Judson Laughter

The Theory and Practice of Culturally Relevant Education A Synthesis of Research Across Content Areas

Many teachers and educational researchers have claimed to adopt tenets of culturally relevant education (CRE). However, recent work describes how standardized curricula and testing have marginalized CRE in educational reform discourses. In this synthesis of research, we sought examples of research connecting CRE to positive student outcomes across content areas. It is our hope that this synthesis will be a reference useful to educational researchers, parents, teachers, and education leaders wanting to reframe public debates in education away from neoliberal individualism, whether in a specific content classroom or in a broader educational community.

Culturally Relevant Science Teaching in Middle School

To respond to calls for more research on culturally relevant science teaching, we present findings from one middle school science teacher’s practices in an effort to contribute to this research. We describe how a discussion lab centered on Derrick Bell’s (1992) short story The Space Traders was purposively included in a lesson on scientific bias to engage middle school students in thinking about bias in larger societal contexts and in their own lives. We review literature in the growing field of culturally relevant science teaching as building on Ladson-Billings’s (1995a, 1995b, 2006) conception of culturally relevant pedagogy. We then describe the context and method of our study and present findings drawn from multiple data sources. We close with a discussion aimed at both practicing teachers and teacher educators.

Culturally Relevant Education: Extending the Conversation to Religious Diversity

Culturally relevant education represents a wide collection of pedagogies of opposition to social injustice and holds a commitment to collective empowerment and social justice. By using culturally relevant education as a framework, we make the case to include religious diversity as a part of culturally relevant education intentionally. We believe that by opening the dialogue to include religious diversity, we are working together as educators to promote social justice in schools that benefits all children regardless of their religious backgrounds. We synthesize successful examples of culturally relevant education in connection to religion. Further, we argue for teacher educators to incorporate discussion of religious diversity as part of multicultural and social justice teacher education.

Making Space for Space Traders

Abstract Should a focus on empowering education for a socially just world stretch across schooling generally? Is it really the responsibility of science educators to focus on such a struggle? We believe the answer to both questions is an enthusiastic “yes” and in this article report on the planning and execution of a 6th grade science unit designed to spark classroom dialogue around issues of bias in science and in society. We begin with a brief grounding in the relevant literature of culturally relevant science teaching before introducing the context of the unit and the methods of study. We then describe the planning and execution of the unit. We close with lessons that we feel important to carry forward into later replications and recommendations for future research.

The theory and practice of culturally relevant education: expanding the conversation to include gender and sexuality equity

ABSTRACT Many teachers and educational researchers have claimed to adopt tenets of Culturally Relevant Education (CRE), but recent work describes how standardized curricula and testing have marginalized CRE in educational reform discourses. In this review, we synthesized literature moving beyond CRE in terms of race and ethnicity into the areas of gender and sexuality equity. Findings and implications offer a reference useful to educational researchers, parents, teacher educators, teachers, and education leaders wanting to reframe public debates in education away from neoliberal individualism.

A Community of Narratives: Developing Transracialized Selves Through a Community of Practice

The story presented here developed from a study group where we found space to explore and analyze ourselves and each other. In recounting our development from a Community of Interest to a Community of Practice (CoP), we first introduce a guiding theoretical framework building on a foundation of two concepts: CoP and transracialized selves. We then present a series of alternating methods and findings, reflecting our development through two phases. We recount the formation of our group and the decision to develop individual narratives; the findings from these methods are presented as six narratives recounting individual wrestlings with our racialized selves. We then describe our methods for analyzing these narratives as a group and conclude with the findings from that communal analysis. We close with implications for others who might find a similar process valuable.