Reflections on the Way

The phrase Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, to me, sounds a lot like cultural relevance in the context of intercultural communication - speaking to and engaging with peoples within their own context. Or, in the case of teaching, selecting materials and presenting them with an awareness of how other cultural groups will receive them. I can see how people could interpret it as, “Oh! I should bring in rap for my Black students, because they like rap,” without giving it any further thought. We have been conditioned to see the word cultural relevance and automatically assume a non-critical must-accept-everything stance, when in reality all cultures have their good and bad aspects. An awareness of this should not mean we accept them with a grimace, but use the same tools we employ to shine a light on the problematic structures of the hegemonic culture to reflect on all aspects of society. However, a fine line must be followed here to not let biases and prejudice lead us to simply reify existi...

“The value of lessons about the Other comes not in the truth it gives us about the Other, but in the pedagogical and political uses to which the resulting (disruptive) knowledge can be put.” —Kumashiro, 2002 I found this line to be a very succinct crystallization of where my teaching philosophy is heading. The content covered in any given moment of school is always secondary to the new avenues of thought opened up to students and to the new vehicles they develop to explore those avenues. Kumashiro (2002) brings up the valid point that in a finite world, there is no way to achieve anything even approaching total knowledge, but one can develop a desire to know more. In the chapter, this is linked with the idea of empathy, and this is cited as a shortcoming of educating about the Other. Teaching for empathy, Kumashiro (2002) suggests, is a necessary but not sufficient mode of engaging in anti-oppressive pedagogy. I feel like something that underpins much of Kumashiro’s writing is an ass...