Culturally relevant pedagogy recognizes and honors the diverse cultural identities of all learners.
What is culturally relevant teaching?
Culturally responsive teaching, or culturally relevant pedagogy, uses the cultural knowledge, lived experiences, frames of refences and values of learners, to make the learning experience more meaningful and effective.
When educators intentionally focus on cultural relevance, it helps young people feel valued and respected. Components of culturally responsive teaching include:
- Affirmation - recognizes and accepts individuals as they are.
- Validation – acknowledges individuals have different experiences. We may experience the socio-political context we live in differently.
- Lived experience – uses the learner’s own culture and experiences as reference points for helping them understand concepts.
- Processing – uses different modes of learning, such as hands-on experiences, music, movement or storytelling to help students "hold on to it" so they can remember and apply new information.
In this video, you will see how facilitators and learners use both English and Spanish as they develop computational thinking skills that are rooted in their personal experiences and the experiences of others.
1. As you watch the video, think about this:
- How would you describe your own culture? How have you learned about your culture?
- Look for examples of culturally relevant teaching strategies in the video.
- Look for evidence that youth feel safe and respected. What makes you think they are feeling this way?
2. Watch the video:
3. Share what you noticed:
- What did you notice in the video?
- What are the culturally relevant strategies you noticed in the video?
- In what ways do learners connect what they are learning with their own experiences?
4. Teaching Culturally Relevant Computer Science
Before they can have meaningful discussions about culture and identity, educators and youth need to create Brave Spaces. These are learning environments where teachers and leaners feel safe, respected and prepared to cope with challenging ideas. The Brave Spaces lesson in iCode creates opportunities to have productive discussions about challenging topics such as social justice, equity and inclusion.
The iCode curriculum was intentionally designed to help educators create learning environments that support diverse youth in developing their computational thinking, ethnic and racial identity, and a social justice perspective.
The Brave Spaces lesson uses the story of Ximena to help youth engage is a dialogue about social justice and inequity. It also helps them see how computer science can create inequity and can also be used to create equity.
Think about the strategies you currently use to create a safe learning environment in your program. What would you like to change? What would you like to continue doing for the youth in your program?
Write down two goals for yourself to increase your cultural competency over the next year.
5. Key Take-Away:
- Brave Spaces are learning environments where youth feel safe and respected. To engage in sensitive dialogues, both educators and youth need to be brave about sharing their perspectives and challenging each other if needed. It is important to note that sharing should always be encouraged but not required.
- Culturally relevant teaching integrates youth’s cultural knowledge, lived experiences, frames of refences to make the learning experience more meaningful and effective.
Developed in collaboration with click2computerscience.org and UC ANR News & Information Outreach in Spanish. Funded by National Urban Research and Extension Center.
Resources:
These practices are also more fully described in Culturally responsive teaching from National Equity Project that supports educators in creating respectful learning environments.