Blog #7

This blog I focused on the article “But that's Good Teaching! The Case of Culturally
Relevant Pedagogy". They began with some background information regarding the reason that
minorities struggle in education. Teachers make the mistake of trying to insert culture in
education, rather than integrating education into culture. One of my most important takeaways
throughout our class and readings has been being able to understand students' backgrounds
and past experiences in order to form relationships and teach them specific to their own lives
and learning strategies. Showing you are enthusiastic and passionate about the material in the
classroom and students learning will help promote a positive classroom environment. The
author mentions three criteria for culturally relevant pedagogy and those include “students must
experience academic success, students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence; and
students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of
the social order” (Ladson-Billings, 160). When it comes to academic success, it is always
necessary for students to develop and strengthen academic skills. They should be taught in
ways that they can develop these skills in ways that are meaningful to them, whether that be
online instruction, visuals, audio, lecturing etc. In developing academic competence, teachers
need to teach to attend to the students individual academic needs and students have to choose
academic excellence. They can use their academic skills in order to further their knowledge and
develop new ideas in which they can challenge themselves and discover things that value their
skills. When it comes to cultural competence, students need to have bto academic excellence
and cultural integrity. Many students do not want to show their interest in specific material
because they are afraid of going out of their comfort zone and being judged by their peers. This
is where it becomes most important to stress to students that everyone is different and they
should express their ideas and find others who are interested in exploring them as well.
Teachers should find ways of instruction that appeal to all students and give them the
opportunity to express their interest and be comfortable in the classroom. Specifically, I have
seen minority students be afraid to speak up in my internship and even when working in groups,
tend to keep to themselves. I have seen that using different instructions and multiple examples
that apply to all the students allows them to come out of their comfort zone and be comfortable
in their class. For this reason, it is important as teachers to foster their knowledge, background
and experiences to help students express themselves culturally and academically to benefit
them in the classroom and the real world.

References
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that's just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy

(Links to an external site.) . Theory into Practice, 34(3), 159-165.