| Critical Pedagogy |
Helping students learn about social, political, economic, historical, and current functions of oppression, and brainstorm ways that they can critically work to undo these forms of oppression. This allows students the space to apply what they’re learning to then problem pose, question pose, problem solve, and think critically. |
| Critical Consciousness |
Critical consciousness focuses on achieving an in-depth understanding of the world, allowing for understanding systems and dynamics of oppression. |
| Culturally Relevant Pedagogy |
Student-centered teaching that includes students and their cultures in the classroom in ways that promote greater academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness. Refers to any teaching approach that is student-centered, and takes into account students’ cultural strengths, using them to support teaching |
| Culturally Responsive Pedagogy |
Teaching that focuses on supporting and celebrating students’ intersectional cultural identities and experiences through meaningful learning that is responsive to who each learner is and can be. |
| Culturally Revitalizing Pedagogy |
Teaching that recognizes and revitalizes histories and cultures, particularly for indigenous people, that have been disrupted by colonization, involving communities in the learning process and relationship. |
| Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy |
Fosters and maintains the multilingual and multicultural strengths of students while maintaining access to dominant cultural competence. |
| Ethnic Studies |
The study of race, ethnicity and indigeneity that centers the history, experiences and perspectives of people of color and their intersecting identities. |
| Ethnic Studies Pedagogy |
Teaching that helps students gain knowledge about and challenge social, political and economic structures, locally, nationally and globally. |
| Ethnic Studies Movement |
An educational and social justice movement that decolonizes teaching and learning and humanizes and empowers students, families, communities and land. |
| Pluralism |
Using and sustaining assets for learning from your cultural background throughout school, while gaining new assets in school. |
| Derogatory Slurs |
Terms that are used to harm or mock an aspect of a person or group’s identity |
| Diverse Identities |
The way a person or group identifies based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, mental health status, disability, age, sexual orientation, religious status, gender expression, etc. |
| Stereotypes |
Inaccurate, over-generalized ways of categorizing, labelling, or thinking about an identity-based group of people |
| Tokenism |
A false sense of diversity; hiring or including a small number of people who have historically excluded identities; thinking that the experience of one person from a historically excluded community is the exact same as or completely opposite from the experiences of all people in that historically excluded community |
| Deficit-Framing |
Thinking that some people have strengths and some are not capable of having strengths or succeeding. This thinking is often informed by implicit bias. |
| Individuality |
Individuality (or self-hood) is the state of being an individual; particularly of being a person separate from other people and possessing their own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities |
| Authenticity |
Engaging in conversations that are taught in school to real-world issues, problems, and applications; learning experiences should mirror the complexities and ambiguities of real life. |
| Strengths-Based Framing |
Knowing that each person has strengths, brilliance, and various abilities |
| Power |
Who has access and the ability to influence and make decisions that impact others |
| Positionality |
One’s relationship with power; one’s understanding of the way that they enter into and are seen in a space |
| Hierarchical Power |
Top-down, vertical power structure; the people with the most power are at the top of the pyramid and have access to the most decision-making privileges; the lower a person or group is on the pyramid, the less access they have to decision-making and systemic/institutional influence |
| Shared Power |
Circular, horizontal power structure; each person and group has access to decision-making, is seen as vital to the overall wellness of the community, and has a voice that is seen as important |
| Oppressive Themes |
The impacts of institutional power which creates systems that discriminate against minority communities. These systems enable groups who have access to power to exert control over minoritized communities by limiting their rights, freedom, and access to basic resources such as health care, education, employment, and housing. |
| Multicultural Themes |
Multicultural education advocates the belief that students and their life histories and experiences should be placed at the center of the teaching and learning process and that pedagogy should occur in a context that is familiar to students and that addresses multiple ways of thinking. In addition, teachers and students must critically analyze oppression and power relations in their communities, society and the world. |
| Justice-Driven Themes |
A justice-driven education refers to pedagogical ways to actively address the dynamics of oppression and privilege that are deeply embedded in society. This recognizes that society has been built on the foundations of social constructions of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and ability. Working for social justice in education means guiding students in critical self- reflection, analyzing of the systems of oppression, and the ability to challenge these hierarchies |
