The culture factor: Paths to culturally relevant education for teachers and learning communities in the United States of America

To increase the number of teachers of colour teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in schools in the United States (US), teacher educators and preschool-to-higher education (P–20) teachers must engage with increasingly multicultural student populations through the practice of culturally relevant education (CRE). However, teacher strategies for CRE are not well described in the literature, and educators have few examples of what full implementation of CRE approaches can look like. For generations, Indigenous communities have applied culturally relevant education as a means of nurturing their languages and cultural traditions among their youth. Unlike many conventional approaches to CRE, Indigenous approaches are well-developed, diverse and highly context-sensitive. They offer visible, vibrant examples of what effective culturally relevant education and teaching strategies can achieve. To build greater understanding of advances in the field of culturally relevant education, this article compares six pedagogic approaches under the CRE umbrella. The authors focus on content-first approaches to CRE as well as the more comprehensive context-first approaches that Indigenous communities have advanced in recent decades.