HUMANIZING THE WORK WITH EQUITY FACILITATORS TO UNDERSTAND CULTURALLY SUSTAINING PEDAGOGY: A SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR’S PRACTITIONER INQUIRY

Abstract

To educate students from diverse backgrounds, educators are often encouraged to be aware of their student’s cultural backgrounds and to use the knowledge to inform their instruction to be culturally relevant. While this approach to teaching is widely promoted, educators are often unaware of how to accomplish this. This is especially true for White educators whose backgrounds are starkly different from their students. Although there is an abundance of literature explaining the theories underpinning pedagogies that build on students’ backgrounds, like culturally relevant pedagogy, there is not a lot of literature examining the journey White educators take as they try to implement asset-based pedagogies --in particular, the journeys of White educators trained as facilitators of equity. Using whiteness and culturally sustaining pedagogy as a lens, this dissertation explores what happens when I facilitated conversations with two White educators as they attempted to divest from dominant ideologies and implement asset-based pedagogies in their elementary classrooms. In this practitioner inquiry, data included interviews, observations, field notes, and classroom observations. Using thematic analysis, the findings of this study include the tensions that arose due to the educators feeling confined to the dominant systems and how they contended with these pressures. The implications of this practitioner inquiry study extend to equity-minded leaders, suggesting the need to comprehend white supremacy culture, the developmental journey toward critical consciousness, and the significance of text selection. Furthermore, the study holds implications for my own professional development, advancing my understanding of white supremacy in relation to trauma and reinforcing my commitment to resisting dominant systems to further this work.