The achievement gap between White students and students of color has long been a concern of educators. It is well established that critical pedagogy and culturally relevant teaching practices increase the possibility of academic achievement for ethnic minority students; yet, throughout the U.S., the implementation of such practices has been less than optimal. It is also clear that some teachers are doing an excellent job of teaching students of color. However, it is not clear what those teachers are doing and what their practices look like, particularly in secondary classrooms and for Latina/o students—the fastest growing ethnic minority population in the U.S. Are successful teachers of Latina/o youth engaging in critical pedagogy or culturally relevant teaching practices? Have they developed caring, empathetic relationships with students that result in greater engagement and academic success? Using a multifaceted theoretical framework of critical social theory, seen specifically through the lenses of culturally relevant pedagogy, empathy and false empathy, critical studies in Whiteness, and critical race theory, this ethnographic multiple-case study aimed to answer those questions. By observing and interviewing educators whom principals, teachers, and parents all nominated as “successful” for the Latina and Latino students in a particular school, and identifying the teaching strategies and classroom management routines they employed, I hoped to illuminate key practices and underlying attitudes that other teachers can emulate as they strive to reach and teach Latina/o students.

This paper reports a study that examined the pedagogical knowledge (knowledge and beliefs related to the act of teaching) of two more successful and two less successful adult ESL instructors during planning teaching and post teaching reflection. The verbal reports of their teaching were compared to previous studies (Gatbonton, 2000, 2008; Mullock, 2006) that used stimulated recall to categorize adult ESL instructors' pedagogical thoughts during their instruction. The comparison showed that the previous categories were inadequate to cover the data. Additional codes were added in order to codify all the data after which patterns and themes emerged that overarched the previous categories. The five pattern themes among the four participants included academic focus, comprehension, engagement, language management, and student centered. The two more successful teachers each had one specific pattern theme whose fundamental focus was on student learning. These themes dominated the more successful teachers' pedagogical foci while the other four themes were subservient to that dominant theme. Like the more successful teachers all five pattern themes were present in the planning and reflection of the less successful teachers. However, the protocols of the less successful Adult ESL teachers did not exhibit a central theme or pedagogical focus that orchestrated and directed the movement of their pedagogical thoughts among the remaining pattern themes. This lack of a dominant theme meant that the pedagogical foci of these teachers moved from one theme to another without a consistent orientation toward a central goal. The conflicted or divided nature of the pedagogical thinking of these less successful teachers may contribute to the reduction in the learning of students in their classes.