The purpose of this research is to construct a comprehensive, analytic framework to clarify the construct of white ignorance and then illustrate how the framework can be applied to education research, theory and practice. To develop the framework, I consolidate and synthesize the extant literature around white ignorance, delineating a typology and conceptual vocabulary for the three core elements of the construct: 1) doxastic white ignorance, 2) active white ignorance, and 3) meta-white ignorance. Then, I show its application. First, I illustrate how researchers can use the framework to guide investigation into the ways that mostly white schools operate to reproduce and sustain white ignorance. Next, I illustrate how teachers can use the framework to combat and undermine the proliferation of white ignorance in their school and classroom. Toward that end, I develop a conception of wokeness, conceived not as the absence of ignorance but as the recognition of one’s own ignorance and the capacity to neutralize its effect on one’s judgment. Finally, I show how teacher educators can use the framework to transform the way we prepare teachers for social justice education. Ultimately, my project conceptualizes an approach called "racially responsive pedagogy," which serves to formalize a common diagnostic and pedagogical methodology between culturally responsive/sustaining pedagogies and anti-white ignorance pedagogies. In mostly nonwhite schools, white supremacist patterns of practice promote subtractive schooling and cultural erasure. In response, culturally responsive/sustaining pedagogies are warranted to reincorporate indigenous epistemologies back into the classroom. In mostly white schools, it’s the inverse. White supremacist patterns of practice promote white ignorance, which educators should work to resist and exclude. A racially responsive pedagogy elevates racial analyses, inviting educators to decode white supremacist patterns of practice, so they can activate a response and confidently advance their social justice mission regardless of the context in which they teach.

This mixed methods study sought to uncover the needs of culturally diverse students in the online learning environment. Several of the unexplored factors that may contribute to high attrition rate among online undergraduate students, were also analyzed. The study examined how the variables of prior educational experience, age, gender, ethnicity, country of birth, and first or native language spoken contributed to success in online classes. The research also explored how institutional support contributed to the success of online learners. Through the use of survey data collection and interviews, the results of this study indicated that culturally diverse learners reported three skills that are essential to their success in online learning environments: time management, self-directedness, and computer or technical skills. Students also indicated that institutional and instructor support are vital to their success in online classes. Although all variables examined were not significant predictors to the success of online learners, the results of this study provide insight into the needs of culturally diverse learners. These findings may be helpful to educators and policymakers when planning for or designing online courses for culturally diverse learners. These findings may also aid in reducing the high attrition rate of culturally diverse learners in online environments by encouraging more readiness assessments for students enrolling in online courses to determine their level of readiness for online learning. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The growing population of Latino students in the United States requires a focus on culturally relevant practices for teaching Latino students. The purpose of this study was to investigate music educators’ Latino cultural knowledge and their use of that knowledge for teaching Latino students. Ladson-Billings’ (1995b) theory of culturally relevant pedagogy frames this study. Three questions guided this study. First, what cultural knowledge do music educators hold about Latino students and the communities in which they teach? Second, how do music educators use cultural knowledge to inform their pedagogical practice with Latino students? Finally, what specific culturally relevant pedagogical practices are enacted by music educators for teaching Latino students? To address the research questions, I interviewed three music teachers and observed their teaching practices. Interviews with a sample of the teachers’ Latino students also informed the study. I utilized elements of portraiture to present the data through vignettes followed by discussions and personal reflections. An analysis of the data through the lens of culturally relevant pedagogy revealed numerous methods that music educators frequently used when teaching Latino students. After I categorized those methods and aligned them with current research on core instructional practices, a list emerged of 12 culturally relevant core instructional practices that facilitate learning for Latino students. Based on the findings of this study, I recommend that teachers take an asset-based approach when working with Latino students and families, understand and make distinctions between Latino cultures, find ways to communicate effectively with Latino students and families, implement Latino language and culture into class curriculum, and enact characteristics of caring for Latino students. In addition, teacher education programs may benefit from developing courses in culturally relevant pedagogy specifically for working with Latino students.

<p>This dissertation is premised on using an asset-based framework to investigate how engineering educators provide culturally relevant engineering education to Nigerian students at the undergraduate level. Its research questions are as follows: <i>How do engineering educators provide culturally relevant teaching to Nigerian students? What can we learn about culturally relevant teaching in engineering education from a comparative study of institutions and educators in the Nigerian context? What are the affordances, challenges, and recommendations</i><i>?</i> This dissertation leverages the socio-psychological teacher conceptions of “knowledge,” “social relations,” and the “self” and “others” described by Gloria Ladson Billings’ culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) framework. Schools located in all six of Nigeria’s geopolitical zones and participants fluent in her three major spoken languages are represented in the study. The analyzed data for this study include surveys, in-person and virtual classroom observations, teacher reflection journals, classroom artifacts, school policy documents, and semi-structured interviews with 37 engineering faculty members, 2 provosts, 5 engineering college deans, and 2 students. The findings reveal a strong penchant for <b>analogies and proverbs as analogical bridges</b> that engineering instructors in this context used when traditional experiments, classroom demonstrations, or available educational resources failed. Nuances of culturally-relevant teacher conceptions include: <u>using proverbs to build cognitive reasoning in Nigerian engineering classrooms; visual and auditory cues as a type of formative feedback; analogies as a pedagogical form; advocating for active and authentic learning through tutorials; leveraging the communal nature of the culture in the classroom; colonial antecedents responsible for certain school policies; manifestations of Ladson-Billings’ conceptions in this context; and peculiarities of the three CRP criteria in this context.</u> The dissertation concludes with implications of the study for culturally relevant engineering education and useful recommendations for instructors looking for culturally relevant ways of supporting students of Nigerian origins in their engineering classrooms.</p>

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This case study describes and examines the pedagogical practices of urban middle school teachers who execute multicultural literature unit plans with students of color. Culturally relevant theory guides the analysis of the teachers’ planning and pedagogy. The data gathered include; semi-structured curriculum director, teacher and student interviews; field notes of classroom observations; student reflective journals as well as curriculum artifacts. Data were analyzed and coded for findings, and implications for further research are given. Findings show teachers enact some, but not all principles of the framework of culturally relevant pedagogy. / Literacy & Learners

This qualitative case study examined the recruitment and hiring practices of an urban district. Participants in this study included five district-level, human resource staff members and six campus principals. Data collected and analyzed including audio recordings of semi-structured interviews of each participant and documents at the district and campus levels used during the recruitment and hiring processes. The findings suggested that there is evidence of the district's use of the fit theory and culturally relevant pedagogy, and there is potential value in uniting and using both theories to identify and hire culturally responsive teachers. Findings also suggested that some tenets of both theories overlap, and some were more evident and more valued in the district processes than others. Since urban schools tend to experience significant staffing challenges and require teachers who are more culturally responsive, this study has the potential to help district and campus leaders examine their current hiring practices and establish stronger connections to the fit theory and culturally relevant pedagogy tenets.

Educational policies and systemic inequalities have created “very different educational realities” for African American students and their white counterparts (Darling-Hammond, 2005) resulting in low literacy rates, low test scores, and high dropout rates. Culturally relevant pedagogy has been shown to increase the academic achievement of culturally diverse students (Gay, 2000; Howard, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 1994). However, many in-service teachers struggle to effectively implement a culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) (Esposito & Swain, 2009; May, 2011; Rozansky, 2010), and limited research has been conducted on professional development aimed at supporting teachers’ knowledge and practices around CRP (Knight & Wiseman, 2005; Milner, 2009). Guided by sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1934/1986; Wertsch 1991), critical theory (Freire, 1970), critical race theory (Delgado & Stefanic, 2012; Taylor, 2009) and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970; Giroux, 2003), this study examined teachers’ changing beliefs and practices as they engaged in professional development on issues related to culturally relevant pedagogy and literacy development. Questions guiding this study were: (1) What shifts do teachers make in their conceptual and pedagogical understandings around CRP when engaged in professional development activities? (2) What factors enhance or inhibit teachers’ ability to implement CRP during literacy instruction? (3) How do teachers navigate contextual constraints to implement their beliefs in relation to CRP? The methodology for this study is formative experiment, as its goal is to bridge the gap between theory and practice, (Bradley & Reinking, 2011). A continuous, teacher-centered professional development focused on CRP served as the intervention for this formative experiment. Data sources include audio-recorded interviews and teacher debrief session, video-recorded professional development sessions, and field notes from classroom observations. Findings of this study indicate that theoretical learning, critical self-reflection, collaboration, and longevity are integral to support shifts in teachers beliefs and practices around culturally relevant pedagogy. Findings also show that the shifting process is dynamic and complex and occurs differently for individuals. Implications of this study suggest that professional learning should be differentiated for teachers as it considers teachers beliefs, experiences, and work context during the learning process. Teachers can form communities of practice to support each other’s learning goals and implementation of CRP.

Thesis advisor: Diana Pullin / In recent years, critical race theory (CRT) has garnered much attention in education scholarship as a way to examine the racialized practices that persist in U.S. schooling. This study was a grassroots attempt at using CRT as the theoretical framework to engage a group of administrators and teacher leaders at one urban school in inquiry-based discourse that focused on raising the educators' race consciousness and co-constructing an antiracist pedagogy. A combined method of action research and critical case study was used as the research methodology. This dissertation reports on three notable findings that surfaced from the study. One, the participants largely perceived racism an individual pathology, not as a system of privilege. Because the participants regarded themselves as educators who were committed to social justice, they were often deceived by their activism to recognize their own complicity in the perpetuation of racist ideologies in their practice. Two, despite the overwhelming criticisms against NCLB in scholarly literature, the participants at this low-income, racially-diverse, urban school were passionately in favor of the goals behind the statute. With the recent push toward the development of common core content standards through the Race to the Top program, increased dialogue regarding what knowledge should be considered "common" and "core" needs to occur in order to breach the impasse between the divergent curricular viewpoints held by all stakeholders. Three, although culturally relevant pedagogy is widely espoused and utilized in educational research and practice, it is often not commonly understood as a conceptual framework that advocates the three-pronged elements of academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. Findings revealed wide misconceptions and misuse of the theory that stemmed from teachers' cultural bias, the nature of racism in school settings, and the lack of support to adequately implement theories into practice. ` All of these findings revealed issues of power, positionality, and privilege that were deeply entrenched in the policies and practices of the school, which suggested that greater collaboration between scholars and practitioners was necessary in order to engender ongoing critical self-reflection and reconceptualization of theories as viable pedagogical tools to begin the work of antiracism. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.