Caribbean Pedagogies as a Culturally Sustaining Way of Being and Knowing in Learning in Teaching

• In Event: Shifting Ground: Embracing the Power, Value, and Possibilities of Caribbean Research and Pedagogical Approaches

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to extend the discussion of Caribbean methodologies towards advancing a notion of Caribbean pedagogies as a culturally sustaining way of being, knowing in teaching and learning. Literature has demonstrated that racially, ethnically and culturally marginalized students are continually excluded from adequate learning opportunities (Waters, 2001). This also includes persistent racialized and deficit narratives that exist in learning environments that deem certain groups of students unable to learn (Nasir et al., 2013). This is no different for students who are of the Caribbean diaspora and enrolled in schools in settler colonial states. Even in the Caribbean, Creole languages and related ways of discourse are marginalized from schools.
As a part of a collective of Caribbean scholars working to examine, articulate and enact Caribbean methodologies in research, I propose that we consider extending the methodologies to Caribbean pedagogies in the education especially for students in the Caribbean diaspora. Caribbean pedagogy aligns itself with the culturally affirming discourse of Caribbean methodologies. This culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012) draws from a polyphonic bricolage (Schmidt, 2008) of resources—the rearrangement of resources available to create something new and useful—such as place-based education and sense of place (Author, 2014; 2013; 2018), studies of Caribbean linguistics (Winford, 1992; Byrne, 1984), critical pedagogy (Author et al., 2016; Kincheloe ), Caribbean postcolonial studies (Benitez-Rojo, 2006) and Caribbean creative writing (Miller, 2014).
As we expand learning resources and opportunities for the success of all students, it is critical that we engage multiple ways of knowing and interacting in classrooms. This would expand the cultural literacies of all students and pave way for the successes of all learners. Furthermore, advancing culturally sustaining pedagogies that mirror community-based pedagogies creates salient spaces that attenuate the false borders between schools and communities and creates opportunities for multiple stakeholders within and beyond the school to in the service of student learning and success and community advancement.

Author

• Jennifer Dawn Adams, University of Calgary