How did you become interested in education and cultural competency as a topic for your dissertation? I started my career with Teach For America. My background was not in education, but in political science. I had six weeks of training, then became a teacher in Baltimore City. I was passionate about the mission statement, making a difference in the lives of kids, but I didn’t know what it meant to be culturally competent. I didn’t know how to be my authentic self, or how to create activities that let kids see themselves in the curriculum.
spot light dissertation
How culturally competent teachers can create a more equitable education system: Sana Shaikh, PhD’20
As a Pakistani immigrant who grew up in a predominantly white space, I was also affected by the public school system. Now, as a mother with small children, I see the inequities are still there. That’s why I’m so passionate about this work. Tell me about your dissertation. I studied the intersection of racial identity and relationships in developing culturally responsive classrooms. Culturally responsive teaching is a pedagogic framework for educators to create a classroom that centers students’ interests, experiences and values. I used relational coordination as the anchor of my theoretical models, and I focused my study on Connecticut Title I schools, which have higher percentages of Black and brown students. Two of my papers compared the experiences of white and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) teachers with students, as well as their relationships with colleagues, administration and community members. One finding was that white teachers said that parents and families were a barrier to student progress, rather than allies. However, BIPOC
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