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?

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.  

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) 

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?    

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. 

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?

 

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

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?

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?

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?

“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?