What is Culturally Relevant Curriculum?

We live in a world with many diverse culture, and being we live in Hawaii, we do have a wide variety of cultures compiled on some tiny islands.  

What is culturally relevant teaching?
According to Coffey (2008), culturally relevant teaching is a term that was created by Gloria Ladson-Billings to describe a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to bestow knowledge, skills, and attitude.  When participating in this pedagogy, teachers create a bridge between students' home and school lives, while still meeting the expectations of the requirements and standards. It utilizes the backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences of the students to inform the teachers' lessons and methodology.  McCormick (n.d.) defines it as "using the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them more effectively."

School of Education (2013) According to Gloria Ladson-Billing, culturally relevant pedagogy consist of three things:

1. a laser-like focus on student learning
2. an attempt to develop in all students cultural competence (help children understand the assets that a part of their own culture and at the same time helping them become fluent in at least one other culture.  i.e. children of color learning the mainstream color and vice versa where mainstream children will learn some other cultures)
3. and socio-political consciousness.  

It is focused on student learning and their understanding of mainstream culture as well as their own and why it is important to learn about it. Being that we live in Hawaii, which is very diverse in many cultures, I find it very important to give children a chance to learn about other people’s cultures and where they may have come from.  This will give children  chances to learn in-depth about their own culture while learning about their classmates’ cultures.


References:

Coffey, H. (2008). Culturally relevant teaching. Retrieved February 28, 2014, from LEARN NC: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4474

McCormick, E. (n.d.). Culturally Relevant Teaching in Application [Multicultural Education PDF].

School of Education. (2013). Q&A with Gloria Ladson-Billings, Curriculum & Instruction. Retrieved January 13, 2014, from https%3A%2F%2Flaulima.hawaii.edu%2Faccess%2Fcontent%2Fgroup%2FWOA.69166.201430%2FQ_A%2520with%2520Gloria%2520Ladson-Billings.ht