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Ladson-Billings simplifies the definition of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy by writing the CRP is “the ability to link principles of learning with deep understanding of culture,” (p. 77). A simplified definition that carries a bulldozer size weight. Ladson-Billings article addresses where the ideal originated from along with identifying the three domains of CRP -- academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. Her article encourages future educators to avoid academic death. Academic death is re-producing education in urban schools that “leaves more young people unemployed, underemployed, and unemployable in our cities and neighborhoods, and vulnerable to the criminal justice system.” Ladson-Billings warns against academic success , calling it a vicious generation cycle. According to Ladson-Billings educators practicing CRP must “evolve to address the complexities of social inequalities.” My major take-away from the article is that Ladson-Billings also approached the issue with mis-using CRP. Ladson-Billings said educators will take CRP and use it as they fit. Educators using pedagogy and missing using the concept is an equation that will also lead to academic death. She was sure to mention that CRP is continuously evolving, stating “ For, if we ever get to a place of complete certainty and assurandness about out practice, we will stop growing if we stop growing we will die and more importantly, our students will wither and die in our persense.”

“Deficit approaches to teaching and learning… viewed the languages, literacies, and cultural ways of being of many students and communities of color as deficiencies to be overcome in learning the demanded and legitimized dominant language, literacy, and cultural ways of schooling.” -- Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris). Schools, especially in middle-America, carry a few eurocentric ideas of learning. The idea that one culture and way of thinking -- reading, writing, and responding -- is more dominant than another. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy discusses the deficit approaches found in the educational system, along with the importance of introducing and having a functioning multicultural and multilingual curriculum. The article automatically makes me think of the text, “Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” The main character focused to attend a new school that strips away his identity and replaces it with “proper” functionalities.  “From federal “Indian schools'' with their goal of stripping Native languages and cultures from Indigenous American students and communities…” (Paris. 93). The idea of a mono cultural and monolingual educational reform also leads to academic death in students. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy addresses methods to defusing the idealism and concepts that lead to academic death. The goal is not only for teachers to be more responsive but be aware of the patterns and methods that lead to deficit approaches.

Question to my peer: The concept of academic death is only present at the end, can schools districts, educators, administrators, and educational officials create a checklist or review method that would prevent or bring to light “death” before it takes it’s fill effect?

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Prompt/Tasks: 1) What are your take-aways from the articles? Please refer to both articles and please pose a discussion question or concern for your peers to reply to.            2)Please be sure to read other students' responses and respond to at least two other students.     

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Prompt/Tasks: 1) What are your take-aways from the articles? Please refer to both articles and please pose a discussion question or concern for your peers to reply to.            2)Please be sure to read other students' responses and respond to at least two other students.     

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“The newer concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy is built on the same foundational notion of students as subjects rather than objects. Given the relationship between the two frameworks, I enter this conversation not as a critic of what these scholars present but as an interlocutor. I hope to help those who subscribe to earlier visions of culturally relevant pedagogy make the transition to the remix: culturally sustaining pedagogy” (Ladson-Billings, pg.77). In this quote, Ladson-Billings explains that CSP is a rebooted version of the familiar CRP. CRP’s goals were for students to achieve academically, to demonstrate cultural competence (maintaining their own heritage and community practices while gaining access to dominant practices), while also understanding and critiquing the existing social order. Ladson-Billings explains that CSP takes it a step further. In addition to ensuring students maintain their own heritage and community practices while gaining access to dominant practices, culturally sustaining pedagogy engages with students’ youth culture practices as well, and understands that youth both creates culture as well as consumes it. Culturally relevant pedagogy sees BIPOC students’ heritage and community cultural practices as resources to honor and explore. Culturally sustaining pedagogy sees them as resources to honor, explore, as well as extend their knowledge on their cultures.(Paris, pg.94). Culturally relevant pedagogy incorporates the histories, life experiences, and views of diverse learners into the school curriculum and makes them an essential dimension of curriculum for academic success, not merely vehicles for explaining the dominant culture.

Discussion Question: How do you all feel about outside sources, (outside of your classroom) possibly causing erasure of culture, and how would you all think to combat this?

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What stood out most to me from both of these articles was the emphasis on constant reflection, growth, and change. I read the Ladson-Billings article first and had to pause for a moment when I got to this line: “For, if we ever get to a place of complete certainty and assuredness about our practice, we will stop growing. If we stop growing, we will die, and, more importantly, our students will wither and die in our presence.” In many ways, this year has forced me to engage in even more reflection than I normally do, which I am grateful for. However, as we prepare for a return to a new normal in the fall, I am very concerned that some of the positives that have come from distance learning will fall by the wayside. I want to ensure that I continue to reflect and adapt my teaching practice because that growth is essential to creating a culturally sustaining classroom. Both Ladson-Billings and Paris discuss the ever evolving nature of culture, particularly youth culture, so the purpose of reflecting on my teaching practice is not just to improve it but to make sure it adapts to sustain the cultures of my students as they adapt too.

One way that I have tried to grow as a teacher and be responsive to my students’ needs is through asking for regular feedback from my 8th graders this year. They have definitely shared some ideas that are helpful, but most of the time, their responses are just very nice (“I loved this lesson” or “ELA is always great”). This is nice to hear, but my concern is that I haven’t done enough to either develop my students’ “critical stance” or I haven’t created an environment where they feel comfortable being critical of me (Paris). Has anyone had success in getting their students to regularly critique their education and take more control of how they learn?

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A key takeaway from Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0 is Gloria Ladson-Billing’s consistent acknowledgement of where her original culturally relevant pedagogy framework once was and how it has evolved. Billings understands, and actually encourages, criticisms and additions from other scholars about her foundations in this pedagogy based on their research and experiences. Even though as teachers we are always striving to create the perfect plan and execute the ideal lesson, and at times we may even achieve our goals, we also understand the significance of reflection in that process. Asking the right questions, for example, “What could I have done better?” or “Are there populations I could’ve connected with more?”, is part of our learning paths as young educators. I particularly likes when Billings said, “Although the students depended on me to be the “expert,” I depended on them to lead me to consider new ways of understanding how popular culture can be deployed to engage in conversations about critical theoretical concepts such as hegemony, audit cultures, and neoliberalism as well as to develop new pedagogical strategies.” (Billings, 79). For the amount of time in a day that we teach, guide, and assist, we are still constantly learning from our students more than they think or will ever understand. They are the perfect guides to show us how we can improve education for every single student as we reach our goal of an equitable classroom.

The term suggested by Paris as an alternative for culturally relevant pedagogy is culturally sustaining pedagogy. “The term culturally sustaining requires that our pedagogies be more than responsive of or relevant to the cultural experiences and practices of young people - it requires that they support young people in sustaining the cultural and linguistic competence of their communities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competence.” (Paris-Alim, 95). Although Paris, in a sense, criticizes how the terms relevant or responsive translate in our classroom teachings, his arguments align with Ladson-Billings when he speaks about culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogies being a process and not just a few adjustments to one’s lesson plans.  It needs to be a consistent reflective and reactive routine in one’s practice to ensure we break free from the monocultural society based on White, middle-class norms of being.

In the article, Ladson-Billings discussed how the First Wave students gave her the opportunity to grow, change, and expand her framework as well as her teachings. Is there anything that  your students have taught you of which you continue to utilize in your teaching practices?

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Both articles explain the need for a shift in educational pedagogies in order to move away from the focus on traditionally white values, language, and culture.  Both authors recognize a need to move towards educational practices that not only include the languages, cultures, values, and voices of minorities, but go a step further and foster educational environments that promote growth both within ones own culture/ language/ values and that of the majority's.  Landson-Billings re-affirms a belief that I myself hold when it comes to being a teacher; "if we ever get to a place of complete certainty and assuredness, we stop growing."  As teachers we are life-long learners and must continue to adapt and grow alongside our students. When we fall into notions of "certainty", that "teacher knows all" mentality, that is when we begin to view students as empty cups to fill with our knowledge and not as humans with experiences and knowledge to pass on to us as well.  That is when educational practice becomes stale and stagnant as Paris explains.
One question that always lingered when reading about CRP and CSP is how do we implement these practices and goals in our classrooms without harming students standardized academic success and without harming our own careers? If Im being honest, not many principals and admin personnel who I have encountered allow for these types of pedagogies.

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Simone Swaby (Culturally Relevant Pedagogy vs Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy)

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Simone Swaby (Culturally Relevant Pedagogy vs Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy)

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My take away from Ladson-Billings article, “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” is that she was tired of hearing all the negative rhetoric about African American students, so instead, she began to focus on teachers who had successes with African American students in their classroom, and what they were doing right. To extend her research, she focused on major domains of their work like academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. She analyzed how important these aspects are to creating a positive learning environment for African American students, especially. Another thing that stood out to me was her remix framework when it comes to culturally relevant pedagogy. I take it she is trying to clarify any misconception around avoidance of new culture and only focusing on the initial aspect of the student’s culture such as their religion, food, music etc. As she pointed out, “remix means that there was an original version and that there may be more versions to come” (Ladson-Billings, 1995). As teachers, we should know that no culture is static, and it is for this reason we should be able to adapt, recycle and recreate instructional spaces for multicultural students. Researchers like Paris has critiqued the semantics of the term “relevant” and “responsive” in Billings work. He sees it as sidelining other marginalized communities. Seeing that we live in a multiethnic and multilingual society, Billings framework isolates other groups and leads to a more monolingual and monocultural ideology instead of inclusivity. As an English as a Second Language Teacher, I do see Paris’ point of view. Many of the frameworks and studies around cultural relevant pedagogy do center around African American culture and breaking barriers for African American students, which are all important, seeing that African American students and people in general are more marginalized than any other group. However, this neglect or assume that all “black” people share the same culture.

Question: How can we maintain a culturally responsive/sustaining classroom while including all cultures, and without feeling burnt out as a teacher?

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Culturally Sustaining and Culturally Responsive Pedagogies (Ladson-Billings; Paris)

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Culturally Sustaining and Culturally Responsive Pedagogies (Ladson-Billings; Paris)

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Going into the readings for this week, I opted to read Paris’ article before reading Gloria Ladson-Billings’ “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy 2.0” because I knew the former was informed by the latter’s earlier work, and the latter’s newer article would provide a new context to what I’d already read. Looking at Paris’ article, I saw the tradition lens through which we normally discuss CSP in academics: its positivity, empowerment, and validation for students of marginalized backgrounds. However, after recently completing a World Religions unit with my 10th graders, I’ve found myself questioning how this traditional approach to CSP really looks. When asked about their own background with religion in a socratic seminar, and many students indicated their indifference or separation from their families’ traditions, I started to think about how some community values can further isolate students who are grappling with other aspects of their identity, such as sexuality, gender, and culture. Paris even mentions early on that CSP was initially targeted towards political and feminist thinking.

When I started reading Ladson-Billings’ article, I found myself relieved because my concerns were validated. The approach we’re seeing is becoming a bit dated as students change, and the culture around them changes. Recognizing culturally sustaining pedagogy as a goal, rather than an activity, leads to its most effective use, validating students and empowering them to learn, think critically about their world and civically engaged with that world.

Why do you think that culturally sustaining pedagogy often falls into the “activity” role, as opposed to the framework role Ladson-Billings aimed for it to be?

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Ladson-Billings reinforced the reasons why we are teachers, but most importantly, interrupters.It was refreshing to read her growth and her criticism of a movement that she started. It is the same as being in the classroom. Whenever something becomes methodical, it loses its magic. “For, if we ever get to a place of complete certainty and assuredness about our practice, we will stop growing. If we stop growing, we will die, and, more importantly, our students will wither and die in our presence” (Ladson-Billings, 2014). In undergrad and now as a teacher, I have seen so many teachers give into the ideas that whatever is given to them is what they will do, so they do not experiment or explore other ideas. A short anecdote from the past week, one of my colleagues began planning a short sequence of lessons that were not part of our core curriculum. This colleague came to me and explained that they have lost their spark, that they could hardly come up with new ideas or different ways of approaching content. They explained that it had been a long time since they had the opportunity to move away from the curriculum and create. This is saddening, and it definitely spoke to the ideas Ladson-Billings presented on those “dead” teachers who may have the best intentions, but have been pulled into the undertow of the bureaucracy of education.

Ladson-Billings continues to push back against curricula that are informed by “literature that tells us what works for middle-class, advantaged students” and “typically fails to reveal the social and cultural advantages that make their success possible” (2014). This took me back to a session I had with a different professor where they talked about how the language of deficit continues to permeate the conversations regarding students of color or living in poverty. They used the phrase opportunity gap which made me think that it is indeed true, a lot of our students are learning in environments that are underserved or environments that have embodied a watered down version of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. As she explained, a lot of her work has become a very different version of what she proposed; some versions showing the growth, but some showing that lost magic. There is something even more dangerous which she calls “voyeuristic culture-vultures” who use culturally responsive material to continue to embed the same old hierarchies that got us here in the first place (2014). This concept also brought back memories from the High School students responses to what constitutes as “pandering” to them. Making me realize that I might’ve partaken in some of these practices and how I have to be mindful of how I present the material that I have selected to be more culturally sustaining.

In the future of this practice, we have Paris who is ready to bring practicality into this responsiveness by reimagining it as culturally sustaining.  Paris is not only arguing to incorporate the student cultures, but also the ever changing flow of these cultures into the classroom. Culture is not static, so our teaching should reflect the movements that constantly explicitly or implicitly affect our students. Paris states “it is crucial that we look to sustain African American, Latina/o, Asian American, Pacific Islander American, and Indigenous American languages and cultures in our pedagogies, we must be open to sustaining them in both the traditional and evolving” (Paris, 2012). I believe that her words speak for themselves. We must continue the work, and continue to grow with this work.

How will you incorporate these beliefs into your classroom? Think micro and macro, small actions can have the same impact on our students.

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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0" by Ladson-Billings
A major takeaway from this article is the fact that there's always room for improvement. Ladson-Billings sets the tone by leading an example as she improves her pedagogy with culturally relevant teaching. This is the most important takeaway because as teachers sometimes we become stagnant and stubborn not wanting to change our teaching methods and techniques because of comfortably. We forget that the students really suffer in a way we do as well because their learning is limited and we lose out on great experiences and teaching moments.

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies" by Paris
Towards the end of the article Paris states, “What is the purpose of schooling in a pluralistic society? It is brutally clear that current policies are not interested in sustaining the languages and cultures of longstanding and newcomer communities of color in the United States”. After reading this statement my ENL students came to mind. I thought of my own teaching practices and polices placed at the school. Do we really support them? Do we really have systems in place that sustain their languages and culture? I’m not sure. I think we try. But like both others show, we must do some introspection and assess ourselves because simply handing students a dictionary or telling them to use google translate isn’t enough.

Question for reflection: What’s keeping you stagnant? What are you too comfortable doing and are afraid to change? How can you challenge yourself and improve your teaching practices?

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I find that the theme of articles by both Ladson-Billings and Paris is found in the quote “For, if we ever get to a place of complete certainty and assuredness about our practice, we will stop growing”(Billings, 74). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies it seems is a commitment as an educator to continue learning and to continue to experience both growth and discomfort. Ladson-Billings proposes this decentering of the educator and recentering of the student in her initial Culturally Relevant Pedagogies, it is here that we see the switch between deficit and asset based pedagogies. Ladson Billings exposes the implicit biases predominately held by educators towards Blacks students, of which these biases were rooted in deficit mindsets. Her aim “to help scholars and practitioners learn from and not merely about African American students” illuminates the shift in teacher to student that said pedagogy is based on (Billings 76). Paris improves upon this notion of a responsive classroom by harkening to the commitment of growth that Ladson-Billings mentioned decades earlier. Sustaining pedagogies different from relevant pedagogies in that there is a commitment to the pluralistic identities and future growth of students. As stated the aim of CSP is “to per- petuate and foster - to sustain - linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling” (Paris, 95).

Discussion Question: Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogies seems to have taken hold and have support in responsive and sustainable climates such as New York. What is to be done about school districts and classrooms that are inherently built on monolithic identities and streams of thought?

(Specifically thinking about school districts in areas such as deep Long Island, that are in a sense predicated on white supremacy)

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First, I appreciate Billings celebrating people pushing her original theory and not being protective of her phrase culturally responsive teaching. A particular quote that felt like a punch to the chest is when she wrote, "If we stop growing, we will die, more importantly, our students will wither and die in our presence. Both teachers and students can be vulnerable to a sort of classroom death." You can take this statement figuratively or literally, and puts into focus what is at stake. Not committing to growing (including growing past CRP to CSP) is a life or death choice. I agree with a lot of what Paris states about CSP, but I wonder if a new phrase is needed instead of just adding to CRP. I say because progress in our schools moves at a glacial pace, and adding a new term when the first one isn't even being done correctly I think can lead to more resistance.

Q: What is the best way to get teachers to recognize when their is "death" in their classroom in a way that helps them bring back life?

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My immediate take away from both articles is that the moment we become complacent with how we engage with our student's various cultures and literacies--particularly the cultures  of those who have often been viewed from a "deficit" perspective-- that is when we need to push our pedagogical approaches even further. Culture and scholarship are both fluid, so we have a responsibility to our students to constantly be aware of our "dual responsibility" of teaching them the skills they need to survive in an academic culture that traditionally does not value their experiences, while also being careful to not only avoid diminishing their experiences, but allowing them the space to flourish in the classroom (Ladson-Billings 83). To me, the most critical component of CSP is developing our student's sociopolitical consciousness, which she defines as: "the ability to take learning beyond the confines of the classroom using school knowledge and skills to identify, analyze, and solve real-world problems" (75). Our students are becoming politically cognizant at younger ages than ever before, and it is in our best interests to give students the space to engage  with, explore, and develop their critical thinking skills in ways that impact their lives directly, because what use is critical thinking if our students never use it beyond the confines of our classrooms? The concept of the "third space" that Paris describes in his text is vital, and directly relates to Ladson-Billings' CSP. CSP is not about just "building a bridge" between the marginalized and the dominant cultures; it needs to be a bridge to a future place where both can coexist (Django 94).

Discussion question: Do you see any potential flaws or challenges within culturally sustaining and/or culturally relevant pedagogies? If so, what are the possible ways to mitigate or navigate through them?

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“Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0” (Billings) and “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy” (Paris)

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“Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0” (Billings) and “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy” (Paris)

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In “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0” Ladson- Billings discusses how culture is always changing due to evolving human activity, thought, and belief systems. Similarly, pedagogy and scholarship can be seen the same way—fluid (75). Ladson-Billings explains that her original CRP pedagogy needs to evolve based on the changing times and needs in our education system. She also discusses how educators are tasked with the responsibility of creating curricula and instruction that recognizes and centers students’ identities and culture as sources and resources of knowledge (79). In “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy,” Paris explains how educators must do more than just acknowledge and respond to students’ cultures and experiences. Educators must work on fostering and maintaining students’ cultural and linguistic skills and knowledge. Paris explains that CSP’s goal is to support multilingualism and multiculturalism while also “simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competences” (95). For so long, deficit perspectives have dominated education, which has resulted in solely pushing a monocultural and monolingual perspective in education based on Euro-centric, middle-class norms (95). Paris argues that through CSP, educators can prevent students’ culture and language erasure, yet also prepare them to thrive in a pluralistic society. Through CSP, students will be able to keep and strengthen their diverse language(s), literacies, and culture while also achieving success and empowerment.

Something that I wonder is how can we encourage the incorporation of students’ diverse languages and cultures in our curriculum and every day instruction during a time when administration and schools are worried about closing the “achievement gap.” I feel like right now schools are worried about learning loss and funding.

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CRP & CSP (Paris & Billings) Padlet
Paris's work on culturally sustaining pedagogy relates to many of Billings' recommendations to teachers. It sheds light on integrating multiple perspectives and providing liberation in the educational space creating a more relatable and meaningful experience for all students. Both authors' ultimate goal is to change the educational experience  to legitimize all people's histories and shift the "culture of power." Paris explains that  Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy seeks to "challenge deficit approaches that have echoed across the decades." These deficit approaches promote the hierarchy of language, culture, and human experience. Normalizing the white middle-class experience and demonizing the experiences of "the other  According to Paris, The dominant language, literacy, and cultural practices demanded by schools fell in line with white, middle-class norms and positioned languages and literacies that fell outside those norms as less- than and unworthy of a place in U.S schools and society" (Paris, 93). The only way to challenge the dominance of white middle-class norms is to embrace cultural pluralism and cultural equality. Teachers should have curriculums that reflect real-world situations relevant to young people's cultural experiences and practices. According to Billings, culture is constantly changing, and culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0, a.k.a the Remix, is intended to reflect this fluidity of culture language and education evolution. Echoing Paris, Billing argues that Culturally sustaining pedagogy embraces the pedological shift s required to move to a more understanding and validating experience for students.Stating that pedagogy much change, adapt and recycle and recreate instructional spaces "to ensure that consistently marginalized students are repositioned into a place of normativity - that is that they become subjects in the instructional process, not mere objects "(  Billings, 76).
In reference to Academic death ( teachers who stop trying to reach each and every student or teachers who succumb to the rules and regulations that are dehumanizing and result in deskilling, people becoming mere functions of a system that have no intent on preparing students - particularly students of color for meaningful work and participation in a democracy.My ultimate question is, how do we change our environments' culture when we do not have all people on board. Culturally sustaining pedagogy has become the go-to phrase when confronting teachers who are dying currently. How do we change administration views which ultimately get funding for students through standardized testing and the deficit views we are trying to dismantle?

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What strikes me about culturally sustaining pedagogy and both Paris, Alim, and Ladson-Billings is how all three scholars resist working within the the educational status quo.

Ladson-Billings contextualizes why she developed culturally relevant pedagogy as a framework and laments how culturally relevant pedagogy has been adopted into the educational system in a way that promotes “a static conception of what it means to be culturally relevant” and neglects the social and political lens of the work — which in turn perpetuates the educational status quo that does not serve students of color and students from other marginalized communities (77).

I have come to view culturally sustaining pedagogy as a process, rather than a disposition or an adjective. There is no one book, classroom routine, or classroom practice that can be labeled “culturally sustaining.” Paris and Alim assert this when they write: “We are not interested in offering pedagogical quick fixes or ‘best practices’ that teachers can drop into the same old tired curriculum that deadens the souls of vast numbers of children of color in US schools (Paris & Alim, 12).

In order to be a culturally sustaining teacher, I must invest time to co-create curriculum with my students and with our community. I must solicit constant feedback from students and reflect often on my practice. More than this, I must speak up when I see oppressive practices in my school community to avoid the “academic death” that Ladson-Billings describes (77).

To my peers: What oppressive practices in education would you like to see left behind in 2021? How can you / could you speak up to create change in your community?

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Paris presents very important points as he mentions the importance of pluralism. Something that struck me and made me reflect was the following “Such educational and cultural values of pluralism in linguistic and cultural practices have been supported by the Unites States in word - though rarely in deed when immigrant communities and communities of color are involved - since its founding” (Paris, 95). This made think that about the ways this country has supported multiculturalism and multilingualism, however, it has always been more about recognizing and appreciating European cultures and languages. This obviously is concerning because it puts emphasis on some specific cultures and languages over others, and it makes me wonder how beautiful it would be that if in those same efforts and resources were put into sustaining and celebrating the cultures and language of our students, how different the narrative would be about our students today and their learning. Nevertheless, I am optimistic in the sense that as educators we are witnessing a shift in the educational system. Just 3 years ago I was in a school where I was required to teach to the curriculum, this of course was a very Eurocentric curriculum approach to teaching our history, and despite the willingness my students had, it was such a disheartening experience.  I think that if my administrators at the time would have stopped for a second and look our students and thought about how to make a meaningful experience for them that this school would have been in a much better position. Both Paris, and Ladson-Billings also made me reflect on the idea that this learning and teaching through a CSP and CRP lens cannot be static, that as educators we have to continue evolving in the same way our cultures and languages do (Ladson-Billings 77). In this remote world, teaching has become even more challenging. So I wonder how have you all continue to promote a culturally sustaining and responsive environment in your digital spaces with your students?

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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0 / Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies 

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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0 / Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies 

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In Ladson-Billings’ “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0”, she discusses how pedagogy and the importance of dynamic scholarship allows for a fluid understanding of culture, and teaching that engages questions of equity and justice. In this remix, Ladson-Billings shares how pedagogy needs to be reframed and reexamined as time passes in order for it to be more responsive to changes in culture. Ladson-Billings explains that the secret behind culturally relevant pedagogy is the ability to link principles of learning with deep understanding of (and appreciation for) culture (77).  In Paris’ “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies”, he counters Ladson-Billings argument that as educators we must responsive, but rather we should be sustaining culture. Where systems in education allow for erasure of culture to enforce monoculture and monolingual society, Paris urges for resistance to allow for pluralism and equality. Something that I wonder about after reading these articles is how to expand curriculum expectations so all narratives in history have the chance to be heard, rather than solely following curriculum that enforces this monoculture / monolingualism.

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"Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0" - Billings and "Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy" - Paris

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"Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0" - Billings and "Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy" - Paris

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In Gladson-Billings' article, she discusses her original framework for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and admits that her framework needs to be built upon and altered as the years pass by. Billings learned from the students in the First Wave about "how popular culture can be deployed to engage in conversations about critical, theoretical concepts" (Billings, 79). Gladson-Billings states that in order for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy to work, teachers must discuss the changes and variety of cultural groups but this does not occur. Django Paris discusses that teachers must "be more than responsive". Teachers need to support their students in the classroom in order to sustain their cultures and language of their communities and at the same time "offering access to dominant cultural competence". Educators need to understand how what it being taught in the classroom and how it is being taught influences the lives of the students. Educators need to understand the impact their teaching and classroom community have on young minds.

One question that I have is how can teachers enable students to use their own languages and dialects in class, when administrators always push for "proper grammar and proper English" to be spoken and written?

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It is clear from the readings that a deficit approach in teaching only ensures the diminishment of cultural literacy among our students. Instead, turning to culturally relevant pedagogy allows for “the ability to link principles of learning with deep understanding of (and appreciation for) culture” (Billings, 77). By shifting the focus of teaching to what is right about our students and leveraging that as the premise for teaching, educator practices would then ensure cultural competence rather than cultural assimilation. To guard against the diminishment of cultural literacy in our classrooms, Django Paris asks what we should all ask ourselves: “what is the purpose of schooling in a pluralistic society?” (Paris, 95). As educators, we need to understand what it is we aim to foster in our society, and how that might impact the lives of our young people growing up in a world that they will one day lead. And the simple, but not so simple answer is that we should aim to reaffirm and sustain “within-group cultural practices and common, across-group cultural practices” (Paris, 95) if we are to work towards a vision of a pluralistic society. My only concern is that the pressure of standardized testing will inevitably be a resisting force against CSP and CRP, and it takes an enormous amount of conscious effort to even know what to resist and how to do so.

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Prompt/Tasks: 1) What are your take-aways from the articles? Please refer to both articles and please pose a discussion question or concern for your peers to reply to.            2)Please be sure to read other students' responses and respond to at least two other students.     

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Prompt/Tasks: 1) What are your take-aways from the articles? Please refer to both articles and please pose a discussion question or concern for your peers to reply to.            2)Please be sure to read other students' responses and respond to at least two other students.     