Literature Review #2

LITERATURE REVIEW

SOURCES:

De Silva, R., Gleditsch, R., Job, C., Jesme, S., Urness, B., & Hunter, C. (2018). “Gloria Ladson

Billings Igniting Student Learning Through Teacher Engagement in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy”, Multicultural Education, Spring/Summer, 23-28.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). “But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant

Pedagogy”, Theory into Practice, 34 (3), 159-165.

Short, K. (2009). “Critically Reading the Word and the World: Building Intercultural

Understanding through Literature”, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature, 47 (2), pp 1 – 10.

INTRODUCTION:

The three articles that I will be summarizing and reflecting on, provided me with ideas for my practitioner research. De Silva et al, discuss Gloria Ladson-Billings through the lens of “narrative inquiry” (p. 22). The narrative researcher, uses the narrative of experiences, as a research methodology. The article “Igniting Student Learning Through Teacher Engagement in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy”, applies this research methodology to Ladson-Billings and her work with African-American students and their teachers. I then read an article, “But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy”, written by Gloria Ladson-Billings about culturally relevant pedagogy. In this article, Ladson-Billings explains culturally relevant pedagogy, and then provides examples of teachers implementing culturally relevant pedagogy. Finally, I read Karen G. Short’s “Critically Reading the Word and the World”, which provides a framework for “engaging with international literature to support children’s critical explorations of their own cultural identities” (p.2). The framework provides a visual of what I envision doing with my students in literacy.

NOTES AND RESPONSES:

My discussion will cover Short’s culturally relevant framework, which includes critical literacy. That is also Ladson-Billings’ focus. Short, Ladson-Billings, and, de Silva et al, assert that a critical literacy framework gives students a way of understanding what it means to be part of this world. The Ladson-Billings’ articles focus on African American students, recognizing, too, research done with Native American students. The thread connecting these groups of children, are educators implementing culturally responsive practices within critical literacy frameworks. Drawing knowledge from the community, is another thread connecting these authors. When educators use the community’s strengths, schools are strengthened. As an educator and teacher practitioner, my job would be to find those strengths, and build on those strengths in my classroom.

Gloria Ladson-Billings has had a long career as a researcher and a practitioner. Her experiences in life and career are interconnected in her advocacy for equity in education. Her passion is “dreamkeepers”. Dreamkeepers are educators “whose daily interactions and teaching styles have demonstrated culturally relevant pedagogy and encouraged and celebrated all children regardless of class, ethnicity, gender, or religion” (de Silva et al, 2018). I guess I feel like this is the definition of what I want to be as an educator. Both Ladson-Billings articles focus on what critical literacy means. Critical literacy means to look beyond the literal meaning of the text, then analyzing and evaluating themes and meanings (de Silva et al, 2018). Culturally relevant teaching must allow student success, must assist students in developing and/or maintaining cultural competence, and, students “must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order” (Ladson-Billings, 1995). This approach, as a practitioner, expects that I look at my students’ strengths, help them achieve academic excellence, and, help them learn how to challenge the world. I like the challenge of finding ways to engage my students. It would be beneficial to engage students in community projects. As I think about literacy engagement in my virtual classroom, I am limited in my time, so I need to get creative, yet keep it simple. Ladson-Billings, writes about teachers who engage students in culturally relevant literacy. The projects came from the students’ interests, like rap music. Some projects utilized community members. These community members taught the students arts and crafts. Another teacher, allowed the students to use their home language. These examples center on students’ cultural strengths. The teachers in the studies got their ideas of culture from the community, focusing on the needs in the present. The practitioner research from Ladson-Billings, which covered a three year period, studied successful teachers of African American students. The teachers were chosen using criteria taken from principals, parents, and, students. The teachers were very different in their teaching. Ladson-Billings came to realize that what bonded these teachers was their philosophical and ideological commonalities (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Like Freire, Ladson-Billings believes in the power of literacy to make change.

Karen Short’s article “Critically Reading the Word and the World:Building Intercultural Understanding through Literature”, has provided me with a framework that works nicely with my theme of literacy engagement. It works nicely with my ideas of social justice. This framework (fig. 1) promotes “children’s engagement with literature” (Short, 2009). This engagement allows for understanding of their worldviews. This framework integrates themes of social justice into a four component framework. Component #1 involves students examining their own stories, and then coming to the understanding that “their experiences within families and communities shape how they think and act” (Short, 2009). This examination leads to component #2, connections to the complexities of other cultural groups. It is an opportunity to “look out on ways of viewing the world and reflect back on themselves in a new light” (Short, 2009). The next component is to integrate international perspectives. Short advocates cross cultural studies that includes literature that “reflects complexity in terms of the economic, social, political, aesthetic, moral, historical, and geographical contexts of a cultural group” (Short, 2009). The 4^th component, is an integration of international perspectives, which should lead to focusing on global issues. These four components lead to a critical approach to the difficult issues that people encounter throughout their lives.

CULMINATING QUESTIONS:

How do I implement Short’s framework midyear? How do I implement the framework with such limited time?

Fig1