Cultural Relevant Pedagogy

 “The Dream Keepers”
 Gloria Ladson Billings

Chapter descriptions derived from book
Preface.

Chapter One:
“Is there a case for separate schools?”
Chapter looks at the issues facing AA students in schools and raises bigger questions about teacher preparation.

Chapter Two:
Looks at research about how schools can be more compatible to students' cultural background. Lack of background on AA students is sited. Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT) is proposed. Assimilation and traditional teaching is compared with CRT.

Chapter Three:
Looks at the first key aspect of CRT: how the teacher sees themselves and others. Uses vignettes of successful teachers to demonstrate how they see themselves and others.

Chapter Four:
Looks at the second key aspect of CRT: how the classroom social interactions are structured. Interviews and vignettes illustrate the pertinent points.

Chapter Five:
Looks at the third key aspect of CRT: the teachers' conception of knowledge. Demonstrates how with CRT, teacher and students construct knowledge and move beyond required curriculum to achieve excellence.

Chapter Six:
Chapter focuses on three elementary teachers in literacy and math. Shows two literacy approaches and classrooms that result in literate students. Math contrasts CRT math instruction with a middle class white environment.

Chapter Seven:
Looks into the future and analyzes the prospects for improving AA student performance. Its looks at teacher prep, school-0based programs and some experimental programs.

Appendices provide information about methods and contextual issues for further research.

Critical Pedagogy?
"The critical question here is whose future, story, and interests does the school represent. . . Critical pedagogy argues that school practices need to be informed by a public philosophy that addresses how to construct ideological and institutional conditions in which the lived experience of empowerment for the vast majority of student becomes the defining feature of schooling."