Education should not be a way out of your neighborhood. It should be a tool for improving it.

Dr. Christopher Emdin

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy as articulated by Django Paris offers insight into what it looks like to teach in a way that leverages the contexts and practices of a student’s community but more importantly seeks to promote and refine that same community. Teaching not to get out, but to build up. Hip Hop Based Education, as presented in the work of Christopher Emdin, provides an example for what Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy can look like in practice.

During May of 2020, I was invited by the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center to discuss culturally sustaining pedagogy and how it can be seen in the course work and research of teacher education.

Resources/Links

Amidon, J. (May, 2020). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: Considering posture & purpose. Talk at Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform Center, Culturally Relevant Education Topical Action Group. Slides from the Talk

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Books & Articles

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491.

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World by Django Paris & Samy Alim

Schooling Hip-Hop: Expanding Hip-Hop Based Education Across the Curriculum by Emery Petchauer & Marc Lamont Hill

The Long Haul: An Autobiography by Myles Horton

Websites

Christopher Emdin’s Webpage

Videos

Hip Hop Evolution – Series on Netflix

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash