Transforming Education by Putting Kids First |
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IDRA Newsletter – This Issue's Focus:
Culturally Sustaining Leadership
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In This Issue
Why Emergent Bilingual Education Needs Equity-Centered Pedagogies
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Four Leverage Points for Culturally Sustaining Practices
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Cultivating Conscientization in the Classroom – Webinar
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Lessons Learned from Principals on Valuing, Safeguarding and Healing Students
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Ethnic Studies Conversations
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Being a Culturally Curious Educator Supports Positive Mental Health for Students
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Recent News, Videos & Podcasts
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Why Emergent Bilingual Education Needs Equity-Centered Pedagogies |
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by Lizdelia Piñón, Ed.D.
Piecemealing equity in the education of emergent bilingual students is not serving their needs, and these students are being left behind. Equity-centered concepts tend to not be applied across all schools and classrooms. Teachers and administrators are often not adequately prepared to provide an equitable education for their emergent bilingual students.
It is time to boost standards with culturally sustaining, equity-centered pedagogies. One method of improving education for these students is building on their home languages with translanguaging – using content and resources in multiple languages. It is vital for school leaders to create and maintain a school environment free from any implicit biases toward students regardless of race, ethnicity or native language.
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Four Leverage Points for Culturally Sustaining Practices |
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by Paula Johnson, Ph.D., and Hector Bojorquez
IDRA’s EAC-South has framed current research about culturally sustaining practices into four quadrants at critical levels: (1) culturally sustaining schools, (2) culturally sustaining leadership, (3) culturally sustaining practices, and (4) culturally sustaining pedagogy. These four leverage points are components of the educational ecosystem that can be transformed via culturally sustaining practices to improve education for marginalized students of color.
Framing equity improvement at these critical levels enables stakeholders to quantify steps to implement these practices. Additionally, educators must understand that these practices are responses to systemic racism, implicit and explicit biases, and power dynamics of underrepresented and oppressed groups. Without acknowledging these gaps and injustices, education is unlikely to improve for these underserved students.
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Conscientization, also known as “critical consciousness” is a popular education and social concept developed by Brazilian pedagogue and educational theorist, Paulo Freire (1970). Research shows that higher critical consciousness is associated with higher self-esteem, higher political engagement, higher professional aspirations, academic engagement and even higher academic achievement.
Dr. Victor Lozada is currently using Freire’s concept of conscientization in his elementary music classroom to discuss the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. He uses many children’s books and music to discuss social change.
In this webinar, you will learn about Freire’s concept of conscientization and how to use books and music to teach critical consciousness in the classroom.
In addition to teaching music at a Denton ISD elementary school, Dr. Victor Lozada is an adjunct faculty member at the University of North Texas at Dallas and a graduate research associate at Texas Woman's University.
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Lessons Learned from Principals on Valuing, Safeguarding and Healing Students |
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by Aurelio M. Montemayor, M.Ed.
Powerful school leadership involves structure, modeling and deliberate action to create a school environment that values each student, is safe and healing. The valuing principal is rooted in a deep understanding of the many assets each student has and the gifts that come from their families, rejecting myths and stereotypes. A safeguarding principal is directly involved with teachers and students to identify struggles and provide urgent resources. The healing principal is aware of the impact of bullying, harassment and other ways students are harmed at school.
These principals create an environment where effective and practical attention mends wounds – physical, mental and emotional – and keeps the learning environment positive. There are numerous helpful tools for administrators to help gain insight and strategies to create a safe learning environment that values all students – ranging from data-driven strategies like restorative practices to simply listening to students, teachers and parents about their concerns and struggles.
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Ethnic Studies Conversations |
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In San Antonio: Teachers; students; those interested in teaching ethnic studies, social justice and civil rights; families; and interested community members, join us for Cafecito & MAS, a morning of sharing, planning and dialoguing.
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Being a Culturally Curious Educator Supports Positive Mental Health for Students |
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by Mia Covarrubias
In this article, Mia Covarrubias, a future counselor, describes how culturally sustaining practices help build positive emotional and mental health for students. Culturally sustaining leadership encompasses the ways that administrators, teachers, mental health practitioners and anyone else who interacts with children at school can serve them in a way that enhances their learning experience.
Culturally sustaining training, anti-racism training and underlying bias training help educators better serve students, especially marginalized students. Academic success builds on many factors, but students and educators building strong interpersonal relationships helps students gain the confidence and support they need to thrive. Being a culturally curious educator enables the growth of the student and stakeholder while supporting the student’s mental health and learning.
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New Classnotes Podcast Episodes |
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The Intercultural Development Research Association is an independent, non-profit organization. Our mission is to achieve equal educational opportunity for every child through strong public schools that prepare all students to access and succeed in college. |
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