The Ladson-Billings study finds a common thread among culturally relevant teachers. It is not in how teachers teach math or reading to students. The commonality with good culturally relevant teachers is that they are passionate about teaching, they see themselves as part of the community and giving back to the community, they see teaching as an art and not a technical task and they believed in all of their students’ ability to succeed. The Critical Race Theory reading explains how activists and scholars are studying and working to transform racism and the imbalance of power. CRT looks at how racism is a social construct, still prevalent, but often goes unacknowledged. There is little incentive for the dominant white middle and upper class to give up their interests.
I don’t recall a teacher from my K-12 experience that looked at teaching as an art or believed in all of their students the way Ladson-Billings describes those teachers in her study. I had several teachers that were passionate about teaching and cared about their students but there was little cultural relevance in the classrooms. Nor was there extra attention given to students that lagged behind.
Were you taught critical race theory or similar concepts in elementary school?
Sylvia's blog 