Using Multicultural Picturebook Biographies to Implement Culturally Relevant Curriculum and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Across K-8 Grade Levels

Purpose And Organization

The purpose of this book chapter is three-fold. One, it discusses how multicultural picturebook biographies can be a valuable resource to develop CRC. Two, it describes how teachers can use CRC with research-based instructional strategies to implement CRP across major content areas including English/Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics and across grade levels, kindergarten through grades eight. Three, it shares a variety of professional literature and other online resources that teachers and teacher educators can use to deepen and broaden their knowledge of CRC and CRP across grade levels and content areas.

The chapter is organized in seven sections. These sections begin with a rationale for this chapter. Next, it provides an overview of the concept of CRC and CRP and the important distinction between the two. Then, it describes the nature and function of multicultural literature, focusing specifically on multicultural picturebook biographies, and instructional strategies to use with these biographies. It ends with some final thoughts.