9 La Clave Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Digital Praxis

Context

At the time of writing this chapter, the COVID-19 virus shows no signs of abating, though several vaccines have been developed, and their global dissemination is being strategized. The virus has pummelled global economies, fundamentally changed how we socialize, and for many left lasting impacts on mental health and well-being. In response to the pandemic, higher education has shifted to digital platforms rapidly, en masse, causing significantly destabilizing effects for educators and learners alike (Watermeyer et al., 2020).

As academia is recast in virtual platforms, it becomes imperative to recognize that digital hegemony (Boyd, 2016; Lauzon, 1999) materializes in seemingly race-neutral technologies, affecting BAME/BIPOC students in ways that might not be explicit at first glance. Ruha Benjamin (2019), in her work Race after Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, notes that technological frameworks such as artificial intelligence, digital surveillance, digital marketing, and even automated soap dispensers that fail to recognize black skin are hegemonic instruments that automate and digitize human racism and discrimination.

Further to the point of addressing racism and discrimination, any proper contextualization of this period cannot overlook the global response to the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Beginning in the United States, a wave of anger and frustration at systems of oppression challenged structural racism in all of its forms, coalescing in Black Lives Matter protests that ignited across the globe and bolstered existing protests against social injustices. Institutions of higher education are now forced to contend with racist histories, contentious figures reified into statues, and persistent student achievement gaps that negatively affect BAME/BIPOC students in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Achievement Gap

Students Bear the Burden of Closing the Achievement Gap

What remains unclear is how institutions of higher education, particularly those that claim to cater to international and diverse student populations, address the student achievement gap effectively and with evidence of cohesion across disciplines. In attending to factors that contribute to the achievement gap, such as race, language, and culture, McCarty and Lee (2014) add that tribal sovereignty among American Indian and Alaska Native students is a layer of distinction that must also be acknowledged.

Without an actionable blueprint to close the achievement gap, it becomes evident that institutions of higher education locate the problem within the student body. Indeed, the student body continually bears the burden of addressing the achievement gap. Whether marching in anti-black and anti-racist protests, occupying contested spaces, or forging digital counter-publics (Hill, 2018), BAME/BIPOC students have taken up the mantle of reparative action that draws them out of the margins and into the centre (for more on digital counter-publics, see Chapter 10 of this volume). The question that we need to ask ourselves, especially in the midst of this global transition to digital pedagogy, is how can educators actively become allies of BAME/BIPOC students (Adair & Nakamura, 2017)? What can we do to address and ameliorate the student achievement gap the moment that students log into digital classrooms?

What Is Culturally Relevant Pedagogy?

This meditation on emancipatory educational perspectives that seek to radicalize education by creating inclusive and democratic pedagogical practices considers our white allies within the university setting in particular (Adams et al., 2018; Giroux, 1986; Ladson-Billings, 2014). If you are an academic reading this chapter, then chances are you are white, so this shout-out goes out to you. Less than 1% of professors in the United Kingdom identify as black, compared with the 90% who identify as white (Universities UK and National Union of Students, 2019). The same incongruity persists in the United States, where 6% of faculty members identify as black (Davis & Fry, 2019). The data indicate quantifiably that the burden of closing the BAME/BIPOC achievement gap cannot rest solely on black and brown shoulders. The white gaze is reversed here to counter well-intentioned, but socially violent, claims of colour blindness in lecture halls that only work to engender an erasure of students who do not meet hegemonic ways of being and knowing (Howard, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Matias & Grosland, 2016; Salazar, 2018). We propose that CRP—and a subsequent proliferation of emancipatory and democratic pedagogical frameworks that further this theory—are not the only ways forward but they are viable solutions.

Culturally relevant pedagogy is founded upon the desire to address what Ladson-Billings (1995b) calls “deficit paradigms” of teaching in which students are perceived as inadequate and in need of corrective instruction. It builds upon earlier emancipatory and democratically oriented pedagogies that, at their core, endeavour to foster greater cohesion among culture, home, community, and classroom while validating students’ extant ways of being and knowing. CRP is distinct in its insistence that pedagogical application always advances critical consciousness of social and political systems of oppression. Variants of the CRP framework are wide ranging and include vital work such as culturally responsive pedagogy (Cazden & Leggett, 1976; Gay 2000), culturally relevant schooling (Castagno & Brayboy, 2008), culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012), and culturally revitalizing pedagogy (McCarty & Lee, 2014).

Nearly two decades after Ladson-Billings introduced her momentous and revelatory theory, she offered a retrospective on her research and its theoretical offshoots. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0 a.k.a. the Remix (2014) urges scholars and educators to transition to the more contemporary culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2012), deeming the framework ideally suited for the burgeoning “multiplicities of identities and cultures” that students embody. Although Paris (2012) lovingly critiqued CRP on the basis that it falls short of centring culture, language, and literacies of systemically marginalized communities represented by multilingual and multi-ethnic peoples, we would argue that these considerations were integrated within the original work of Ladson-Billings (1995a, 1995b). This is particularly evident when she exemplifies linguistic code switching between African American vernacular—which conjures Baldwin’s If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is? (Baldwin, 1979)—and the dominant, or “standard,” English language.

Brown-Jeffy and Cooper (2011) make a compelling observation about CRP in that the framework does not centre race as a site for critical analysis. The proposed solution is an application of CRP employing critical race theory (CRT) as an overlapping framework. Ladson-Billings (1998) lays a foundation in CRT as well. She traces the genealogy of CRT, originally rooted in legal scholarship, to its more recent iterations in education. She defines CRT as the “deconstruction of oppressive structures and discourses, reconstruction of agency, and construction of equitable and socially just relations of power” (p. 9). CRT exposes the current educational system as anchored in white supremacy, which quantifiably benefits white students, teachers, support workers, managers, and administrators (Gomez, 1993; Gomez & Rodriguez, 2011; Johnson, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Salazar, 2018). As Salazar (2018) notes, education sees whiteness as the “normative” centre, and CRT—which interrogates all aspects of education, including curriculum development, instruction, assessment, funding, and segregation—brings BAME/BIPOC students and academic staff back into the centre (Ladson-Billings, 1998).

As co-conspirators in this discussion on critical digital pedagogy framed by CRP, we pause for a moment to convey our subjectivities since they inform our methodological intentions.

Subjectivity of Maria V. Luna-Thomas

I embody this chapter of my life as an Afro-Latina living in London. Here there are no check boxes for representations of Latinidad. The UK census does not see us. Yet I can hear our voices, our accents—Colombian, Dominican, Chilean—on the streets of London. This data-centric obscurity is reanimated in higher education. My frustration with “colonized curriculums” and the homogeneity of academic and managerial staff motivates my commitment to creating inclusive classrooms in which my students feel seen, heard, and positioned as co-collaborators in the process of expanding our collective knowledge. I engage from the position of a migrant, a Latina who champions her Afro roots, and a feminist who acknowledges her privileges and embraces plurality in ways of being and knowing (Paris, 2012).

Subjectivity of Enilda Romero-Hall

I identify as Latinx, but more precisely I am an Afro-Latinx woman. As part of my upbringing, I completed my K–12 education in Panama. As a young adult, I became an immigrant and a learner in higher education institutions in both Canada and the United States. I do not have a financially privileged background, but because of the importance given to education by my family I have always been motivated to further my studies. My upbringing, educational experiences, and immigrant status have provided a cultural standpoint and disposition toward inclusive, equal, and socially just education.

Affirming the Value of Latino/a Educators

There is value in the deployment of CRP from a subaltern embodiment. Gomez and Rodriguez (2011) comb through studies of Latino/a prospective and practising teachers and highlights their most effective talents: forming family/school connections, leaning toward political consciousness, and developing personal relationships. Our teaching methods, informed by the plurality of our subjectivities, align with these pedagogical modalities. The perception of us as outsiders endows us with insider knowledge that enables us to practise CRP from a place of empathy whether in-person or online.

Reflection and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Digital Praxis

As educators, it is critical to engage in a reflective process that allows us to acknowledge how our life experiences have shaped our positionality and subjectivity as learners in different learning experiences. This reflective process allows us to understand ourselves and to engage in pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and culturally. In a digital environment, there is a tendency to focus more on content and technology use; however, critical digital pedagogy embedded in CRP aims to humanize learning experiences.

Instructors’ reflections on humanizing pedagogy entail respecting and incorporating social realities, cultural embodiments, histories, and learner perspectives as integral parts of educational practice (Bartolome, 1994). Reflection as an educator requires you to interrogate your own cultural identity. How would you describe your cultural makeup? Does your place of origin shape your cultural identity? As you prepare to engage your learners, ask yourself just how much you know about their cultural identities, values, and indices. Employ this new knowledge to aid you in designing digital democratic experiences that include all of your learners.

Knowledge Democracy

There are direct connections between CRP and curriculum design. Higher education curriculums tend to discount diverse knowledge systems of the world originating particularly among Indigenous peoples and non-white racial groups. Further erasures are based upon gender, class, and sexuality (Hall & Tandon, 2017). CRP in digital environments lends itself to the decolonization of knowledge by allowing a participatory approach to learning in which knowledge sharing is a social movement that deepens democracy.

Just as we reflect on designing digital democratic experiences, so too we must practise knowledge democracy by acknowledging the existence of multiple epistemological frameworks that include scholars around the world. Curricular sources of knowledge—including books, journal articles, resources, guest speakers, and other instructional materials—should aim to be representative of scholars everywhere whose expertise benefits learners’ experiences.

Representation Matters

Romero-Hall et al. (2018) challenge the learning design and technology field by calling attention to our mandate of a “process-based, relational, inclusive, equitable, and transformative community” (p. 27). Yet we continue to oppress and marginalize BAME/BIPOC learners through standard design practice. Too often our learning materials and experiences lack adequate racial and ethnic representation and action. Just as we consider the decor of the physical classroom, which reflects the students who sit in the seats, so too we should consider the “decor” of our digital learning experiences, with images and words that more closely represent online learners. By embracing our BAME/BIPOC students’ cultures, we affirm our understanding that cultural distinctions are assets.

Intersectional theory views identities as consisting of multiple social dimensions such as gender, race, sexuality, and/or class. It proposes that the complex interconnections among these dimensions have significant material consequences (Crenshaw, 1989). As instructors and designers, we can showcase the intersectionality of learners by using images that allow them to feel seen as part of the learning process. We should aim to use stock photos and illustrations (e.g., Black Illustrations, 2020) featuring people from a range of nationalities, skin tones, and ethnic backgrounds across age, gender, class, sexuality, body type, and physical (dis)ability. Intentionally designed intersectional digital learning materials and experiences with inclusive images acknowledge and benefit BAME/BIPOC learners across all racial groups while also ensuring representation.

Similarly, the representation of a learner’s home language matters. It is critical to demystify myths related to language. Mastery of one language or a single variant of it fails to equip learners with the linguistics demanded of the real world (Gay, 2018). CRP in digital learning is truly asset based when home languages are valued and encouraged. Rather than punish learners because of grammatical mistakes, we can be curious about languages and grammatical errors as formative data (Singer, 2018). This can help us to understand what might not transfer from a student’s home language and which resources can be provided to support a learner’s second-language acquisition. Another way to affirm a home language as an asset is to encourage digital collaboration among learners with fluency in the same language. Encouraging these learners to collaborate or connect facilitates the use of their home language to incorporate prior knowledge, clarify complex concepts, or ask each other questions. Gestures such as embedding multilingual greetings, terms, or expressions in online content, announcements, and synchronous online meetings signal that learners of all backgrounds are valued (Singer, 2018).

Critical Selection of Educational Technology

In teaching and learning, the integration of educational technology provides both opportunities and challenges. One of the main provocations is that educational technology tools are not culturally neutral. Instead, these resources amplify the cultural characteristics of those who develop and promote them, most of whom are members of the dominant culture (Sujo de Montes et al., 2002). As Don Norman stated in The Design of Everyday Things (1998), “we tend to project our own rationalization and beliefs onto the actions and beliefs of others” (p. 155). Therefore, as learning designers, we need to internalize the idea that there is no substitute for truly understanding learners, those who engage with the proposed technology.

The critical selection of technology means not turning a blind eye on issues of race, ethnicity, and power dynamics when considering educational technologies to support learning experiences of BAME/BIPOC students. As an example, the adoption of the video-conference platform Zoom by educational institutions across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic left BAME/BIPOC learners and others vulnerable to widespread racist and vitriolic attacks termed “Zoom-bombing” (Ruf, 2020). Such attacks resulted from the lack of privacy features in the video-conferencing tool design and adequate training of instructors before implementation, among other issues. The critical selection of technology also means considering a radical digital citizenship approach. Emejulu and McGregor (2016) explain that this demands the critical analysis of the social, political, economic, and environmental consequences of technologies in everyday life and as a result the consideration of alternatives and emancipatory technologies and technological practices.

Tapping into the Learner’s Culture

Knowing your learners is central in CRP. This includes understanding their family lives, histories, and experiences (Gonzalez, 2018). In digital environments, this is even more critical since research shows that interactions in online courses tend to be infrequent and often limited to written texts (Pacansky-Brock et al., 2020). These paradigms can be particularly consequential for students when course work is submitted online. For example, anonymous marking is often engaged as part of the assessment process. However, anonymous marking can inhibit the process of tailoring student feedback. In this circumstance, the incorporation of CRP would facilitate a greater sense of familiarity in the digital classroom, allowing educators to arrive at anonymous marking and recognize students’ signature modes of expression.

Tapping into learners’ culture can also be nurtured through strategies of social presence (Whiteside et al., 2017). Woodley et al., (2017) specifically suggested validating students’ pre-existing knowledge with relevant activities that establish presence, relationship, and rapport. Some of these activities include virtual student introductions in synchronous delivery utilizing directed questions like “Tell me a bit about you,” drawing out information about one’s hometown, pets or no pets, fun facts, etc., and asynchronous formats (see below sample questions) that encourage learners to share elements of their culture, upbringing, family life, education, and professional experience. As instructors and designers, we can also aim to include activities that aid the development of learning communities within our courses (Bali, 2021). This encompasses digital spaces in which learners feel comfortable sharing with each other in an informal manner such as a conversation café with different topics or subgroups (see below for an example of instructions).

Sample Questions

Empathy for and Care of BAME/BIPOC Learners

When embracing CRP, we encourage a learner-centred approach among instructors invested in nurturing the efforts and experiences of BAME/BIPOC learners (Adeyemi, 2020). Empathy and care are at the core of these nurturing experiences. Caring pedagogues see themselves in a humanizing relationship in which learners’ differences are strengths, not shortcomings. This means cultivating an inclusive online course climate that supports cognitive and affective differences. Universal design for learning (UDL) serves a flexible framework that does not assume the “one size fits all” approach; instead, it allows for adjustment to and customization of a learner’s needs. As part of UDL, instructors consider digital learning experiences with multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement (Pacansky-Brock et al., 2020).

A few examples of UDL that considers empathy for and care of BAME/BIPOC learners through humanized online teaching include using a liquid syllabus to establish a welcoming tone and effectively support the understanding of content by students from different cultural backgrounds (Pacansky-Brock et al., 2020); using asynchronous discussion boards that allow for multi-modal communication in which learners can compose and share messages using a format (text, audio, or video) in which they feel comfortable (Romero-Hall & Vicentini, 2017); and empowering students through leadership opportunities in the course such as co-designing course activity and/or session facilitation (Woodley et al., 2017).

Netiquette

Ultimately, digital learning experiences that cultivate CRP provide learners and instructors with opportunities to co-create knowledge across cultures, social status, and life experiences. To do so, it is critical to set communication guidelines that acknowledge openness and understanding of difference. A framework that can be used to set these communication guidelines in an online environment is the five Rs: respect, relevance, reciprocity, responsibility, and relationships (Tessaro et al., 2018). The five Rs have been used successfully to implement online spaces of traditional and non-traditional Indigenous learning in First Nations schools across Canada.

Institutional approaches to digital education often centre on the idea that learners fare best when they adapt learning experiences and institutional values as forms of assimilation. Yet netiquettes that embrace the five Rs in digital learning environments accommodate and adapt to the learner’s needs instead of the other way.1 The aim of these netiquettes is to ensure that everyone (both faculty members and students) is respectful of others’ views and opinions and sensitive to different political and religious beliefs as well as cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Additionally, netiquettes that encompass the five Rs in digital learning environments can serve as reminders to be respectful of privacy and accurate and factual.

Conclusion

The term “student achievement gap” in education refers to the difference in academic performance among students in subgroups, in which one group of students outperforms another group (Kotok, 2017). Racial achievement gaps are the most studied and discussed because they are significant. Systemic racial inequalities affect educational systems. Therefore, we need policies that protect BAME/BIPOC students from systemic racism in their educational journeys. At the same time, as educators, it is critical to take a stance and truly embrace BAME/BIPOC students. One of the many ways in which we can do so is by valuing distinctions and integrating CRP. There are many declarations and appearances of cultural diversity, but they are more illusionary than real. “The legitimacy and viability of cultural diversity in teaching and learning for ethnically diverse students are far from being commonly accepted among educators” (Gay, 2018, p. 286).

In this chapter, we provided an overview of CRP and stated the need for democratic digital education. We also shared our subjectivity as Afro-Latinx educators and described how it guides our pedagogy. Additionally, we shared actionable practices that aid in the resistance of digital hegemony through the implementation of CRP in digital praxis. These practices include reflection by the instructor on humanizing pedagogy, knowledge democracy by acknowledging multiple epistemological frameworks, design using intersectional visual representations and the use of native languages, critical selection of educational technology, tapping into the learner’s culture through the integration of social presence strategies, empathy and care in pedagogy by implementing UDL, and use of netiquette practices that integrate the five Rs: respect, relevance, reciprocity, responsibility, and relationships.

For educators committed to addressing the attainment gap as it threatens to be replicated online, it is our hope that CRP in digital praxis will aid you in making intentions and objectives manifest. These propositions have also been developed for those who do not know where to begin, those who are faltering in the face of unrelenting change, and those who teach from a place of hope.

Key Takeaways

• Culturally relevant pedagogy and corresponding emancipatory pedagogies address the attainment gap, which disproportionately affects BAME/BIPOC students in the United Kingdom and United States.
• The prevalence of digital learning experiences in all educational levels around the world, further triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the expansion of remote learning, engenders greater exposure to digital hegemony.
• Reflective practice is foundational to effective culturally relevant pedagogy online and demands that instructors take a stance in resisting digital hegemony.
• Culturally relevant pedagogy in digital praxis fosters an inclusive environment that embraces multiple ways of being and knowing, promotes democratic learning experiences, validates learners’ pre-existing knowledge, is bolstered by empathy and care, and fosters co-creation of knowledge across cultures.

Note

References