In , Teachers College鈥檚 Mariana Souto-Manning, Professor of Early Childhood Education and co-author of (Heinemann 2018), addresses misconceptions about the nature of several related teaching strategies for honoring the knowledge of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).
鈥淐耻濒迟耻谤补濒濒测&苍产蝉辫;responsive teaching and culturally relevant pedagogy (also referred to as culturally relevant teaching) have been misread by educators,鈥� Souto-Manning tells interviewer Larry Ferlazzo, an English and social studies teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. 鈥淏oth concepts demand a proactive positioning of teachers 鈥� so that they plan to teach for justice instead of taking reactive approaches to address issues of harm and injustice after the fact, after they take place.鈥�
PLANNING TO TEACH FOR JUSTICE Culturally responsive teaching and culturally relevant pedagogy go beyond typical reactive approaches that address issues of harm and injustice after they take place, argues 麻豆原创鈥檚 Mariana Souto-Manning. (Photo: 麻豆原创 Archives)
Souto-Manning argues that another strategy, culturally sustaining pedagogy, 鈥渄emands moving away from the performance of White middle-class norms in favor of exploring, critically problematizing, honoring, and extending the histories, legacies, and practices of BIPOC. In particular, it commits to a participatory and emancipatory approach whereby students and communities are positioned as agents who can and do offer input to (re)design teaching and learning expansively.鈥�
In their book, Souto-Manning and co-authors , , and , expand on their belief that 鈥淏IPOC children do not need remediation 鈥� they are not broken!鈥�
BIPOC children do not need remediation 鈥� they are not broken! Curriculum, teaching, schooling, and society do need remediation, and we regard culturally relevant teaching, culturally responsive teaching, and culturally sustaining pedagogies as antidotes or counterstories to culturally irrelevant teaching.
鈥� Mariana Souto-Manning, Professor of Early Childhood Education
Rather, Souto-Manning says, 鈥渃urriculum, teaching, schooling, and society do need remediation, and we regard culturally relevant teaching, culturally responsive teaching, and culturally sustaining pedagogies as antidotes or counterstories to culturally irrelevant teaching.鈥� She adds: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not only children who are Black, Indigenous, and of Color who benefit from a curriculum that centers their ways of knowing; so do White children who have the opportunity to interrupt the exaggerated sense of themselves and their importance in the world.鈥�