1. Biography
· Born in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1947 and was educated in the Philadelphia public school system
· An American pedagogical theorist and teacher educator on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education and an Assistant Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs
· Currently, the Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds the office of the President of the American Educational Research Association
2. Theoretical Orientation, The Major Theories, Studies and strategies for which Ladson-Billings is being credited
· Well-known for her groundbreaking work in the fields of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Critical Race Theory
· Her Culturally Relevant Teaching (1994) describes that “a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes” (Coffey)
3. Belief about literacy instruction
Three Principles of Culturally Relevant Teaching
· Students must experience academic success: CRT “requires that teachers attend to students’ academic needs, not merely make them ‘feel good’” and that it is imperative to have students “choose academic excellence.”
· Students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence: “Culturally relevant teachers utilize students’ culture as a vehicle for learning,” encouraging students to learn to maintain their “cultural integrity.”
· Students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order: culturally relevant teachers “engage in the world and others critically,” and in order to do this, ““students must develop a broader sociopolitical consciousness that allows them to critique the cultural norms, values, mores, and institutions that produce and maintain social inequities.”
Her focus on culturally relevant pedagogy is enlightening for teachers and educators alike. The concepts can be applied in any classroom - from mainstream classrooms with culturally diverse students to ESL of both cultural and linguistic diversity.