Three Components of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Academic Achievement
Often the term "academic achievement" is followed up with notion of oppressive standardized tests, retention of certain groups of students, stripped curricula, and intimidation by the students, teachers, and parents. In this text, it is preferred that the term "student learning" is used to describe student's ability to learn and perform as a result of pedagogical interactions with skilled teachers. In this context, "good teachers" are those who understand that the cultivation and intellectual growth of students is the main focus of schooling, and through this the students will gain knowledge, self-esteem, as well as self-control. Teachers who practice student learning go forth by criticizing and scrutinizing given curriculum, rather than just passively passing on uncontested information to students. In addition, student learning practices include in-depth discussion, showing imagery, symbolism and cultural relevance to students, opposed to just listing assigned reading. Student learning requires that large concepts be broken down into smaller parts to insure understanding and retention of knowledge. In addition, long term academic goals rather than short term are stressed and shared with the students to show the importance of the information they are learning, and how it will benefit them in the future.

Cultural Competence
Cultural competence is often the most difficult concept to present to teachers. Cultural competence, as often described in the fields of counseling, social work, medicine, etc., refers to the act of helping the dominant culture group members become more skillful in reading the cultural messages of their clients. In addition to those skills, cultural competence in the realm of teaching includes helping students recognize and honor their own cultural beliefs and practices while acquiring access to the wider culture. Here they are likely to have an opportunity to improve their socioeconomic status and begin making informed decisions about the lives they wish to lead. An additional focus of cultural competence for teachers is to improve the lives of the student, family, and community they serve. Teachers who foster cultural competence work back and forth between the lives of their students and the life of school to help expose students to culture that oppressed them.

Sociopolitical Consciousness
When dealing with sociopolitical consciousness, teachers must first educate themselves about both the local and sociopolitical issues of their school community and larger sociopolitical issues that impinge upon their students' lives. They must realize that race, gender, and class often reflect the economic disparities that they see in their classrooms. It is important that these issues and disparities are incorporated into their ongoing teaching, which will help students use the various skills they learn to better understand and critique their social position and context.

1Source: Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). Yes, but how do we do it. Practicing culturally relevant pedagogy. In J. Landsman and C. W. Lewis (Eds). White teachers/diverse classrooms (pp. 29-42). Sterling, VA: Stylus