Culturally Relevant Teaching and Our Contemplations

Thankfully I’ve finally figured out how to post on here.  I’ve been trying to figure it out since Friday.  But this is what was recorded about  our class on Thursday, October 21st: Today’s class was quite interesting. We started off with a wonderful guest speaker (whose name escapes me) who spoke with us about Penn’s [...]

“I didn’t know hip hop was in Africa” and other musings on African-Centered Pedagogy

The quote in this post’s title comes directly from a student in the 11th grade Humanities and Social Sciences major seminar. Our lesson, which engaged a range of topics–globalization, economic imperialism, diaspora–centered on two readings. One, an ESPN.com article from February 2008, discussed the NBA-sponsored Sports For Education and Economic Development Foundation (SEEDS)–which established numerous [...]

What is this “Culture” in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy?

Stuart Hall – Race, the Floating Signifier So what does “culture” mean anyway? In light of our recent discussions on culturally relevant pedagogy (and critical pedagogy more broadly), I ask this question to revisit the Ase philosophy and ultimately determine how Ase’s students can be best served by our educational approach. The title of this [...]

Building the Bridge

Yesterday’s class discussion was extremely open and honest as we talked about fear and possibilities in the classroom We unpacked many of the nuances of cultural relevance, or more specifically, the humanness necessary in education. For Black students, whether walking the halls of one of the nation’s top prep schools or universities, or sitting in [...]

Week One: Toward a Du Boisian Pedagogy

After reading the selected chapter from Derrick Alridge’s The Educational Thought of W.E.B. Du Bois, I began reflecting on the notion of a Du Boisian pedagogy, and the significance of “cultural relevance” to any discussion of the “purpose(s)” of education. With a background in Africana Studies, a discipline borne from the Black Studies activist movements [...]

Another milestone for Ase

A little over an hour ago I left Penn’s Graduate School of Urban Education building, where I facilitated the first session of EDUC 245: Culturally Relevant Teaching, Learning, and Intervention. This is another huge step for Ase, and a tremendous opportunity to build upon a truly unique experience that has impacted many, many lives. I [...]