Abstract
With the outbreak of COVID-19, the world shifted. Educators adapted their lessons to online environments which was tiresome. Teachers were not trained to modify their pedagogies to keep up with the consistent progression of technology and transition from in-person to online instruction. Using Twine's (2016) and Price-Dennis and Sealey-Ruiz's (2021) conceptualization of racial literacy (RL) and Ladson-Billings's (1994, 1995, 2001, 2021) theory of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), this chapter invites teachers and teacher educators to explore the questions: What are RL and CRP? What does it mean to be a racially literate and culturally relevant teacher and teacher educator in the virtual age? What do RL and CRP pedagogical practices in virtual and in-person contexts look like? The authors will do so by revisiting RL and CRP. Finally, this chapter urges teachers and teacher educators to examine practices and take steps towards creating racially and culturally relevant spaces in virtual and traditional classrooms.
TopRacial Literacy And Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Twine (2016), who developed the concept of RL, explains it is a set of practices that analyzes antiracist work. Other scholars (see Guinier, 2004; Sealey-Ruiz, 2022) have proposed that self-work must be done to engage in such practices. To become racially literate, individuals need to question their assumptions about race and engage in critical conversations concerning their personal or society-driven biases (Price-Dennis & Sealey-Ruiz, 2021).
Price-Dennis and Sealey-Ruiz (2021) assert that to create pedagogies that are reflective and responsive to the culturally, linguistically, ethnically, and racially diverse student populations in the United States, teachers must develop their RL first. The authors posit that culturally relevant teachers must become racially literate before they can successfully enact pedagogies like CRP into their classrooms. In other words, RL is a necessary building block for teachers to become culturally relevant educators. It forces individuals to reflect upon their understanding of the world and the prejudices they have developed.
The authors argue that using RL in tandem with CRP allows educators to know themselves better and establish spaces that will foster academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness, the tenets of CRP. For instance, once an educator recognizes the unconscious biases they hold and its impact on their view of the world around them, they can better develop lessons and activities that foster community for all students regardless of racial, cultural, or linguistic background. Moreover, as teachers develop a sense of understanding and respect for cultures different from their own, they can create spaces where students can thrive academically and socially.
CRP is a theory coined by Ladson-Billings (1994, 1995, 2001, 2021). It argues the need for classroom practices that “affirm cultural identity while developing critical perspectives” to object against educational inequities (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 469). Ladson-Billings proffers that teachers must execute practices that actively work against the erasure of student identities and consistently promote agency amongst students to protest social, racial, and political injustices.
In addition, CRP is an invaluable approach to teaching that empowers students to critically analyze and question what is presented in the school community (e.g., library books, school curriculum, and classroom posters). Employing this pedagogy, students not only absorb the ideologies presented within materials, but also create new knowledge. They do this by combining their lived experiences with their personal connections as well as the absences they observe within the curriculum.
To realize the extent and capabilities of CRP, it is vital to understand each of the three tenets—(1) academic success, (2) cultural competence, and (3) critical consciousness:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Critical Consciousness: One’s ability to question and analyze the social, political, economic, and racial injustices and inequalities that plague society.
Virtual Age: The current era, where technology infiltrates all aspects of daily life, notably areas it did not impact before, like education and socialization.
Racial Literacy: A belief that one's own culture is superior to other cultures.
Academic Success: One’s ability to accomplish educational goals/milestones in an academic setting.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A pedagogical approach where a student’s culture is recognized and acknowledged in the classroom.
Race: A social construct where humans are divided into distinct racial groups based on their inherited differences (e.g., physical and behavioral).
Cultural Competence: One’s ability to embrace and learn about their own culture while simultaneously gaining knowledge about another culture.
Historically Marginalized Groups: Groups of people and communities who face discrimination and exclusion in society (e.g., social, political, and economic) because of their race, social status, and among other identities.