Challenges to Conceptualizing and Actualizing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: How Viablw is the Classroom Practice

Although culturally relevant pedagogy is widely espoused and applied in educational research and practice, it is often not commonly understood as a conceptual framework that advocates the elements of academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. This study was a grassroots attempt to work collaboratively with a group of administrators and teachers at one urban school to define, implement, and assess culturally relevant pedagogy as a viable pedagogical tool. A qualitative approach that used the combined methods of action research and critical case study was employed for this study. Findings revealed deep structural issues related to teachers ’ cultural bias, the nature of racism in school settings, and the lack of support to adequately implement theories into practice. The study also recommends further inquiry-based dialogue among scholars and practitioners to more consistently utilize the theory in academic research and in classroom instruction. Keywords race, class, gender issue; teacher knowledge and beliefs; achievement; school teacher effectiveness; action research; culturally relevant pedagogy Since the 1990s, culturally relevant pedagogy has been taught extensively in teacher education programs and promoted by scholars and practitioners as an effective pedagogical tool to work with students of diverse backgrounds. Many studies to date, however, have discussed the difficulties that preservice and inservice teachers have in implementing multicultural education or culturally relevant teaching in their classroo