Teaching About Race in a Multicultural Setting: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and the U.S. History Classroom

• In Event: Critical Issues of Race, Class, and Gender

Abstract

In this interpretative case study, the researcher examined the beliefs and practices of three social studies teachers related to their teaching of race at a racially and ethnically diverse urban high school. Using the theory of culturally relevant pedagogy as a lens, this study employed mixed methods, analyzing teacher interviews, observations, classroom artifacts, as well as a survey administered to the teachers’ students. The results showed that the teachers had different conceptions of race, rooted in their personal backgrounds and experiences, which influenced how they taught race in their history classrooms. Despite three different approaches to culturally relevant pedagogy, the participants’ students showed similarly positive assessments of their teachers’ practices.

Author

• Christopher C. Martell, Boston University