Accessing Students' Faith Literacies to Enact Culturally Relevant Catechesis

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Faith, Pedagogy, and Leadership in Catholic Education

Abstract

Over the last several decades, U.S. Catholic schools have grown more diverse ethnoracially, socioeconomically, and religiously. To more effectively provide catechetical instruction for such diverse students, Catholic school teachers today need engaging, inclusive, and relevant pedagogical approaches. The following investigation represents a design-based study of Catholic school teachers who collaboratively developed culturally relevant catechetical approaches that leveraged and expanded the faith literacies that diverse students brought to their classrooms each day. The study found that the participating teachers valued three specific teaching practices: student-led research into their home practices of faith, partnerships with parents, and student presentations of faith texts from their homes.

Author

• John L. Beltramo, Santa Clara University