ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we share the theoretical underpinnings of the research and the goals of the group's exploration of culturally responsive and sustaining education. We ground this chapter in the literature study we engaged in during the first years of our professional learning group, drawing on the foundational works of Ladson-Billings, Gay, Paris and Alim, Hammond, Delpit, and other remarkable scholars. Another aspect of our work is that our approach to teacher research recognizes teachers as knowledge generators, and that classroom inquiries stem from teachers’ own questions, puzzlements, and reflections. Additionally, unlike some education research, teacher research aims to provide solutions for teachers to adapt for their own classroom use. In this book and in our studies, we use the phrase culturally responsive and sustaining education to describe teaching that values and uses students’ assets as resources; strengthens and sustains students’ connections to their cultures, holds high expectations for all students’ academic learning, and helps students develop a critical stance.
