Creative Failures in Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

Today’s schools are becoming increasingly diverse-culturally and linguistically. By 2024, 29 percent of all students will identify as Latinx, 6 percent as Asian/Pacific Islander, and 15 percent as African American. Today, 9.2 percent are classified as English learners (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). However, rather than building upon students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds, schools often “subtract” these rich resources from students’ learning experiences. In some cases, this happens because mainstream teachers, who are predominantly White females, lack the understanding of why or how to do this (Valenzuela, 1999). The language and literacy practices of students’ homes are oftentimes left out of the curriculum in favor of English-l anguage texts and materials that reflect mainstream cultural values and norms. The end result is the eradication of the linguistic, literate, and cultural practices that culturally and linguistically diverse students bring from home (Paris, 2012).Culturally sustaining pedagogy is teaching that helps ethnically and linguistically diverse students develop and maintain cultural competence, academic success, and a critical consciousness (Au, 2011; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012).1 These scholars argue that education has to move beyond the tolerance and “othering” of historically marginalized groups. “Culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to perpetuate and foster-to sustain-linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling” (Paris, 2012, p. 95). While most teachers want to teach in culturally sustaining ways, some need more guidance around what such pedagogy looks like with real students. Here, our goal is to present and discuss the challenges that practicing teachers face while implementing culturally sustaining instruction. In particular, we asked teachers to share a moment when they tried to enact a culturally sustaining lesson, but it failed in some way. At a fundamental level, we believe that mistakes and failures are honest opportunities for growth and change. In these “creative failures,” each teacher learned valuable lessons about her students and how to support and sustain students’ cultures. Our hope is that these narratives will inspire reflection, debate, and dialogue about how to incorporate and respond to students’ cultural, linguistic, and historical backgrounds.Literature ReviewThe concept of culturally sustaining instruction is complex. In part, this is because educators have radically different visions of high-quality instruction. Likewise, culture is an elusive concept because it is both stable and dynamic. Some cultural values and practices are maintained across generations, while others change as people adapt in response to dynamic conditions, including new settings, technologies, and times.One common misconception is thinking that classrooms must match or duplicate students’ home environments. Some teachers feel they simply cannot get to know each and every student’s background in order to teach in culturally sustaining ways. Because many US classrooms are multiethnic and multilingual, this misconception must be addressed. Instead of viewing culturally sustaining instruction as “matching” classrooms to home practices, teachers might consider deliberately drawing from contrasting worldviews (Au, 2011). In other words, rather than addressing the issue with an “either/or” approach, teachers can incorporate both “mainstream” and “diverse” worldviews (p. 63). Au also suggests that a critical element of culturally sustaining teaching is the importance of establishing positive relationships with students, families, and communities.Furthermore, Ladson-Billings (1995) argues that culturally sustaining pedagogy is teaching that helps students achieve academic success, maintain cultural competence, and develop “a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order”