Equity and Excellence: Research on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

The theoretical foundation, empirical studies, and practical implementations of the concept of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) as the transformational model in the establishment of equity and excellence in a heterogeneous learning setting will be discussed in the paper.The review, based on the works of the great researchers such as Gloria Ladson-Billings, Geneva Gay and other great researchers, summarizes the studies, which demonstrate how CRP may be applied in order to overcome the achievement gap that lingers and, at the same time, facilitate the high academic standards and cultural competency.As it is observed, CRP operates in various ways which encompass authenticating cultural identity of students and building teacher, student nurturing relationships, leveraging the funds of knowledge that the students possess and creating inclusive learning environments.According to the findings of empirical research at both K-12 and college levels, it has big effects on student engagement, academic achievement.However, there are still certain challenges including poor preparation of teachers, time and institutional barriers.CRP can be described as a holistic approach to educational justice because it augments the historical inequity and excellence based educational reforms without undermining the diversity or compromising high levels of academic achievement.