Abstract
Headphones on ears, head bobbing, completely disconnected from the class, teacher says loudly in the words of Nipsey Hussle “I been grindin all my life”, student looks up…gat em! As an educator, I have adapted culturally relevant pedagogy in my classroom to better connect to my students. It is a misconception that students are no longer learning, they are, in the ways they enjoy. How is it that a student can recite the lyrics of their favorite song but we struggle with teaching definitions. We have lost touch with the ways students are learning and have mostly embraced educational practices rooted in hegemony. Ebonics for example, is not an unacceptable form of speech, it is a worldly recognized and effective way of communicating. As a teacher, I have had success in teaching material to my students utilizing the things they love such as music. Not only is ebonics an accepted form of communication, the greatest teachers of subjects we are only now starting to teach outside of indoctrination have been recording artists. Students long learned what marginalization was before it was printed in textbooks. Students have also learned how to develop confidence and persevere through struggles also in many cases outside of the classroom. As teachers we have stopped motivating and encouraging. We are more concerned with the test and final grade scores than we are about the actual lives of our students. How can we teach them, capture the ears? Teach how they learn….use Ebonics.
Presenters
Clavette PhillipProfessor, Southern California State University, Armed Forces Americas, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Ebonics Pedagogy
