San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education

Elementary Education Department

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in a

Diverse Elementary Classroom
Instructor Yvonne Hidalgo
yvonnehidalgo@yahoo.com

Course Description
Elementary classrooms are comprised of children from diverse backgrounds.
Children and their families come from different races, classes, family
structures, and ability levels. This diverse setting is valuable in sharing
different perspectives and learning from one another. Diversity can also be
seen as a challenge in meeting a wide range of needs. The education system
needs to serve all students equitably.
In this course we will explore the philosophical and political factors that
influence the education system. We will examine the construction of
knowledge, bodies of power that enact and enforce this knowledge, and the
connection of power relationships in the classroom and society. We will
reflect on how these relationships impacted our personal educational
experiences. Then we will examine how our educational experiences shaped
values and beliefs about education for our students. Through self-reflective
activities, valuable class discussions, community interviews, student
teaching hours, and creating a curriculum unit, we will establish a critical
lens to develop a culturally responsive pedagogy.

Concepts Explored

The purpose of education

Pedagogy
Epistemology and the social construction of knowledge
Content Standards and Hegemony
The Politics of Education- Neo-Liberalism and Imperialism
Ethnic studies and Racial stereotypes
Critical postmodern theories of humanism, critical race theory,
transformative resistance, and liberatory education
History of public education in the U.S.

San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education
Elementary Education Department

Western theories of development

Culturally responsive pedagogy

Course Objectives
1. Students will be exposed to critical postmodern theories listed above.
2. Students will explore critical lens to frame culturally responsive
pedagogy.
3. Students will develop their own teaching philosophy.

Course Expectations
Requirement

Points

Attendance and Participation

Readings and iLearn postings
Assignments
Reflective Essay: Personal Educational
Experience
Reflective Essay: Purpose of Education
Research Paper: Assessment
Teaching Philosophy
Curriculum Unit and presentation

15
15

Total

10
10
10
15
25
100

Attendance and Participation (15 points)

You are responsible for attending all class meetings and participating in all
class discussions. Please remember that your participation is a necessary
part of the learning experience. Communicate with instructor via email,
phone, or in person about absences.

Assignments
12 point font, double spaced, proper citations in APA format.

Reflective Essay: Personal Education Experience

Write a 5 page paper reflect upon influential factors in your personal school
experience- parents education history, parents idea of success, parent

San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education
Elementary Education Department
involvement in your education, influential teachers or mentors positive or
negative. Discuss how these factors influence your identity as a teacher
today- do your past experiences align with your values today? Or oppose
your values? Why? How will these reflections impact your philosophy and
practice?
Reflective Essay: Purpose of Education
Write 5 page paper stating what you believe is the purpose of education.
Support your beliefs with critical theories from the readings. How does this
differ from your experience in school? How does your belief differ from the
beliefs of your desired employment setting (public, parochial, charter)? What
challenges do you anticipate in fulfilling your belief in the purpose of
education?
Research Paper: Assessment
Write a 5-7 page paper reviewing 3-5 articles about alternative assessments.
What forms of assessments do you find most valuable and why? How can
you integrate this in your practice? What challenges do you anticipate in
implementing these assessments?
Teaching Philosophy
Write a 5 page personal statement of your educational beliefs. You should
address the purpose of education, how students should be taught, what they
should learn how they should be evaluated and the role of the teacher in the
learning process.

Course Outline
Week
Week 1
Week 2

Topics, Concepts, Guiding Questions,

and Readings
Overview of course
What is Pedagogy?
Readings
Tintiangco-Cubales, A., Kiang, P., and Museus,
S. (2010) Praxis and Power in the
Intersections of Education. In AAPI
Nexus 8:1.
Freire, P. (2003). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Assignments
due

San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education
Elementary Education Department
30th Anniversary Ed. New York:
Continuum. Ch. 1 and 2
Week 3

Pedagogy and personal education

experience
Guiding Questions
What role did critical pedagogy play in your
school experience? How do you describe the
relationships you had with educators? How
was curriculum contextualized for you?
Readings
Delpit, L. (1995) The Silenced Dialogue:
Power and Pedagogy in Educating
Other Peoples Children in Other
Peoples Children. New York Press: New
York.
Freire, P. (2003). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
30th Anniversary Ed. New York:
Continuum. Ch. 3 and 4

Week 4

Epistemology and the construction of

knowledge
Guiding Questions
What knowledge does society value? Who
creates that knowledge? What knowledge do
you value?
Readings
Labaree, D. (2005). Life on the Margins in
Journal of Teacher Education, 56(3).

Week 5

Content Standards and Hegemony

Guiding Questions
Who creates content standards? Why are
these standards created? How has hegemony
shaped your values? How is hegemonic
ideology a threat to society?
Readings
Spodek, B., & Saracho, O. (2006). Chapter 25:
Alternative Means of Assessing
Children's Learning in Early Childhood
Classrooms. In Handbook of research
on the education of young children.

Reflective Essay:
Personal
Education
Experience

Research Paper:
Assessment

San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education
Elementary Education Department
New York, New Jersey: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Gullo, D. (2005). Understanding Assessment

and Evaluation in Early Childhood
Education (2nd ed.). New York:
Teacher's College Press. 3-30
History of public education in the U.S.
Guiding Questions
How was the purpose of education historically
tied to the economy? How has the purpose of
public education changed? What are differing
viewpoints in the purpose of public education
today?
Readings
Arum, R. (2011). The structure of schooling:
Readings in the sociology of education
(2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Pine Forge
Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications.
The Politics of Education- NeoLiberalism and Imperialism
Guiding Questions
How do major publishers, economy, and
public policy intersect? How does this
intersection play a part in exporting U.S.
values and beliefs?
Readings
Sleeter, C. (1993). How White Teachers
Construct Race in Race, Identity and
Representation in Education.
Routledge: New York.
Darder, A. (2012). Culture and power in the
classroom: Educational foundations for
the schooling of bicultural students
(The twentieth anniversary ed.).
Boulder: Paradigm. Capter 1: The
Problme with American Pedagogy and
Practice
Western theories of development
Guiding Questions
How have western theorists influenced
curriculum, teaching strategies, and

Reflective Essay:
Purpose of
Education

San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education
Elementary Education Department

Week 9

assessment today?
Readings
File, N., Mueller, J.J., & Wisneski, D.B. (2012).
Curriculum in Early Childhood Education: Reexamined, Rediscovered, Renewed. New
York: Routledge. Chapter 3: The Relationship
between Child Development nad Early
Childhoof Curriculum
And Chapter 4: From Theory to Curriculum:
Developmental Theory and Its Relationship to
Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood
Education
Ethnic studies and Racial stereotypes
Guiding Questions
What were/still are overt racial biases and
stereotypes? What were/ still are covert racial
biases and stereotypes? Consider model
minority, perpetual foreigner for Asian
Americans.
Consider deficit model/ blaming the victim for
Latino-American and African-American
groups.
Readings
Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive Schooling
U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of
Caring. State University of New York
Press

Week 10

Ethnic studies and Racial stereotypes

Guiding Questions
What were/still are overt racial biases and
stereotypes? What were/ still are covert racial
biases and stereotypes? Consider model
minority, perpetual foreigner for Asian
Americans.
Consider deficit model/ blaming the victim for
Latino-American and African-American
groups.
Readings

Week 11

Ethnic studies and Racial stereotypes

Guiding Questions
What were/still are overt racial biases and
stereotypes? What were/ still are covert racial

San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education
Elementary Education Department
biases and stereotypes? Consider model
minority, perpetual foreigner for Asian
Americans.
Consider deficit model/ blaming the victim for
Latino-American and African-American
groups.
Readings
Week 12

Critical postmodern theories

Concepts
Critical race theory, transformative
resistance, and liberatory education, anti-bias
curriculum
Readings
Solorzano, D. and Delgado-Bernal, D. (2001).
Examining Transformational Resistance
Through a Critical Race and Latcrit
Theory Framework. Urban Education,
36:3, (pp. 308-342.)

Week 13

Critical postmodern theories

Concepts
Critical race theory, transformative
resistance, and liberatory education, anti-bias
curriculum
Readings
Gieshaber, S. (2008). Interrupting
Stereotypes: Teaching and the
Education of Young Children. Early
Education and Development, 19(3),
385-95.
Culturally responsive pedagogy
Guiding Questions
What is knowledge in your classroom? What
is important to teach? How will you teach?
How will you assess? What challenges do you
anticipate?
Readings
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. (2010).
Anti-bias education for young children
and ourselves. Washington, DC:
National Association for the Education
of Young Children.

Week 14

Teaching
philosophy

San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education
Elementary Education Department
Week 15

Week 16

Culturally responsive pedagogy

Guiding Questions
What do you want your classroom community
to look like? How do you build relationships
with students? Families? What is your role in
the school community?
Readings
Osumi, T. (2003). Teamwork and People
Power: Liberatory teaching in the Elementary
Classroom in Pedagogy, Social Justice, and
the State of Asian American Studies. no. 2, p.
92. UCLA.
Presentations

Week 17

Presentations

Curriculum unit
and presentation
Curriculum unit
and presentation

Readings
Arum, R. (2011). The structure of schooling: Readings in the sociology of education
(2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications.
Delpit, L. (1995) The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other
Peoples Children in Other Peoples Children. New York Press: New York.
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and
ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young
Children.
Freire, P. (2003). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 30th Anniversary Ed. New York:
Continuum.
Gieshaber, S. (2008). Interrupting Stereotypes: Teaching and the Education of Young
Children. Early Education and Development, 19(3), 385-95.
Gullo, D. (2005). Understanding Assessment and Evaluation in Early Childhood
Education (2nd ed.). New York: Teacher's College Press. 3-30
Haberman, M. (1991). The Pedagogy of Poverty Versus Good Teaching in
Kappammagazine.org, V92N2

San Francisco State University

Graduate College of Education
Elementary Education Department
Knight, M. (2002). The Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender in the Teacher
Preparation of an African American Social Justice Educator in Equity &
Excellence in Education, 35(3): 212-224
Labaree, D. (2005). Life on the Margins in Journal of Teacher Education, 56(3).
Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate, W.F. (1995). Toward a Critical Race Theory of Education in
Teachers College Record, 97(1).
Osumi, T. (2003). Teamwork and People Power: Liberatory teaching in the
Elementary Classroom in Pedagogy, Social Justice, and the State of Asian
American Studies. no. 2, p. 92. UCLA.
Sleeter, C. (1993). How White Teachers Construct Race in Race, Identity and
Representation in Education. Routledge: New York.
Solorzano, D. and Delgado-Bernal, D. (2001). Examining Transformational
Resistance Through a Critical Race and Latcrit Theory Framework. Urban
Education, 36:3, (pp. 308-342.)
Spodek, B., & Saracho, O. (2006). Chapter 25: Alternative Means of Assessing
Children's Learning in Early Childhood Classrooms. In Handbook of research
on the education of young children. New York, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.

Tintiangco-Cubales, A., Kiang, P., and Museus, S. (2010) Praxis and Power in the
Intersections of Education. In AAPI Nexus 8:1.
Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive Schooling U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of
Caring. State University of New York Press