Introduction

We teach what we value. – Gloria Ladson-Billings

This part of Module 1 is an introduction to the concept of Asset-Based Pedagogies. Asset-Based Pedagogies see the languages, experiences, communities, and cultures of students as resources to be honoured rather than deficits to be overcome. The principles of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) will be introduced below. These principles will inform all of the modules in this micro-credential, so we encourage you to complete this portion first. While the information below provides a brief overview of CRP and CSP, you can dive deeper by consulting the materials in the “Additional Resources” section.

Culturally Relevant and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

Historically, schools have seen the home cultures of students of colour and English-language learners as deficits to be overcome or resources to be treated as a bridge to preferable, dominant practices. Current pedagogies, including culturally sustaining and revitalizing pedagogies, take an asset-based approach by viewing students’ home and community cultural practices as resources “to honour, explore, and extend” (Paris 2012, p. 94). In this module, we will explore this asset-based approach to students’ home and community cultural practices. The most well-known asset-based approach is culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP).

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy comes from the work of Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings. She is a pedagogical theorist and teacher educator whose research focuses on culturally relevant pedagogy and critical race theory.

CRP’s goals:

• Students achieve academically.
• Students demonstrate cultural competence (maintaining their own heritage and community practices while gaining access to dominant practices).
• Students understand and critique the existing social order. (Ladson-Billings, 1994)

The graphic below compares deficit, difference, and asset-based approaches:

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

Culturally sustaining pedagogy was coined by Dr. Django Paris. CSP retains the goals of culturally relevant pedagogy but goes a step farther. In addition to ensuring racialized students maintain their own heritage and community practices while gaining access to dominant practices, culturally sustaining pedagogy engages with students’ youth culture practices and recognizes that youth are producers of culture as well as consumers. Culturally relevant pedagogy sees racialized students’ heritage and community cultural practices as resources to honour and explore; culturally sustaining pedagogy sees them as resources to honour, explore, and extend.

To learn more about culturally sustaining pedagogy, listen to The Look and Feel of Culturally Responsive Instruction with Django Paris. You can also follow along with or read Django-Paris-Podcast-Transcript[PDF].