Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies raises fundamental questions about the purpose of schooling in changing societies. Bringing together an intergenerational group of prominent educators and researchers, this volume engages and extends the concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP)—teaching that perpetuates and fosters linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of schooling for positive social transformation. The authors propose that schooling should be a site for sustaining the cultural practices of communities of color, rather than eradicating them. Chapters present theoretically grounded examples of how educators and scholars can support Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, South African, and immigrant students as part of a collective movement towards educational justice in a changing world.

Book Features:

• A definitive resource on culturally sustaining pedagogies, including what they look like in the classroom and how they differ from deficit-model approaches.
• Examples of teaching that sustain the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students and communities of color.
• Contributions from the founders of such lasting educational frameworks as culturally relevant pedagogy, funds of knowledge, cultural modeling, and third space.

Contributors: H. Samy Alim, Mary Bucholtz, Dolores Inés Casillas, Michael Domínguez, Nelson Flores, Norma Gonzalez, Kris D. Gutiérrez, Adam Haupt, Amanda Holmes, Jason G. Irizarry, Patrick Johnson, Valerie Kinloch, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Carol D. Lee, Stacey J. Lee, Tiffany S. Lee, Jin Sook Lee, Teresa L. McCarty, Django Paris, Courtney Peña, Jonathan Rosa, Timothy J. San Pedro, Daniel Walsh, Casey Wong

Django Paris is an associate professor of language and literacy in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. H. Samy Alim is a professor and director of the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Language (CREAL) at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies not only contests the misappropriation of culture in education, but it also contests the idea that attention to culture obfuscates equity work in schools. To the contrary, sustaining culture is the heart and soul of educational justice, because culture is the heart and soul of what it means to be human. CSP moves marginalized youth from object to subject position through fundamentally humanizing approaches, approaches that stand in contrast to the embedded deficit lenses of the racial contract otherwise structuring schooling."

—Teachers College Record

"...this powerful book reflects Paris and Alim’s belief in community building and does a phenomenal job in encouraging all readers, particularly those conducting anthropological/ethnographic work in education, to engage critically in discourses around the development of CSPs. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies allows readers to become part of a community of scholars, educators, and administrators who are actively working together to reimagine the purpose of schooling in a pluralistic world."

—Anthropology & Education Quarterly

"This essential and timely compilation by emerging and established scholars advances critical debates in research and teaching of education, anthropology, linguistics, race/ethnic studies, and related fields…It will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners seeking understanding and examples of transformative classrooms."

— Language and Education

"In this elegant and groundbreaking volume, Paris, Alim, and their colleagues offer a guiding light for culturally sustaining pedagogies to illuminate new ways of teaching and learning that build on the assets of young people of color and their communities. Challenging old conceptions of culture and identity, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies offers a dynamic view of what it means to teach and learn with courage, heart, intellect, and critique. All teachers committed to justice and equity in our schools and society will cherish this book."
— Sonia Nieto, professor emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

"In this cutting edge new volume, Paris and Alim have brought together a collection of insightful essays by a group of scholars who are committed at the most profound level to using education as a weapon of resistance and an instrument of cultural transformation. The reader will learn that culturally sustaining pedagogies are much more than a fancy new piece of jargon or clever academic phrase. The pedagogical strategies described here serve as a dynamic medium for enacting what education must do if it is to empower, revitalize, and elevate the voices of those who need it to serve as a means to counter oppression and affirm their humanity. For educators who are unafraid of using education to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalized, this book will be an invaluable resource and a source of inspiration."
—Pedro Noguera, University of California, Los Angeles

"Paris, Alim, and company highlight critical educational problems affecting students of color, produce insightful analyses, and offer tools to ameliorate these conditions. Leading the frontier of new directions for teaching and learning, this scholarship bends toward the arc of educational justice, calling for deep, effective practices and understanding that center our youths’ assets. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies tells us what is integral to educational equity; and all educators should read and act on its recommendations."
—Prudence L. Carter, dean, Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

"In Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies, Paris, Alim, and contributors offer a generous invitation. It is an invitation to (re)consider, (re)create, and (re)narrate the role of culture and learning in the futures of students and communities that have been historically neglected. The authors offer a pathway forward in engaging in the work of listening and doing. This volume also offers us a gift of hope, justice, and a belief in a future wherein educators are invited to work with, in, and for children and their communities. For anyone interested in creating futures of possibility, promise, and potential through powerful pedagogies, this volume is a must-read with guidance and encouragement for our work."
—Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, Arizona State University

Shout Outs

Chapter 1. What Is Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Why Does It Matter?
H. Samy Alim and Django Paris

Part I: Enacting Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Students, Teachers, and Schools

Chapter 2. “You Ain’t Making Me Write”: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies and Black Youths’ Performances of Resistance
Valerie Kinloch

Chapter 3. Language and Culture as Sustenance
Mary Bucholtz, Dolores Inés Casillas, and Jin Sook Lee

Chapter 4. Upholding Indigenous Education Sovereignty Through Critical Culturally Sustaining/Revitalizing Pedagogy
Tiffany S. Lee and Teresa L. McCarty

Chapter 5. “For Us, By Us”: A Vision for Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Forwarded by Latinx Youth
Jason G. Irizarry

Chapter 6. “This Stuff Interests Me”: Re-Centering Indigenous Paradigms in Colonizing Schooling Spaces
Timothy J. San Pedro

Chapter 7. Policing and Performing Culture: Rethinking “Culture” and the Role of the Arts in Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies
Casey Wong and Courtney Peña

Part II: Envisioning CSP Forward through Theories of Practice

Chapter 8. The (R)Evolution Will Not Be Standardized: Teacher Education, Hip Hop Pedagogy, and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0
Gloria Ladson-Billings

Chapter 9. Reviving Soul(s) with Afrikaaps: Hip Hop as Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in South Africa
H. Samy Alim and Adam Haupt

Chapter 10. Do You Hear What I Hear? Raciolinguistic Ideologies and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies
Jonathan Rosa and Nelson Flores

Chapter 11. Socially Just, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy for Diverse Immigrant Youth: Possibilities, Challenges, and Directions
Stacey J. Lee and Daniel Walsh

Chapter 12. Finding Sustenance: An Indigenous Relational Pedagogy
Amanda Holmes and Norma González

Chapter 13. “Se Hace Puentes al Andar”: Decolonial Teacher Education as a Needed Bridge to Culturally Sustaining and Revitalizing Pedagogies
Michael Domínguez

Chapter 14. Understanding Identity Sampling and Cultural Repertoires: Advancing a Historicizing and Syncretic System of Teaching and Learning in Justice Pedagogies
Kris D. Gutiérrez and Patrick Johnson

Chapter 15. An Ecological Framework for Enacting Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
Carol D. Lee

Index