What is culturally sustaining pedagogy and how does it extend culturally responsive teaching?

• A. It maintains and values students' linguistic and cultural identities while enabling academic growth and participation.
• B. It requires students to abandon home languages
• C. It emphasizes only standardized testing
• D. It discourages discussion of culture

Answer: (A)

Culturally sustaining pedagogy centers on actively maintaining and valuing students' linguistic and cultural identities as integral to learning. It asks teachers to design instruction that not only acknowledges cultures but uses them as a resource to promote academic growth and participation for all students. This approach builds on culturally responsive teaching by going beyond recognizing culture to ensuring those identities are sustained and empowered across time and in all subjects, not just briefly acknowledged. In practice, that means drawing on students’ funds of knowledge, using translanguaging to incorporate home languages, selecting culturally relevant materials, and inviting community know-how into the curriculum so students see their cultures reflected in rigorous learning. The other options misrepresent the idea: abandoning home languages, focusing only on standardized testing, or discouraging discussion of culture all contradict the goal of sustaining and valuing cultural identities within learning.