Beyond "Free" or "Reduced" Dreams and Possibilities: Understanding Disconnects in Culturally Relevant Education

• In Event: Learning in Diverse K–12 Settings: Exploring the Hidden Curriculum and Critical Disconnects

Abstract

A struggle exists to engage in culturally relevant pedagogy that represents the social justice interests across the K–20 spectrum. This struggle is not a question of policy or practice -- it is a matter of enfranchisement that passes off bad practice as being culturally relevant, preventing the best dreams and possibilities for public education to become realized. This paper suggests that a major problem is the disconnect between articulated commitments and actual practices, restraining dream from reality and possibility from action. This paper examines the landscape of education revealing the nature of overrepresentation of privileged identity markers. We examine how misunderstandings about CRP’s frameworks permeate teachers’ discourses. The paper ends with suggestions as to the identity work necessary for CRP.

Authors

• Kenneth James Fasching-Varner, Louisiana State University

• Kerri Tobin, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge

• Sonya Diana Hayes, Louisiana State University

• Stephanie Troutman, University of Arizona

• Christine Clark, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Hillary B. Eisworth, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge

• Michaela Patricia Stone, Louisiana State University