• 1) [Culturally relevant pedagogy and critical literacy in diverse English classrooms: A case study of a secondary English teacher’s activism and agency]: What will culturally relevant pedagogy look like, sound like, feel like, in your future classroom? 
• 2) [Placing elementary music education: a case study of a Canadian rural music program.]: How will you, as teacher, contribute to the sense of place for your future students?

My future classroom will hopefully be a secondary science classroom. To determine how a culturally relevant pedagogy could be enacted, I begin by thinking about the ways in which my past science experience was not culturally relevant. The first thing that comes to mind is a focus on the works of white, male scientists. In my classroom, I hope to be able to highlight the contributions and discoveries made by females and by racially diverse scientists. I also hope to have time to draw upon other culture’s beliefs and science systems; for example, the grade 9 science curriculum includes talking about Indigenous origin stories of the universe. Aside from this, however, I am still unsure how I could make science more multicultural, as the content itself is, for the most part, accepted and utilized in science globally. Perhaps discussing global environmental issues and how different nations do or do not work together to tackle them is another way to include culturally relevant pedagogy.

While a sense of place might be a little more difficult to include for lessons in physics or chemistry, it is quite easy to do in certain biology topics. Saskatchewan has a few different biomes, with a variety of plants and animals, that can all be discussed in relation to certain topics. By using a predator-species interaction example using animals that are common to Saskatchewan, or by discussing how humans affect our natural environment, like destroying natural prairie to make way for agriculture, I can contribute to a sense of place for my students by showing them how our class can relate to our province. 

Written in Response to:

Brook, J. (2013). Placing elementary music education: a case study of a Canadian rural music program. Music Education Research, 15(3), 290-303.

Lopez, A. (2011). Culturally relevant pedagogy and critical literacy in diverse English classrooms: A case study of a secondary English teacher’s activism and agency. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 10(4), 75-93.