Culturally Relevant Language Pedagogy - An Autoethnography

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2022-01-01

Department

Language, Literacy & Culture

Program

Intercultural Communication

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by UMBC for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please see http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/repro.php or contact Special Collections at speccoll(at)umbc.edu
Distribution Rights granted to UMBC by the author.
Access limited to the UMBC community. Item may possibly be obtained via Interlibrary Loan thorugh a local library, pending author/copyright holder's permission.

Abstract

This critical autoethnography examined the cultural relevance of a high school Spanish teacher's pedagogical attitudes and ideologies after analyzing one of her co-constructed units for cultural responsiveness. First, using the NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools Culturally Responsive STEAM Curriculum Scorecard, a corpus- and critical- discourse analyses were conducted upon a unit plan with teacher, instructional, and learning materials to determine how culturally responsive was the unit. A second discourse analysis, using Ladson-Billings theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, then compared the scorecard results and evidence indicators towards assimilationist/hegemonic vs. culturally relevant behaviors and pedagogical conceptions. This information guided an autoethnography that critically analyzed how behaviors either support or work to dismantle hegemonic educational ideologies and practices. Findings revealed that the teacher must commit to explicit planning for cultural relevance, including lesson planning that explicitly indicates planning purposes, strategies, and evidence for culturally relevant instructional practices. This study would benefit greatly from multiple evaluative perspectives, especially ones that reflect the populations of both students and communities of study. This study also encourages further research upon other facets of this teacher's pedagogical practices. Keywords: Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), culturally relevant teaching (CRT), teacher attitudes and ideologies, affirming student identities, critical autoethnography