“God Gave Us Two Ears and One Mouth for a Reason”: Building on Cultural Wealth through a Call-and-Response Pedagogy

Authors

  • Tyson E. J. Marsh Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Iowa State University
  • Shiv Desai Thomas More College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v14i3.635

Keywords:

Critical race theory, multicultural curriculum, multicultural pedagogy, race

Abstract

As presented by Lee and Majors (2003), “The use of call and response is a familiar structure [within communities of color] for sustaining talk, for communicating perspective, and for marking engagement” (p. 64). In this paper we delineate the need for a call-and-response pedagogy in engaging students of color in a responsive, critically multicultural manner while creating opportunities for the expression of their cultural wealth. Drawing from over three years of experience as facilitators of an after-school poetry class in a Los Angeles area high school, we synthesize classroom dialogue and student poetry and writing to revel the potential of such mediums to generate reflexive pedagogy and classroom discourse.  We believe this approach offers the potential for teachers and students to engage in a collaborative, democratic process of naming oppressive structures.

Author Biographies

Tyson E. J. Marsh, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Iowa State University

Tyson E.J. Marsh is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. in Urban Schooling, and M.A. in Higher Education from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before completing his doctorate, Tyson resided in Egypt for four years where he studied Arabic, worked as a P-12 Principal, and served as an Adjunct Professor in the American International College’s M.A. in International Education Program. An international student/practitioner/scholar of color from a working-class background, Tyson is committed to social justice from the ground up. Through his work in the classroom, community, writing and artistic expression, he is dedicated to drawing upon and centering the voices and experiences of those traditionally silenced in P-20 education and beyond. Tyson’s interests include critical race theory, critical pedagogy, and radical approaches to schooling and leadership in opposition to the neoliberal transnational capitalist agenda. A product of the Hip Hop Generation, Tyson argues that the recognition of indigenous forms of knowledge is essential and central in this struggle.

Research

Tyson’s research draws upon critical race theory and critical pedagogy in:

  • Interrogating the globalized neoliberal educational agenda
  • Reclaiming public pedagogy as a pedagogy of democratic possibility
  • Naming and resisting structural forms of oppression within and beyond P-20 schooling

Shiv Desai, Thomas More College

Assistant Professor, Department of Education

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Published

2012-12-20

How to Cite

Marsh, T. E. J., & Desai, S. (2012). “God Gave Us Two Ears and One Mouth for a Reason”: Building on Cultural Wealth through a Call-and-Response Pedagogy. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v14i3.635