Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

This dissertation explores the need for and potential benefits of utilizing culturally relevant pedagogy and a culturally relevant curriculum in a homogenous – predominantly White – classroom environment. It further addresses how teachers might utilize a critical framework to interrogate and inform instructional practices. The study employs Apple’s Nine Tasks for the Critical Scholar (2012) as a critical lens for education practices and policies and the Transformative Autoethnography Model (2022) as a tool for both data collection and analysis. Autoethnography is used as the reporting vehicle with storytelling serving to illustrate how teacher experiences and beliefs impact instruction. The study particularly focuses on the importance of teacher self-assessment and reflection as strategies to minimize the risk of ignoring or marginalizing underrepresented voices in the curriculum. An additional goal of the study is to provide educators who hope to disrupt inequities and gaps in the traditional curriculum with an accessible model for both evaluating their practice as well as providing justification for utilizing a diverse curriculum within a homogenous student population.

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