Striving Toward More Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: How We Moved Toward Success (and Failed)

• In Event: Pedagogical Practices in Urban Settings

Abstract

We (four researcher-teachers) engaged in literacy instruction with 43 2nd-8th-graders on student-selected social justice topics, guided by a culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSP) framework, to explore how to develop more CSP. Data sources included lesson plans, instruction videos, final projects, and interviews. Data were coded for evidence of criteria in the Integrated CSP Framework by the research-teaching team, and an outside coder. Themes that identified how the research-teaching team moved toward more CSP were identified using constant comparative method. Findings show that using a broad curriculum, engaging in critical reflection to reshape the curriculum, and reconceiving notions of success were ways we moved toward CSP. Student success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness were interconnected; and our failures lacked these interconnections.

Authors

• Tanya M. Christ, Oakland University

• Wen Wu, Oakland University

• Renae Dipzinski, Troy Schools

• Yu Liu, Oakland University

• Kaleigh Roberts, Troy Schools

• Jackie Simpson