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Master's Thesis: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and the Importance of Diversified Curricula

McGregor, Amber Dawn
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McGregor, Amber Dawn
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Culturally relevant pedagogy—United States, Education—Curricula—Social aspects—United States, African Americans—Education—United States, Civil rights movements—Study and teaching—United States, Elementary education—United States—Curricula
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Amber M. Final Draft.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10267/36841
Abstract
Not every student identifies with the lessons that are being scripted by many educational institutions. Teachers need to be informed about the backgrounds of their students; therefore, culturally relevant pedagogy should be utilized when teaching elementary students in urban schools. Culturally relevant pedagogy has been found to improve urban students’ attitudes about school and their peers, to improve engagement with their lessons, and to improve students’ performance in various academic subjects. Providing students with a variety of viewpoints and reminding them of the accomplishments of historical figures that reflect their cultures can help students draw connections to their daily lives. Educators need to change the curricula to incorporate into every lesson that which is important to their Elementary students. I have designed a unit meant for second-grade English students. The unit consists of four lessons on lesser-known figures from history. The lessons focus on Daisy Bates, Georgia Gilmore, Bayard Rustin, and civil rights activists whose names are unknown. Since social studies is not taught in many second-grade classes, it is my intention to incorporate history into English lessons with the use of grade-appropriate texts for students to read and writing assignments. The unit is designed to be adapted to the unique needs of individual students and can be easily expanded upon. My goal with creating this unit is to bring attention to lesser-known historical figures, particularly those people who were left out of history books because of their gender, sexual orientation, or skin color. Daisy Bates, Georgia Gilmore, and Bayard Rustin were all civil rights activists and proudly Black. All of three of these heroes made significant contributions to history as did many more people whose names are forgotten. Teaching students various viewpoints from history will help students to see themselves in lessons.
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