The Multi-Layered Crisis: Teaching the Pandemic, Police Violence, and Civil Unrest in Adult Returning Classrooms on Chicago’s South Side

“The Multi-Layered Crisis: Teaching the Pandemic, Police Violence, and Civil Unrest in Adult/Returning Classroom on Chicago’s South Side” examines the culturally relevant pedagogical strategies that I used during and after the COVID-19 crisis to engage adult returning student populations from the hardest hit communities in the city. Drawing from the previous scholarship on culturally relevant teaching as well as the scholarship on teaching adult learners in crisis, I argue that crisis-informed culturally relevant pedagogies were critical for keeping students engaged and building a supportive class community during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. In my analysis of the curriculum strategies that I used during the pandemic and beyond, I seek to illuminate the ways that culturally relevant pedagogies can foster transformative learning in the adult learning classroom, particularly during times of crisis.