Gloria Ladson-Billings Argument Analysis

Culturally relevant teaching is addressed in this module. The definition and practical application of culturally relevant teaching serve as the essential questions. In defining culturally relevant teaching, I begin with the work of Gloria Ladson-Billings. Ladson-Billings (1995) suggests that cultural relevant pedagogy consists of three elements: the “ability to develop students academically, willingness to nurture and support cultural competence, and the development of a sociopolitical or critical consciousness” (p. 483). By addressing pedagogical implications, Ladson-Billings is able to situate her argument for culturally relevant teaching in the domain of everyday classroom teaching practice. Moreover, her argument echoes arguments made by previous researchers, such as Cole & Knowles (2000), who argue against the division of theory and practice, whereby the creation of theory exists in isolation from the practice of teaching (p. 9). Therefore, I propose that the definition of …show more content…
157). In How White Teachers Construct Race, Sleeter (1993) argues that teachers themselves bring issues of race to the classroom, echoing the life history construction that Jupp (2013) examines in his work. In a very asserting stance, Sleeter (1993) suggest that “a predominantly white teaching force in a racist and multicultural society is not good for anyone, if we wish to have schools reverse rather than reproduce racism” (p. 157). Moreover, education alone cannot provide a solution, given the basic race domination that is propagated in consequence of institutions being white dominated (Sleeter, 1993, p. 158). This provides a conundrum, or what I view as a cycle, where the white race holds access to and defines the system, essentially determining what is acceptable for that system, and thus institutionally prevent access to the system by minority