Culturally Sustaining and Revitalizing Pedagogies

Cathy Coulter is Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is a former classroom teacher where she taught English learners in K-12 classrooms. She is currently Program Lead of the Graduate Certificate in Language Education program and PI of Project LEAP (Language, Equity, and Academic Performance). She works with graduate students in developing culturally sustaining and revitalizing classroom practices through inquiry and action research projects.Margarita Jimenez-Silva is Associate Professor at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. She holds a Master's and a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Developmental Psychology, with an emphasis on Language and Culture. She is a former classroom teacher with preschool through ninth grade teaching experience in various states. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Jimenez-Silva has been working with preservice and inservice teachers to meet the academic and language needs of English learners (ELs) and ELs with special needs. She works on a number of federally funded grant projects focusing on preparing teachers to work with ELs, and she has led professional development training focused on meeting the needs of ELs, specifically in the areas of integrating content and language development in STEM and social studies.

Education researchers and practitioners describe how they are using classrooms not just to accommodate diverse cultures and languages but to preserve and revitalize cultures and languages that are under threat from a dominant culture. Considering in turn power, culture, and language, they discuss such topics as critical ancestral computing for the protection of Mother Earth, voices from the community: the past embraced, teach what you know: cultivating culturally sustainable practices in pre-service Alaska native teachers, and writing from the threads of our lives: stories from a bilingual family writing project.

• Introduction: Cathy Coulter & Margarita Jimenez-Silva Part 1: PowerVoices from the Community: Neva Mathias, I am Maangaq Chapter 1: Critical Ancestral Computing for the Protection of Mother Earth; Cuoponcaxochitl Dianna Moreno SandovalChapter 2: American Indian Access to Higher Education: Where are all the NDN’s?; Jameson LopezChapter 3: Dual Language Programs: Language and Access; Laura GomezChapter 4: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Action: Views From Inside a Secondary Social Studies Teacher’s Classroom; Margarita Jimenez-Silva & Ruth LuevanosPart 2: CultureVoices from the Community: Lisa Unin, The Past Embraced Chapter 5: Yupiunrirngaitua/The Skirt I Refuse to Wear; Panigkaq Agatha John-Shields Chapter 6: Preparing Culturally Sustaining/Revitalizing Educators: Lesson from Field Experiences in Alaska Native Village Schools; Timothy E. Jester  Chapter 7: Teach What You Know: Cultivating Culturally Sustaining Practices in Pre-Service Alaska Native Teachers; Amy VinloveChapter 8: The Induction Seminar: Nurturing Culturally Sustaining Teaching and Learning in Rural Alaska Native Communities; Karen Roth Chapter 9: Reflections from the Tundra: Language, Culture and Pedagogy through Community Engagement; Cikigaq-Irasema Ortega Part 3: LanguageVoices from the Community: Apalaq (James) Ayuluk, Cup’iuyaraq: Being a Cup’ik Chapter 10: Writing the Threads of Our Lives: Stories from a Bilingual Family Writing Project; Tracey T. FloresChapter 11: Five Words: Lessons Learned in Rural Alaska; Kathryn Ohle Chapter 12: Preparing Pre-Service Secondary Teachers in Arizona: Using Culturally Sustaining Approaches to Learn from Diverse Secondary English Learners; Pablo Ramirez Chapter 13: Transforming Teachers’ Practice Through Professional Development: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogical Changes in Support of English Language Learners; Anthony J. TrifiroConclusion: A Hopeful Imperative; Cathy Coulter & Margarita Jimenez-Silva