Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Series – serie

This book builds on the foundational pedagogical theories of Gloria Ladson-Billing’s Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Django Paris’ Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies to inform teaching in the higher education classroom.Co-written by a teacher educator and his students, this practical resource shares the ways a uniquely positioned graduate course implemented key tenets of Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Pedagogy (CRSP) in their teaching and practice, allowing for the reconnection between mind and body, or Embodied CRSP.By weaving together narratives and experiences between the instructor and students, this book not only challenges conventional teaching methods but also underscores the power of stories in creating deep, impactful learning environments. Readers are encouraged to embrace a commitment to storytelling, relational learning, embodied pedagogy, and creating sacred truth spaces—essential and necessary tools for nurturing understanding, empathy, and generative tensions among students from diverse backgrounds.Book Features:Builds on the foundational pedagogical theories of Gloria Ladson-Billing’s Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Django Paris’ Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies by showing the ways their scholarship was enacted in a graduate-level course.Offers accessible stories from the instructor and students, showing how they engaged in a meta-reflection upon the ways CRSP were both the focus of the course and the pedagogical grounding for teaching collaboratively.Focal chapters feature students’ perspectives that center key details, assignments, concepts, lessons, and strategies that made the learning space so productive and transformative for them.

Protecting the Promise is the first book in the Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Series edited by Django Paris. It features a collection of short stories told in collaboration with five Native families that speak to the everyday aspects of Indigenous educational resurgence rooted in the intergenerational learning that occurs between mothers and their children. The author defines "resurgence" as the ongoing actions that recenter Indigenous realities and knowledges, while simultaneously denouncing and healing from the damaging effects of settler colonial systems. By illuminating the potential of such educational resurgence, the book counters deficit paradigms too often placed on Indigenous communities. It also demonstrates the need to include Indigenous Knowledges within the curriculum for both in-school and out-of-school settings. These engaging narratives reframe Indigenous parents as critical and compassionate educators, cultural brokers, and storytellers who are central partners in the education of their children.Book Features:A window into how and why Indigenous resurgence through (and sometimes in resistance to) education can happen.A narrative style of writing that builds accessible stories that are both relatable and connected to larger social issues.An interdisciplinary approach that has implications for pre- and in-service teachers and school administrators, as well as for the communities from which these stories originated. A teacher-friendly Afterword that offers lesson ideas for the classroom and companion questions to the short stories.

For the first time, this volume provides a definitive collection of Gloria Ladson-Billings' groundbreaking concept of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP). After repeatedly confronting deficit perspectives that asked, "What's wrong with 'those' kids?", Ladson-Billings decided to ask a different question, one that fundamentally shifted the way we think about teaching and learning. Noting that "those kids" usually meant Black students, she posed a new question: "What is right with Black students and what happens in classrooms where teachers, parents, and students get it right?" This compilation of Ladson-Billings' published work on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy examines the theory, how it works in specific subject areas, and its role in teacher education. The final section looks toward the future, including what it means to re-mix CRP with youth culture such as hip hop. This one-of-a-kind collection can be used as an introduction to CRP and as a summary of the idea as it evolved over time, helping a new generation to see the possibilities that exist in teaching and learning for all students.Featured Essays:1. Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy2. But That's Just Good Teaching: The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy3. Liberatory Consequences of Literacy4. It Doesn't Add Up: African American Students and Mathematics Achievement5. Crafting a Culturally Relevant Social Studies Approach6. Fighting for Our Lives: Preparing Teachers to Teach African American Students7. What's the Matter With the Team? Diversity in Teacher Education8. It's Not the Culture of Poverty, It's the Poverty of Culture: The Problem With Teacher Education9. Culturally Relevant Teaching 2.0, a.k.a. the Remix10. Beyond Beats, Rhymes, and Beyoncé: Hip-Hop Education and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

What is at stake when our young people attempt to belong to a college environment that reflects a world that does not want them for who they are? In this compelling book, Navajo scholar Amanda Tachine takes a personal look at 10 Navajo teenagers, following their experiences during their last year in high school and into their first year in college. It is common to think of this life transition as a time for creating new connections to a campus community, but what if there are systemic mechanisms lurking in that community that hurt Native students' chances of earning a degree? Tachine describes these mechanisms as systemic monsters and shows how campus environments can be sites of harm for Indigenous students due to factors that she terms monsters' sense of belonging, namely assimilating, diminishing, harming the worldviews of those not rooted in White supremacy, heteropatriarchy, capitalism, racism, and Indigenous erasure. This book addresses the nature of those monsters and details the Indigenous weapons that students use to defeat them. Rooted in love, life, sacredness, and sovereignty, these weapons reawaken students' presence and power. Book Features:Introduces an Indigenous methodological approach called story rug that demonstrates how research can be expanded to encompass all our senses. Weaves together Navajo youths' stories of struggle and hope in educational settings, making visible systemic monsters and Indigenous weaponry.Draws from Navajo knowledge systems as an analytic tool to connect history to present and future realities.Speaks to the contemporary situation of Native peoples, illuminating the challenges that Native students face in making the transition to college.Examines historical and contemporary realities of Navajo systemic monsters, such as the financial hardship monster, deficit (not enough) monster, failure monster, and (in)visibility monster.Offers insights for higher education institutions that are seeking ways to create belonging for diverse students.

What happens when Chicanx students' educational experiences are shaped by the activation of ancestral worlds? Born of songs like La Bamba, oral traditions, call and response practices, body as an instrument, and embodying ecologies, the authors posit son jarocho fandango (SJF) methodologies as a tool of convivencia/conviviality, communal healing, positive identity formation, and agency. Against the backdrop of white settler colonialism, members of the intergenerational Son Xinachtli Collective formed across two U.S.--Mexican border states and two ethnic studies university courses. The Collective follows the tradition of the SJF decolonial movement, positioning SJF as an ancestral elder of the African diasporic, Mexican Indigenous, Spanish, and Arabic traditions--whose threat of extinction sparked a cultural revitalization. The survival of SJF and its ancestral worlds supersedes the ruptures of colonialism. From ethnic studies classroom practices to organizing SJF in the community, this work highlights the possibilities of nurturing co-liberation.Book Features:Offers an historical and contemporary example of culturally sustaining practices embraced by Chicanx and Indigenous communities. Focuses on son jarocho fandango as a pedagogy and methodology in schools, not just an art form.Shows how culturally sustaining pedagogy works in a postsecondary setting to center ethnic and cultural practices within the curriculum.Interweaves student learning, ethnic studies pedagogies, teacher education, curriculum development, and civic engagement.Includes visuals that provide the aesthetic of experiencing the son jarocho fandango movement.

What happens when Chicanx students' educational experiences are shaped by the activation of ancestral worlds? Born of songs like La Bamba, oral traditions, call and response practices, body as an instrument, and embodying ecologies, the authors posit son jarocho fandango (SJF) methodologies as a tool of convivencia/conviviality, communal healing, positive identity formation, and agency. Against the backdrop of white settler colonialism, members of the intergenerational Son Xinachtli Collective formed across two U.S.--Mexican border states and two ethnic studies university courses. The Collective follows the tradition of the SJF decolonial movement, positioning SJF as an ancestral elder of the African diasporic, Mexican Indigenous, Spanish, and Arabic traditions--whose threat of extinction sparked a cultural revitalization. The survival of SJF and its ancestral worlds supersedes the ruptures of colonialism. From ethnic studies classroom practices to organizing SJF in the community, this work highlights the possibilities of nurturing co-liberation.Book Features:Offers an historical and contemporary example of culturally sustaining practices embraced by Chicanx and Indigenous communities. Focuses on son jarocho fandango as a pedagogy and methodology in schools, not just an art form.Shows how culturally sustaining pedagogy works in a postsecondary setting to center ethnic and cultural practices within the curriculum.Interweaves student learning, ethnic studies pedagogies, teacher education, curriculum development, and civic engagement.Includes visuals that provide the aesthetic of experiencing the son jarocho fandango movement.

Centered on the vibrancy of Black culture, this book offers an antiracist pedagogical framework for engaging Black youth in educational and community settings.Resisting Antiblackness in Education refuses the logics of antiblackness that permeate societal and educational structures and, instead, offers an antiracist counter-logic rooted in the aesthetics of Black youth—a historical and ongoing form of cultural expression and perception.Blending Black studies with critical educational theory, the author offers both a reflective and practical guide to help educators, researchers, community workers, families, and activists engage with Black youth aesthetics. Through memoir, aesthetic history, cultural critique, and case studies from a decade of research, readers are introduced to a pedagogy born from the social, psychic, and material lives of Black urban youth. Going beyond theory, this book includes actions, activities, and reflection questions that can be implemented directly in K–12 classrooms and other educational contexts.Resisting Antiblackness in Education is a call to embrace an educational approach that is both intellectually stimulating and practically grounded, a critical and creative catalyst in the fight for Black youth and communities everywhere.Book Features:Offers a tangible antiracist pedagogical framework for engaging with Black youth in educational and community settings, including content unit designs, lesson plans, projects, school or community initiatives, family activities, and more. Blends research with personal narrative, along with aesthetic artifacts of youth (e.g., collages, poetry, paintings, clay sculptures, art, public service announcements) to contextualize the pedagogical theory.Connects to Black aesthetic history to give readers an immersive experience so they are better prepared to execute the pedagogy, including many prompts to engage in self-reflection throughout the text.Focuses on youth voice to empower students, and all those committed to uplifting students, by recognizing their agency and cultural contributions and challenging traditional models of education that prioritize one-directional knowledge dissemination.Provides a broad context of anti-Black oppression that highlights the United States but also discussing antiblackness globally, inviting readers to engage with the text from their unique vantage points.

Centered on the vibrancy of Black culture, this book offers an antiracist pedagogical framework for engaging Black youth in educational and community settings.Resisting Antiblackness in Education refuses the logics of antiblackness that permeate societal and educational structures and, instead, offers an antiracist counter-logic rooted in the aesthetics of Black youth—a historical and ongoing form of cultural expression and perception.Blending Black studies with critical educational theory, the author offers both a reflective and practical guide to help educators, researchers, community workers, families, and activists engage with Black youth aesthetics. Through memoir, aesthetic history, cultural critique, and case studies from a decade of research, readers are introduced to a pedagogy born from the social, psychic, and material lives of Black urban youth. Going beyond theory, this book includes actions, activities, and reflection questions that can be implemented directly in K–12 classrooms and other educational contexts.Resisting Antiblackness in Education is a call to embrace an educational approach that is both intellectually stimulating and practically grounded, a critical and creative catalyst in the fight for Black youth and communities everywhere.Book Features:Offers a tangible antiracist pedagogical framework for engaging with Black youth in educational and community settings, including content unit designs, lesson plans, projects, school or community initiatives, family activities, and more. Blends research with personal narrative, along with aesthetic artifacts of youth (e.g., collages, poetry, paintings, clay sculptures, art, public service announcements) to contextualize the pedagogical theory.Connects to Black aesthetic history to give readers an immersive experience so they are better prepared to execute the pedagogy, including many prompts to engage in self-reflection throughout the text.Focuses on youth voice to empower students, and all those committed to uplifting students, by recognizing their agency and cultural contributions and challenging traditional models of education that prioritize one-directional knowledge dissemination.Provides a broad context of anti-Black oppression that highlights the United States but also discussing antiblackness globally, inviting readers to engage with the text from their unique vantage points.

These compelling narratives illustrate how Black women educators cultivate inclusive, justice-centered STEM learning environments for K–12 students.Explore the powerful pedagogies and lived experiences of four Black women educators who challenge structural barriers to reimagine STEM education as a space of radical love, cultural sustainability, and justice.Grounded in a National Science Foundation–funded study, this volume documents how educators—through their stories, struggles, and triumphs—develop what the editors call Black STEMinist Pedagogies. These pedagogies center collective and communal responsibility, ancestral knowledge, and the healing power of teaching, offering a blueprint for how to recruit, support, and retain Black women teachers in STEM fields. Each chapter, authored by a diverse team of researchers, amplifies the voices of Black women teachers and affirms their role as knowledge producers and agents of transformation.By weaving together life histories, scholarly analysis, and classroom narratives, this book offers both inspiration and practical guidance for creating a future where girls of color thrive at the center of STEM learning.Book Features:Original Framework: Introduces the concept of Black STEMinist Pedagogies, an approach that combines Black Feminist Thought with culturally sustaining pedagogies in STEM.Rigorous Ethnographic Research: Draws from an NSF-funded mixed-methods study with first-person narratives that humanize data and provide nuanced insights into classroom practice and teacher identity.Teacher Training and Retention: Provides a critical resource for teacher preparation programs, education researchers, and policymakers seeking actionable strategies for equity in STEM.An Interdisciplinary Author Team: Written by a diverse team of Black, Brown, Indigenous, queer, and white scholars who bring layered perspectives, intersectional analysis, and reflexive methodology.User-Friendly Format: Features a narrative-driven style accessible to educators, students, and community members alike.

These compelling narratives illustrate how Black women educators cultivate inclusive, justice-centered STEM learning environments for K–12 students.Explore the powerful pedagogies and lived experiences of four Black women educators who challenge structural barriers to reimagine STEM education as a space of radical love, cultural sustainability, and justice.Grounded in a National Science Foundation–funded study, this volume documents how educators—through their stories, struggles, and triumphs—develop what the editors call Black STEMinist Pedagogies. These pedagogies center collective and communal responsibility, ancestral knowledge, and the healing power of teaching, offering a blueprint for how to recruit, support, and retain Black women teachers in STEM fields. Each chapter, authored by a diverse team of researchers, amplifies the voices of Black women teachers and affirms their role as knowledge producers and agents of transformation.By weaving together life histories, scholarly analysis, and classroom narratives, this book offers both inspiration and practical guidance for creating a future where girls of color thrive at the center of STEM learning.Book Features:Original Framework: Introduces the concept of Black STEMinist Pedagogies, an approach that combines Black Feminist Thought with culturally sustaining pedagogies in STEM.Rigorous Ethnographic Research: Draws from an NSF-funded mixed-methods study with first-person narratives that humanize data and provide nuanced insights into classroom practice and teacher identity.Teacher Training and Retention: Provides a critical resource for teacher preparation programs, education researchers, and policymakers seeking actionable strategies for equity in STEM.An Interdisciplinary Author Team: Written by a diverse team of Black, Brown, Indigenous, queer, and white scholars who bring layered perspectives, intersectional analysis, and reflexive methodology.User-Friendly Format: Features a narrative-driven style accessible to educators, students, and community members alike.