Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and English Language Arts Teaching: Addressing the Backstage, Front-Stage Priority

• In Event: 70.058 - A Dream Deferred: A 20-Year Retrospective on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Abstract

Since the introduction and conceptualization of culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1992, 1994), studies have emerged in the literature that operationalize, critique, and examine the intersecting nature of culturally relevant pedagogy and disciplinary teaching. Since the original publication of DreamKeepers (1994), my review of scholarly databases reveals 387 manuscripts that have been published focused on mathematics and culturally relevant pedagogy, and 44 articles have been published with an emphasis on English language arts and culturally relevant pedagogy. Some of these articles are empirical while others are conceptual. Drawing from sociologists Picca and Feagin’s (2007) framework as an analytic tool to make sense of the published literature on English language arts and culturally relevant pedagogy, I will analyze and critique the ways in which research utilizes front-stage versus back-stage conceptions and priorities of the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy and English language arts teaching. I focus on English language arts because it, along with mathematics, is a tested discipline among all students in the United States. Picca and Feagin stress how issues of race (and culture) manifest both backstage – where beliefs, discourses and practices may not be seen as well as front stage – where beliefs, discourses and practices are overt and apparent. I attempt to shed light on how researchers emphasize and study the construct of culturally relevant teaching and how they prioritize aspects of the tenets of theory (and practice) in their conceptualizations sometimes emphasizing the discipline over the culturally relevant pedagogy. Implications for future study and practice regarding the nexus between English language arts and culturally relevant pedagogy will be considered.

Author

• Rich Milner, University of Pittsburgh