"This Is for White People Too": Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education, in Times of Crisis

• In Event: Race, Place, and Power as Curriculum: Redefining Discourses, Communities, and Identities

Abstract

The need for a Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Education (CR-SE) to be adopted in Education Preparation Programs, is an essential part of challenging structural and systemic inequalities. In this paper we theorize that CR-SE must be adopted and informed by competencies that resist, name, and provide concrete examples of ways to dismantle, restructure, and rebuild educational opportunities for students that empower and lead to outcomes that are all centered on equity. As Black women scholars engaged in this critical work we assume a responsibility to the students we serve and the communities in which we are members. In this paper we name the challenges we face in doing this work, and the advances we have made when committed to CR-SE.

Authors

• Donna-Marie Cole-Malott, East Stroudsburg State University of Pennsylvania

• Shalander L. Samuels, Kean University

• Azaria I. Cunningham, The Pennsylvania State University - University Park

• Wideline Seraphin, The University of Memphis