Read
For this activity, read “What Is Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Why Does it Matter?” from Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World by Django Paris and H. Samy Alim. A PDF of this chapter was included in the Week 2 email.
Write
Reflect on and respond to the following questions by posting a comment below:- How would you describe CSP to a colleague?
- What is one example from your own teaching of how you incorporate CSP into your courses?
- Beyond applying CSP to the materials in your courses, in what additional ways might you incorporate CSP into learning experiences and activities in which your students engage?
28 thoughts on “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Reading and Reflection”
In a casual conversation I think I’d tell a colleague “The hippies had it right.” (Oh god, I hope I have my hippie history straight). In a more direct sense, I’d discuss with them the long standing focus on how a White, Euro-centric version of academia has led to inequity and about how re-centering views of how academia is performed around the culture of our students can benefit everyone.
I feel like I keep talking/writing about this, but one of the ways I try to allow students to center their own culture in the classroom is by allowing them to choose the readings in a literature centered course. I have taken to offering to allow students to choose the plays they read in a THE 100 course and even encouraging them to read it in its native language is not written in English so we can discuss the nature of translation see how/if the text was adapted for white/western audiences.
In my communication courses I have often asked students to describe how communication processes exist in their own lives. We will discuss family dynamics and the differences between how those dynamics exist in one culture compared to another. I find my students are always excited to discuss their culture/heritage and so I will often let them speak on their own for some time and only try to chime in to point to specific concepts from the course as they go through their stories. Of course, there are concepts with which this is better and worse but as a foundational conversation strategy I hope it has helped to center my students’ experiences and culture.
A CSP pedagogy is one that does not see the cultural differences of students as deficiencies that need to be corrected but instead sees and recognizes these differences as valid expressions that inclusion rather than explanation.
I try to incorporate literature from a variety of cultures, optimally from every culture present in the class. With the monthly cultural celebrations, I always incorporate an article or poem that is relevant.
Additionally, I may ask students to make their own contributions to share with the class. This can be a source of the extra credit ( I prefer enrichment activity) students are always about. They could write about how they celebrate certain cultural events or perhaps, cultural events that are in lieu of what is celebrated here(Quinceañera vs Sweet Sixteen).
For my class I have incorporated articles – topics that embrace diversity in a new perspective. For the race and ethnicity lecture – we first introduce historical knowledge of indigineuous tribes, black identity and we add recent facts like on how the Hispanic population is changing the social fabric of the United States. I’m lucky that being a sociologist my research is about European identities which are not considered to be white in the UK.
I provide recent examples of immigrants to the UK –Brazilians with European descendants (ethnicity – the biggest Latino community in the UK). Furthermore, it opens the question of what we view as white race in the U.S may not be the same in other parts of the world. I can see how students are fascinated by this topic.
Furthermore, these days I feel students with multi-racial identity have a need to speak up. In my lectures I try to have them speak about their multi-cultural identities. Because like myself, some of the students I teach are not only a minority, but we are ‘an invisible minority’ like our current vice president who is a multi-racial but society still views her as predominant only Black.
Using our VP as an example is exactly accurate to my mind. VP Harris is made up of many things; “Black” is only part of the equations. In fact, if you scratch the surface of ANY of us we are all not as simple as what the predominant White culture paints us as —- and that includes the white people in the culture as well,
In explaining CSP, I’d say it just means that everyone matters, and the more diverse, the more fun and flavorful the class. CSP reminds me a bit of the old adage: Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. CSP creates that safe space and the only way to incorporate this into the classroom is to invest the time and get to know the students, this is when the rubber hits the road because you can’t fake interest.
In my business classes, when we talk about corporate social responsibility, I’ve shown the short, “Hair Love” sponsored by Unilever that depicts the difficulty a father has in styling his African American daughter’s hair. Students (both male and female) love the video and it gets the conversation going about where the lines of corporate responsibility should be drawn.
We look at companies that have found a way to meet a niche market that may satisfy one demographic, like Bevel shaving products that were designed by an African American man for African American men to groom course hair. We’ve talked about businesses that make masks for certain ethnicities that have facial features that differ from others. We’ve also covered how Popeye’s caters to African Americans with its southern-style menu and restaurants located predominantly in African American communities. And the list goes on.
As I read this, I am fascinated and am learning a tremendous amount. I am reminded as the article talks about ” we must be open to sustaining them (our students) in ways that attend to the emerging, intersectional, and dynamic ways…” that as “oldsters”, let alone those among us from different backgrounds need to REALLY listen to how are students talk, engage, and where they are coming from. This, for me, is often difficult both because of how I present (white, cis-gendered heterosexual male in his mid-fifties); I find I must work hard to move my assumptions aside — but also must encourage my students to reveal themselves to me. Given my outer self, they often are not willing to speak, express, or share parts of themselves they might be more willing to with other professors whose backgrounds might match up with theirs.
I like very much how the article is ruthless in the critique of itself and its authors, and then how it extends that critique to its discussion of the misogynistic, homophobic, and exclusionary nature of the use of rap in classroom pedagogy. This focus on applying rigor, both philosophical and moral, to the process of using ANY technique in the classroom appeals to my sense of justice and symmetry. It’s my experience that accepting any idea lock, stock, and barrel is not healthy in the classroom. Much as I constantly rewrite before I publish anything, so I reflect quite a bit before I use a new educational tool in my classroom. I feel very strongly that pedagogy can be both a tool and a weapon; it’s very important to understand, as the article says, “both the liberatory and nonliberatory currents” of a practice. Obviously, some of this comes from experimentation but reflection is key for me. I seek to avoid both the “revoicing of ableist, racist, (trans)misogynistic, homophobic, patriarchal, and xenophobic discourses” from any culture. It is hard at best.
The article focuses on creating a “critical centering” on youth and communities of color as “a radical act”. When I think about the magnitude of the shift required to actually put this into practice and not simply pay lip service I am awed. It is a challenge that as an educator I am working on daily.
CSP involves critical and caring attention towards the intersecting cultures in a classroom. Instead of aiming towards uniformity and whitewashing, CSP seeks to foster the needs and passions of the students, while maintaining a ceaseless critical lens towards all cultures and pedagogies brought to the classroom.
In my English Composition course, I recently added a unit on neurodiversity, during which we studied literature, scholarship, and YouTube videos by nonverbal autistic scholars and activists, including Mel Baggs’ “In My Language.” We looked at the dehumanizing assumptions about people with nonverbal autism and we explored the limits and possibilities of “translation” across linguistic and neurological differences. We watched the documentary Crip Camp as well. Throughout the unit, several students posted and wrote about their own experiences with nonverbal autism, including family members or work experiences.
I seek to incorporate CSP into learning experiences in the classroom by both making space for students to share while at the same time maintaining (loving) critical lens towards all materials brought into the classroom. I see from the article that integrating CSP is an iterative process and that sharp and loving attention is a powerful tool.
I would describe CSP (Culturally Sustaining Practices) to a colleague as – finding ways of building learner’s strengths through their own dynamic, shifting, living culture(s). I might highlight that it is the next step in Culturally Relevant Practices. Here the goal is not simply to meet learners where they are, but to provide tools that encourage the sustenance of their languages, cultural practices, and ways of being. In short, to approach learning as social justice.
In my course I offer a bonus to learners who bring in poetry to read to class – I ask that they choose something meaningful to them and suggest that they choose poems in their languages other than English. Songs, interpretations of hip hop, and other forms of ‘poetry’ are also encouraged. In this small way, I create a space for learners to express and share culture through the written and spoken word. I am working toward incorporating more CSP across the course.
I see a lot of overlap here between the Open Pedagogy course and CSP – ‘meeting learners where they are’ and what we might call ‘giving learners the wheel.’ I see open pedagogy as the map we’re following and CSP as the car we’re riding in. I want to create an environment where learners build on their strengths and also get the tools needed to dismantle white supremacy, create work outside the white gaze, and engage with the possibility of a truly pluralist society – where every culture is recognized, every language survives, and every person thrives.
I would describe CSP to a colleague as prioritizing respect, celebrating and elevating each student’s individual culture and interests. I would describe CSP as a way to make the educational experience relevant in the life of each student.
One example from my own teaching of how I incorporate CSP into your courses: connecting skills and concepts explored in-class at various points throughout the semester to students’ own favorite music and sharing this technical analysis with the class.
I am still searching for additional ways in which I can incorporate CSP into learning experiences and activities in which my students engage beyond applying CSP to the materials in my courses. In my view, the atmosphere created by focusing on CSP can create an open, safe and respectful environment for discussion and learning.
I would describe CSP as the idea that education process can be enhanced if it strives to preserve and celebrate cultural diversity of our students, rather than erasing them through education (I want to say “re-education camps”).
I struggle with practical implementation though. I identified a couple topics which I now introduce by giving students a pretty expansive first word, which we keep coming back to when exploring the topic. I teach Personal Finance though, and I am a financial advisor outside of BMCC, where our clients are mostly rich(‘ish) old white people. So, I need to explore pretty closely how much of “the canon” of my subject matter is really sand from white people’s playground… that is often thrown into all our eyes.
One way how I noticed our students sometimes erase their own culture, even as they timidly acknowledge it, is by saying something like, “In my country…” I used to NOT ask the obvious question “And what country is that?”, thinking maybe they want to keep it a secret, but now I often do ask, although I am still wondering if the question is intrusive, if they don’t say initially.
Another thing I do already, and need to do more of, is use materials (songs) in foreign languages. I found a couple of video clips in Spanish and French that help me make an educational point I want to make, and I happily use them, with a link to English translation if there are no English subtitles. (I speak neither Spanish not French.) I look at it as a kind of an antithesis to an old while guy yelling at some poor immigrant to “SPEAK ENGLISH”.
CSP is an extension of culturally relevant pedagogy. It makes “teaching and learning relevant to the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students”, and it also encourages students to explore and maintain their own culture.
I might create culturally relevant mathematics assignments/activities such as I would encourage students to explore the history of mathematics development in their country.
In conversation with a colleague, I would describe CSP as a pedagogical move to de-center traditional, white academia by bringing in more of color, of LGBTQ+, of non-European that stands in its own right and not serving as a contrast/deficit to traditional, white academia. (These are not 100% the right words, but this is close.)
I struggle with incorporating CSP as much as I would like. My history of American children’s literature course is primarily European/white with a week of Native American tales until we reach the explosion of adolescent novels. The expectations of children in the Native American tales and the didactic, European novels are a HUGE contrast. In writing/composition courses, I try to bring in a variety of authors and perspectives around each main idea for each essay, and I encourage students to share their own perspectives. Food is a particularly good topic for this. We once read a very short article about how the banana that we are familiar with in the United States has been struck by a fungus that could wipe it out. Students who are only familiar with the yellow banana and plantains were surprised and delighted to learn from students who lived in other countries that more than one type of banana exists.
What I appreciated in the article and try to incorporate into my own teaching is that how we approach a topic carries with it all the good and bag baggage of that topic/approach. The article examples the rap battle; in my classes I try to bring to light how a new idea or topic or approach is great for these people over here but still not so great for those people other there.
How would you describe CSP to a colleague? CSP is a movement to consciously eliminate educational practices from four decades ago, where “educational integration” meant having working-class kids of color move in a unidirectional assimilation into whiteness. The white middle-class linguistic, literate, and cultural skills were perceived as the means to success. The future is a multilingual and multiethnic one, regardless of attempts to suppress that reality. CSP extends previous visions of asset pedagogies by demanding explicitly pluralist outcomes that are not centered on white middle-class.
What is one example from your own teaching of how you incorporate CSP into your courses? I teach 300 and 400 level technology computer courses and because I love cooking and my native language is Spanish, I use terms like “the whole enchilada” when referencing the “full picture” in an explanation.
Beyond applying CSP to the materials in your courses, in what additional ways might you incorporate CSP into learning experiences and activities in which your students engage? Computer technology is a strong magnet to foreign born individuals (like myself) and I often have multinational students that are already computer professional but need a college degree to continue their advancement. These students are an inspiration to the rest of the
Beyond applying CSP to the materials in your courses, in what additional ways might you incorporate CSP into learning experiences and activities in which your students engage? Computer technology is a strong magnet to foreign born individuals (like myself) and I often have multinational students that are already computer professional but need a college degree to continue their advancement. These students are an inspiration to the rest of the class and I encourage them to share their knowledge and experience.
When explaining to a colleague what culturally sustaining pedagogy means, I would say it is teaching students from an asset-based mindset instead of a deficit-based. It is a movement to decolonize the curriculum by appreciating the communities, experiences, and cultural pluralism students bring to the classroom. Instead of stripping students of their linguistic, literate, and cultural mindsets, acknowledge and build on them. Treat it as valuable and not something for them to be ashamed of to meet colonial standards.
I incorporate culturally sustainable pedagogy into my class by having students share something about their culture that the class might not readily know. Also, they share national dishes and the symbolism of those cuisines. It is a wonderful way to get to the students and discuss the similarities among the cultures represented in the class.
I would like to include more trauma-informed pedagogy by asking students what I can do to help them learn better during a crisis. I think I am empathetic and very accommodating, but it is without their input, now I would like to hear from them what they need.
How would you describe CSP to a colleague? CSP is a movement to consciously eliminate educational practices from four decades ago, where “educational integration” was driven towards a white middle-class linguistic and cultural skills because they were perceived as the means to success. The future is a multilingual and multiethnic one, regardless of attempts to suppress that reality. CSP extends previous visions of asset pedagogies by demanding explicitly pluralist outcomes that are not centered on white middle-class.
What is one example from your own teaching of how you incorporate CSP into your courses? I teach 300 and 400 level technology computer courses and because I love cooking and my native language is Spanish, I use terms like “the whole enchilada” when referencing the “full picture” in an explanation.
Beyond applying CSP to the materials in your courses, in what additional ways might you incorporate CSP into learning experiences and activities in which your students engage? Computer technology is a strong magnet to foreign born individuals (like myself) and I often have multinational students that are already computer professional but need a college degree to continue their advancement. These students are an inspiration to the rest of the class and I encourage them to share their knowledge and experience.
It wouldn’t be that easy to describe culturally sustaining pedagogy to a colleague mainly because of the history behind it, which was so effectively summarized in this chapter. So, I’d just begin with the idea of how CSP is a way to support and sustain our students’ sense of themselves and their cultures, languages, heritages, but more importantly, perspectives. It’s a pedagogy that values this diversity on its own, without comparison to or in relation to the dominant White culture. I’ve probably been enacting CSP for two decades. I came to BMCC in 1996 promoting Freirean liberatory, critical pedagogy and have written about it. But more recently I’ve been working on translingual practices. Although Paris and Alim don’t mention translingualism, it is the model that best suits CSP. It is a critique of the hegemony of English and the standardization of languages which devalue dialects or students’ languages. I’ve been working on translingual practices in my writing courses and it’s been a challenge. For one, it is at odds with our mission in the English Department (learning outcomes, etc). But allowing students to write in multiple forms, multiple languages and to critique and understand how languages interact can lead to amazing writing by students and keep them engaged. I actually have had students’ read Geneva Smitherman’s work and many other theorists mentioned in the chapter. So it all comes down to student writing and student voices.
I would describe CSP to a colleague by explaining that there is a need to be aware of and understand our students’ identity. This understanding will help create a learning environment that is more relevant to the population in the classroom. The idea is centered around challenging and transforming the educational experience into one that acknowledges past and present perspectives, from both the student and the teacher. It is also a way to think more critically about what matters and why it it matters to the student in order to potentially present material in a different/better way.
I incorporate CPS into my course by asking students to directly (and in a respectfully unfiltered way) connect what they are learning to aspects of their lives. I encourage discussion a lot in my course and it allows students to incorporate their knowledge/expertise/experience into the topics covered. I think that this allows the course to somewhat meet the goal of CSP by allowing the students to maintain the relevance as it applies to them. The current textbook that I use includes research from various folks and I like to ask if they find it true today and in what ways or how it can be designed differently to better reflect our population. We cover language (where I ask students about words in their own language or slang terms), nature vs nurture (where I am able to ask particularly about the role of experience and genetics…and later how it applies to cognition/learning), lifespan development (where I ask students to think about attachment styles), and motivation (where I explore concepts like morality and the reasons why we do what we do). I also include and try to include recent/recognizable things into my slides (the white/gold vs blue/black when I cover perception and senses, viral things in social media when I cover memory, etc.). If I understood the purpose of CSPs correctly, then these apply! Otherwise, I have work to do!
I can reframe my final paper into a more culturally relevant assignment asking students to address specific ways that a concept in my course has impacted them and how that differs from others or what they have learned. Alternatively, this can be discussion topics on blackboard which actually seems like a better platform for this.
I would describe CSP to a colleague as respecting a student’s history and personal story and honoring it.
I incorporate CSP in my courses by having students select and contribute to the resources that we use for teaching and learning.
Additional ways I might incorporate CSP in learning activities beyond course materials would be allowing the student to feel that they are knowledgeable and teach the rest of us something. When I started college as a 15-year-old in 1993, I had a Justice and Racism class, and one day Prof. McClean was waiting for me outside of the classroom the following week after a white student had said inadequate things to me to which I responded. When he asked me if I had received a letter he sent via campus mail I thought I was being kicked out of the class. Instead, he explained that he was waiting for me because he wanted me to moderate the class. I was scared as $#!+ but Prof. McClean assured me that I could teach my classmates a thing or two. Twelve years later I ran into Prof. McClean who called me by my name and asked said, “So did you become a professor.” I said, “a school teacher.” He said, “close, but you should be a professor.” I said, “you called me by my name and it’s been a while.” He said, “you taught us something.” In sum, we should let our students teach us something every now and then.
I would explain CSP to a colleague as: Recognizing and including the diverse cultural experiences and identities of our students, and promoting equal representation across racial and ethnic communities, in our classrooms. One example of my own practice of CSP is in my Intro to Theatre class. Where I allow options for students to choose and/or create their own creative project, representing their Final. I require that it is personal in nature and represents their individual artistic voice; whether it’s writing a short play, creating and performing their own material or building a design project reflective of their individual tastes and talents. I can expand CSP in the class by also allowing students to pick and choose their own “published” plays to review and analyze as opposed to requiring specific ones to read. And I can also add a “World Theatre” module in the course content, exploring content from countries outside of the United States.
To give a definition of CSP is to first understand the layers of the purpose of schooling in the United States. CSP challenges those purposes and in turn honors the literacies, languages, histories, and cultural ways of people of color AND what that looks like in classrooms across America.
I incorporate CSP into my courses when I teach new vocabulary and ask students to create a vignette that demonstrates the knowledge of using those academic words (now when I say “academic vocabulary” I question if this definition is honoring all cultures and people of color? Reading this article made me question many “traditional” teaching practices. Questions are good. My students’ skits usually come from their experiences in their culture and language.
Before I can incorporate CSP in my courses, I think I need to read Django Paris’s insightful book – Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies! Beyond that, I think an educator learning how to incorporate CSP in her/his/their course needs to first honor the students’ backgrounds, languages, and cultures by asking them to share what readings/videos/podcasts etc. could be relevant to understanding them in the classroom. I believe it’s always about relationships in learning. I would like to think I could offer transformative experiences. I really have to think about it.
I am teaching at NYC colleges since 2015 and from that time whenever I go to the class, I think if I was a student what was my feeling in this class!!! CSP is one of things that always I was thinking of that without knowing its name.
I entered to the the U.S on 2013 and then I had a lot of challenges for passing some exams and admitting as a PhD student and then attending classes that were full of people of different cultures and I was in a country that I am not native in that. All of these, caused that I loos my confidence for participating in the class or in the word, it caused I lose my motivation.
In my opinion, CSP which focus on strengths rather than weaknesses is important in a class that students are from the same culture and also is very more important in the class that they are from different cultures. In my idea CSP, means giving positive energy to students and motivate them to engage in the class and it is very essential for students that are not native and are from different cultures and English is not their first language, because CSP tells them: “your weaknesses are not important and instead your strengths are highlighted, so it is not important that you are not good in English as the native students or you have a different culture, but in this class your strengths, for example your knowledge of this class, are important, so go ahead and engage to the class by the self confidence”
1) I would stress that CSP promotes equality across racial and ethnic communities. It increases access and opportunity in the process of learning for all students. It can also provide many ways to present the learning experience to the student to increase their knowledge base and skills. The teacher can design the materials used in the course to increase the students depth of understanding.
2) I encourage students to use their cultural practices from home in school and also to maintain them. CSP lets the student exist both in the culture of their school and in the culture of their home. I stress that who you are and where you are from is very unique. The learning process is for everyone that wishes to grown beyond what they are today.
3) I design projects using the team concept. I try to make each team as diverse as possible. All team members must contribute within the project. This increases the communication between all team members and myself. Everyone is equal and also an important part of the team. I find that is approach has work well in the classes I have taught. I also tell the students to use other websites other then the textbook when they are doing their research. I am also available to any student that may have a problem with the course material providing other examples to clarify course concepts. I am looking forward to learning more about the options that OER has to offer to use in course design and enhancing student learning.
1) I would say that CSP is a culturally sustaining pedagogy which stresses equality across racial and ethic lines. It tries to provide open access and opportunity to all.
It also provides students with the opportunity to examine and question structures in our societies based on their knowledge obtained from our educational institutions.
2) I will use the team concept in assigning a research project. I will make the teams as diversified as possible to stress the importance of working across ethnic groups. This will also stress that we can all work together in resolving problems that can benefit all. It will also promote that everyone is important within the team. It bring people together in world efforts. I will also discuss what works best with my colleagues and consider adapting the concept until I have more experience in this mode of teaching. I will also research different information concept to utilize in future courses like video’s, and different modes of delivery.
3) I could approach this aspect by using a more flexible mode of presenting my OER material using a hybrid or HyFlex design for the students. After I examine some other syllabus design using CSP I will be able to see what works and perhaps what could be a problem for students.
I would explain that CSP is a pedagogical approach that aims at ensuring that pluralism of nation-states becomes the foundation or cornerstone of education of the youth. Unlike pre-existing asset-based pedagogies, such as Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, which adopt a deficit learning approach, CSP recognizes the differences as an asset that should inform education. Proponents of CSP raise awareness about existing lopsided educational practices that favor a subset of pluralistic societies. CSP empowers and urges educators to build knowledge from the diverse linguistic, literate, and cultural ways of life of the groups of people in a society.
One example from my teaching of how I might incorporate CSP in my Language and Culture course, is drawing examples from a variety of languages so as to make the concept or topic accessible to all students.
After the formal introduction to CSP, I will ensure that illustrations of linguistic concepts are representative of students in the class. Citing such examples will highlight the importance of their languages.
To validate the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of students in my Language and Culture course, I will incorporate activities that elicit the diverse linguistic, literate, and cultural backgrounds of students.
How would you describe CSP to a colleague? – Allowing students to celebrate each other and their differences through learning. Creating a safe space to have difficult conversations
What is one example from your own teaching of how you incorporate CSP into your courses? In Marketing I created an assignment how would you change all the advertising in relation to Black History Month and the social unrest after George Floyd. During that time alot of marketing messages were down right terrible and borderline offensive. So this enable students to think of ways to come from an authentic standpoint. One touching moment was when another student of another ethnicity really didnt know about Black History month so his partner explained it to him. I thought that was great and being vulnerable enough to say that.
Beyond applying CSP to the materials in your courses, in what additional ways might you incorporate CSP into learning experiences and activities in which your students engage? In MAR100 we watch alot alot of global marketing video and commercials I always feel that its important to have a global mindset because we do have many students from other countries and this gives them an opportunity to speak from their lens and spark new discussions.
How would you describe CSP to a colleague? Rather than imposing an ethnocentric White/Euro-centric/Western/American model of education, value and celebrate the cultures and backgrounds of our students, who come from around the globe and have, very often, led extraordinary lives.
What is one example from your own teaching of how you incorporate CSP into your courses? I let students be themselves. I encourage them to share who they are with me and their classmates. I seldom censor or restrict. They’re adults and should enjoy freedom of expression.
Beyond applying CSP to the materials in your courses, in what additional ways might you incorporate CSP into learning experiences and activities in which your students engage? Students will often bring ‘other-than-the-curriculum’ problems – personal, work-related, family – issues to my attention. I listen and respond fairly, with empathy and consideration.
1. How would you describe CSP to a colleague? I would have difficulties describing this pedagogy, at this stage in the course, to a colleague in a casual manner for the following reasons:
A. I would simply have linguistic difficulties in explaining this multi-layered pedagogy to a colleague, say, over coffee.
B. Personally, I would shy away from labeling the entire western educational system with the terms that were given in the passage: genocide, land theft, enslavement and colonialism. Having grown up behind the Iron Curtain, I’ve heard these words used before under Communist, state-sanctioned education and so I cannot look at or use them without suspicion and fear.
C. It is also not clear for me: Is the author talking from a utopian point of view, as an academic exercise, or from a lived experience? I view education as a universal/positive force – not western/eastern, or progressive/conservative – that is based on a mutually beneficial educational contract between all parties involved to transfer ideas, knowledge, skills, and an appreciation for beauty and truth.
2. What is one example from your own teaching of how you incorporate CSP into your courses?
My example stems from the last statement that relates to “beauty and truth.” I use art history and music in almost all of my courses, giving complete freedom to my students to use their own personal “beautiful examples” that inspire them (ie. favorite objects of arts or pieces of music or film) and ask very simple questions that connect our common humanity: What kind of music do you listen to? When do you listen to this music? How does it affect you?