Curriculum and Pedagogy for Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Urban Education: Key Takeaways From an Online Professional Development Program for Georgia Teachers of Urban Learners

Presentation given at Georgia Educational Research Association.

This presentation will discuss planning and implementation of an online urban education professional development program for in-service teachers intended to enhance teaching praxis through a focus on culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining pedagogy. Design of the professional development was informed by research on effective teacher professional development (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). The program’s theoretical grounding included Schwab’s (1973) curriculum commonplaces, Ladson-Billings’ (1995) three pillars of culturally relevant pedagogy: academic achievement, cultural competence, and socio-political consciousness, and Gay’s (2018) culturally responsive teaching approach components. Presenters will share curriculum and pedagogy utilized in the program to enhance: (1) teachers’ knowledge of the context of urban education; (2) teachers’ abilities to recognize and utilize the human and material resources within urban communities to support the academic and psychological well-being of urban learners; and (3) teachers’ abilities to develop culturally relevant and sustaining curriculum plans in their areas of certification. Emphasis in this presentation will be placed on program benefits identified by participants and lessons learned by instructors during multiple offerings of the program.