference for students, they are more personally meaningful, have higher interest appeal, and are learned more easily and thoroughly.
-Dr. Geneva Gay, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice
In 2000, Dr. Gay expanded the work done in culturally relevant pedagogy and in doing so establishes our current terminology; her research proposes five essential components of culturally responsive teaching:
- Developing a culturally diverse knowledge base
- Designing culturally relevant curriculum
- Demonstrating cultural care and building a learning community
- Establishing cross-cultural communications
- Aligning instructional strategies with cultural contexts
2005
We extend this thinking, however, by advancing that low income African American students do not reject high academic achievement. Instead, among African American students, there is a rejection of mainstream cultural themes that many high-achieving students are expected and encouraged to use in the pursuit of such achievement.
-Boykin, et al., “Culture-Based Perceptions of Academic Achievement Among Low-Income Elementary Students”
Significant in the early 2000s was the shift from multiculturalist practices within culturally relevant and responsive pedagogies to asset-based approaches. At its heart, asset-based learning focuses on the strengths, skills, and resources that learners bring to the classroom rather than emphasizing what they are perceived to lack.
2015
Attention drives learning. Neuroscience reminds us that before we can be motivated to learn what is in front of us, we must pay attention to it.
-Dr. Zaretta L. Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
In 2015, the publication of Dr. Hammond’s brought the neuroscience of learning to culturally relevant pedagogy. Hammond’s work also engages with how our own culture impacts our teaching and affects our learning relationships.
2022
So much of their school day is caught up in policing their bodies—”sit here, keep your mouth closed, put your hands there”—that very little of it is really pushing them intellectually.
-Dr. Ladson-Billings, “What Should Culturally Relevant Teaching Look Like Today? Gloria Ladson-Billings Explains” (by Madeline Will)
In the linked article, some 30 years into her research and the field, Dr. Ladson-Billings reminds us that cultural engagement in teaching, learning, and personal development situates and enhances intellectual engagement.
