Why Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies Matter for Our Collective Futures

Reimagining education through community-first approaches, this work repositions teaching as a collective journey toward justice and liberation. International and intergenerational voices share culturally sustaining practices that unite classroom learning with local struggles, offering hands-on strategies for transformative futures.

What happens in our teaching and learning when we put communities first, when we begin with their concerns and move forward together, in solidarity, to build more just, collective futures together? This timely book expands our understandings of culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSPs). Written by an international and intergenerational collective of educators, researchers, and community organizers, the book offers needed future directions in the field of CSP. Working in the midst of climate catastrophe, emboldened white supremacy and patriarchy, resurgent fascism and imperialism, and ongoing genocides, authors deepen our understandings of CSPs and consider how to teach for more just futures in classrooms and with communities. This book builds upon the landmark title Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies by Django Paris and H. Samy Alim to present theoretically grounded examples of how educators, researchers, and community organizers can center and sustain communities across the United States, Europe, and Africa. It is a powerful example of a global collective working across borders to co-theorize and practice education for justice and liberation. Each example offers locally grounded enactments of CSPs and, just as importantly, highlights how working across nation-state borders is increasingly necessary to sustaining our collective futures. Key Features: Global Perspectives: Provides diverse CSP exemplars from both national and international contexts.Actionable Lessons: Each chapter contains specific strategies for educators to deepen their collective knowledge and classroom practice.Social Transformation: Details ways to create learning environments that connect students to their communities and to socially transformative futures.Research Models: Offers frameworks for building deep, sustaining relationships between researchers, educators, and community organizers.Intergenerational Expertise: Features leading scholars engaging in critical conversations across the U.S., Europe, and Africa. Chapter contributors include: Susi Álvarez Mariño, Drako Amgod, Ofelia Bello, Stefan Benting, Nathan Booysen, Andre Bozack, Julisa Carriel, Anthony Craig, Chelsea Craig, Alayna Eagle Shield, Michael Harram, Tanswell Jansen, Doua Kha, Jazmen Moore, Sciatta Padmore, Alejandra Pérez, Andy Robinson, Julian Sierra, Shaquile Southgate, Cristal Montes, Emile YX?, and Fili Zaragoza.