Empowering Diverse Learners: Embracing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) in Engineering, Higher Education, and K-12 Settings

Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is an approach to teaching and learning that recognizes the cultural backgrounds and experiences of students and seeks to use them as a foundation for education. Empowering diverse learners through the embrace of CRP is significant because it recognizes the importance of valuing and incorporating the cultural diversity of students in the teaching and learning process. By embracing CRP, educators can create inclusive and supportive learning environments that validate and respect the diverse cultural backgrounds of students. This pedagogical approach can lead to greater academic success, improved well-being, and increased engagement among students from diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this review paper is to investigate the usage of CRP in different educational settings by synthesizing and summarizing existing literature on the topic. The work demonstrates how embracing CRP in engineering, higher education, and K-12 settings can lead to inclusive and supportive learning environments that validate and respect the diverse cultural backgrounds of students. It also showcases the potential positive outcomes of CRP, including greater academic success, improved well-being, increased engagement, higher retention rates, transformative practices, critical consciousness, social justice, and closing the achievement gap. By promoting cultural awareness, respect for diversity, and equity, the paper advocates for the adoption of CRP to benefit students and society as a whole.