Elements of culturally relevant instruction: An instructional framework for college chemistry instructors

Destinee Cooper (1) and Dr. Matthew Voigt (1)

(1) Clemson University

Implementing pedagogical practices that center students and their strengths is necessary to realize the goal of equitable and effective chemistry instruction. Asset-based teaching approaches have been shown to foster learning environments that promote students’ success and holistic well-being across a variety of disciplines and academic levels. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is one asset-based framework designed to support instructors in elevating students’ strengths and backgrounds to inform classroom norms, practices, and instruction. We believe that chemistry instructors’ adoption of CRP will support chemistry students’ understanding of disciplinary core ideas and engagement in science practices. However, college chemistry instructors’ knowledge and implementation of culturally relevant instructional practices have not been widely studied. This exploratory study examines how college chemistry instructors at both associate’s and bachelor’s degree-granting institutions in the United States describe and operationalize culturally relevant pedagogy in general and organic chemistry courses. The faculty participants (N=3) were purposively sampled for their expressed interest in CRP and their departmental affiliation with a program to support low-income transfer students in chemistry. Thematic analysis of semi-structured instructor interviews and institutional artifacts reveal key constructs that are important for culturally relevant chemistry instruction: flexibility in teaching and curriculum, cultivating a community of collaboration and belonging, and affirming that all students have the intellectual capacity to be successful in chemistry. These practices are foundational elements of culturally relevant chemistry instruction, but they must also be coupled with knowledge of students’ cultural wealth and awareness of sociopolitical issues that impact students. We developed an instructional framework that builds on the original tenets of CRP to support college chemistry instructors’ understanding and implementation of culturally relevant chemistry instruction. Future work will examine the use of our framework for chemistry faculty development.