Hear Our Words; Honor Our Heritage: Decolonizing Pedagogy in the Urban Classroom

Abstract

This chapter applies a qualitative theoretical approach, drawing on critical literacy frames including socio-cultural theory and auto-ethnography to examine the journey of a language arts teacher in her struggle to respond to her students’ resistance and create a classroom context of mean-making and empowerment. Asserting the process as the decolonization of pedagogy, the chapter asserts the language arts classroom as a borderland, a site for both critical analysis and a source for creativity and possibility (Giroux, 2001) to teach students who are traditionally underserved in the educational community. The chapter points to ways students’ rich cultural heritage and the teacher’s autobiographical narrative can become part of the classroom pedagogy and result in a rich learning experience that is transformative.

Citation

McClean, M. (2015), "Hear Our Words; Honor Our Heritage: Decolonizing Pedagogy in the Urban Classroom", Living the Work: Promoting Social Justice and Equity Work in Schools around the World (Advances in Educational Administration, Vol. 23), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 215-235. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-366020140000023010