671: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Evidence for growth in an understanding of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy can be found in a group reflection with my colleagues, Linda Gudiel and Antoinette Frazier. We put our focus on Camangian’s 2010 article that discussed the use of autoethnography We discussed that all of us grew up belonging to a culture. I discussed that I struggled with my two forms of identity, and there was a sense of disassociation with my Punjabi identity. Camangian (2010) describes this as “cultural self-hate”.  This piece in particular carries a lot of weight in the message that our course is trying to convey.  Ethnically speaking, all culture has value in academia—which is how I approach culturally relevant pedagogy. This piece gave me an opportunity to reflect on my own experiences. I recalled all the times where we were encouraged to talk about our own culture in primary and secondary education. In our meeting, I discussed that one time a girl had insulted the food of my culture, because we were encouraged to bring food from our culture. This was during elementary school. I also recall having the same thing happen to me in my junior year of high school, and everyone liked the food. The point being—this piece made me reflect on times where I felt like my culture was relevant. Yes, I am Indian, but in India, my group represents a minority. My teachers allowing me to share my cultural experience still resonates with me, decades later.
As a social science instructor, bringing in other cultures is essential. We are cultural curators, in that sense. While I may not plan to allow my students to bring food, there are some things that I can implement. For example, when viewing I Learn America (2011), I  found that the “Struggle” assignment was powerful, and I also found the use of autobiography in the “Self Portrait” assignment in The Class to be helpful. Once again, like my prior evidence, I found that I will carry this theory to the classroom by giving my students a voice about their own culture, without discrimination, in a SAFE environment. It is a great example of what Camangian was talking about in using autoethnography. This can even apply to the students that come from the dominant culture. To a large degree implementing autoethnography is a form of culturally relevant pedagogy.Sharing experiences and struggles within intersecting cultures is a central theme of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Evidence can be found here.

References

Benjo, C. (Producer), Scotta, C. (Producer), & Cantet, L. (Director). (2008). The Class. 

                [Motion picture]. Paris, France: Haut et Court.

Dissard, J. (Producer/Director), & Peng, G. (Producer/Director). (2013). I Learn America                            

               [Documentary film]. New York, NY: I Learn American Production.

Camangian, P. (2010). Starting with self: Teaching autoethnography to foster
critically caring literacies. Research in the Teaching of English, 45(2), 179-204.