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Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Practice: A Case Study of a Teacher's Divergence from Large-Scale Science Curriculum

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Title: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Practice: A Case Study of a Teacher's Divergence from Large-Scale Science Curriculum
Language: English
Authors: Emily Adah Miller (ORCID 0000-0003-3473-5729), Emily V. Reigh, Clausell Mathis
Source: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 2026 63(1):6-21.
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 16
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Culturally Relevant Education, Science Education, Science Instruction, Teaching Methods, Science Curriculum, Curriculum Implementation, Bilingual Education, Immersion Programs, Spanish, English, Hispanic American Students, Justice
DOI: 10.1002/tea.70017
ISSN: 0022-4308
1098-2736
Abstract: Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is an approach to teaching that challenges the inequitable structures that create an education debt for minoritized students. Many studies of CRP in science education focus on teachers' philosophies and dispositions; fewer studies have focused on enacted teaching practice, such as the use of curricular resources. CRP requires that teachers take an oppositional stance toward curricula and actively reconstruct them to center the cultures of their students. In this study, we use ethnographic methods informed by Ladson-Billings' original work to investigate one teacher's implementation of a large-scale science curriculum in a Spanish-English dual-language immersion class that serves Latine students. We illustrate the teacher's enactment of the conceptions of CRP, showing how she drew from the curricular resources and also diverged from them at different grain sizes, including (a) in-the-moment divergence from prescribed teacher moves, (b) lesson-level divergence from curricular activities, and (c) unit-level divergence from curricular goals. These divergences reveal how the teacher translated her culturally relevant philosophies into unique classroom practices that she coconstructed with her students. In contrast to other approaches in science education that position curriculum as authoritative and ask teachers to implement it, often with fidelity, we instead argue that teachers should be supported to take a critical stance toward curriculum and diverge from it in ways that reflect their justice-oriented philosophies, like CRP.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1494294
Database: ERIC
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  Data: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Practice: A Case Study of a Teacher's Divergence from Large-Scale Science Curriculum
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Emily+Adah+Miller%22">Emily Adah Miller</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3473-5729">0000-0003-3473-5729</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Emily+V%2E+Reigh%22">Emily V. Reigh</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Clausell+Mathis%22">Clausell Mathis</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Journal+of+Research+in+Science+Teaching%22"><i>Journal of Research in Science Teaching</i></searchLink>. 2026 63(1):6-21.
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  Data: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
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  Data: Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is an approach to teaching that challenges the inequitable structures that create an education debt for minoritized students. Many studies of CRP in science education focus on teachers' philosophies and dispositions; fewer studies have focused on enacted teaching practice, such as the use of curricular resources. CRP requires that teachers take an oppositional stance toward curricula and actively reconstruct them to center the cultures of their students. In this study, we use ethnographic methods informed by Ladson-Billings' original work to investigate one teacher's implementation of a large-scale science curriculum in a Spanish-English dual-language immersion class that serves Latine students. We illustrate the teacher's enactment of the conceptions of CRP, showing how she drew from the curricular resources and also diverged from them at different grain sizes, including (a) in-the-moment divergence from prescribed teacher moves, (b) lesson-level divergence from curricular activities, and (c) unit-level divergence from curricular goals. These divergences reveal how the teacher translated her culturally relevant philosophies into unique classroom practices that she coconstructed with her students. In contrast to other approaches in science education that position curriculum as authoritative and ask teachers to implement it, often with fidelity, we instead argue that teachers should be supported to take a critical stance toward curriculum and diverge from it in ways that reflect their justice-oriented philosophies, like CRP.
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