Culturally Responsive Civics Pedagogy: Leveraging Project-Based Learning to Increase Access and Equity

• In Event: Project-Based Learning of the Future: From Equity-Adjacent to Equity-Infused

Abstract

Title: Culturally Responsive Civics Curricula: Leveraging PBL to Increase Access and Equity

Purposes
Teaching the Bill of Rights to a diverse group of 8th grade students can be a daunting task for even the most experienced civics teacher. However, through an in-depth design-based implementation (DBIR) study of a pilot civics curriculum, we identified an engaging, accessible, and equitable way to teach 8th graders about their rights. In this presentation, we describe the curriculum’s use of several culturally responsive teaching strategies during a 4-week unit on the Bill of Rights. Although several research studies have documented the culturally responsive strategies available to educators (Gay, 2010, 2013, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1994), additional research is needed to understand their impact (Ladson-Billings, 1999; Skleeter, 2010), and specific to this study, their implementation in middle school civics curricula.

Perspectives
This presentation sits at the nexus of project-based learning (Grossman, et al., 2019; Larmer, et al., 2015), deeper civic learning (Allen & Kidd, in press), and culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2000). Culturally responsive teaching practices are present throughout all six units of the curriculum. This presentation explores teachers’ use of culturally responsive strategies embedded in the curriculum, and to answer these questions: (a) How did teachers implement culturally responsive strategies during Unit 2? (b) What culturally responsive strategies had the most impact on accessibility and equity in their classrooms?

Methods and Data Sources
Drawing from a larger year-long DBIR study (Fishman, et al., 2013), this presentation explicates teachers’ implementation of a culturally responsive civics curriculum. We utilize Gay (2013)’s 4 Essential Components of culturally responsive teaching to bridge the gap between theory and practice through illustrations of intentional culturally responsive pedagogy. Our qualitative data sources include 20 interviews with 12 teachers, 21 classroom observations of the four-week Unit 2 with two different teachers, and 7 student focus group interviews.

Results
Of Gay (2013)’s 4 Essential Components of culturally responsive teaching, we found that the Bill of Rights unit connected best to “in-school learning and out-of school living” (p. 49). The shared product for the unit was an educational project intended to teach others about the history, application, and personal significance of one of 3 amendments: the 1st (freedom of expression), 4th (freedom from unfair search or seizure), or 5th (right to due process). With regard to accessibility and equity, students across all demographic groups were engaged and interested in learning about their protection from unfair search and seizure in-schools versus out-of school. For example, during a classroom discussion, students asked questions such as, “what evidence do they need to search your backpack?”; “why do you have less protection in school than you have in public?”; and “if you’re a police officer and you’re chasing someone and they go into a house, are they allowed to go into that house?”

Scholarly Significance
By identifying key instructional and curricular strategies, this study informs future civics classroom practice, underscoring the need for successful implementation of culturally responsive civics curricula to increase equity and improve accessibility across diverse demographic contexts.

Author

• Lisa Utzinger Shen, N/A
  Presenting Author