Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Summary

Article 1: Landson-Billings (1995) But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Landson- Billings’ article discusses the benefits of using culturally relevant pedagogy in classrooms populated by African American students. According to Ladson-Billing, there are three principles underpinning culturally relevant pedagogy: (1) holding high expectations for all students; (2) assisting students in the development of cultural competence; and (3) guiding students to develop a critical cultural consciousness. Additionally, she claims that, “if students' home language is incorporated into the classroom, students are more likely to experience academic success (Landson-Billings, 1995, pg. 159).” Culturally relevant pedagogy utilizes students' culture as a vehicle for learning. Therefore, “good teaching” is based on the teachers’ ability to integrate a student’s background knowledge and prior home and community experiences into the curriculum and to the teaching and learning experiences that take place in the classroom.

Burning Questions:

Although Landson-Billings wrote this article in 1995, much of her arguments are still relevant in our classrooms

The study examined whether teachers a) could relate to students, b) ways they could not relate, and c) the influences of teachers’ Whiteness on relating to the students. The findings from the article reveal that although the teachers could relate to the students based on personal experience, they were unable to connect based on race and culture. The article further examines the beliefs of teachers and preservice teachers regarding students who are different from themselves. The article goes in depth about by describing each teacher (that are apart of the study) background and whether or not they were able to relate/or not relate to the