ABSTRACT
In today’s increasingly multicultural school settings, teachers often struggle to work effectively with diverse groups of students (Ladson-Billings, 2001). This is a problem, especially given that ethnic minority student enrollment is expected to increase to 51 percent of the student population by 2050, while 90 percent of teachers are white and female (Futrell et al., 2003; National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). Because “cultural differences between teachers and students can cause difficulties unless the teacher has multicultural competence” (Mowling et al., 2011, p. 91), it is critical for teachers to become aware of their own culture and develop a critical consciousness around issues of privilege, oppression, power, and social justice. Considering that student populations have vastly diversified over the past few decades in the range of ethnicities and racial identities, and our understanding of diversity as a “broader and more complex” phenomenon has greatly expanded (Ladson-Billings, 2001, p. 14), curricula and pedagogy need embrace cultural relevancy in order to make education meaningful for all students. To raise sociopolitical consciousness and develop cultural competence, the integration of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in school can help teachers learn how to bridge cultural gaps in their classrooms to create caring and inclusive learning environments.
