Critical Practices for Teaching and Learning in Global Contexts

This chapter examines critical practices and agency of teachers as they wrestle with issues of diversity in the teaching and learning process. Using a framework of transcultural education and culturally responsive teaching it draws on research conducted in Southern Ontario, Canada and Central Florida, areas with large and growing diverse populations. We posit that schools are sites of social learning and cultural border crossing, where dominant discourses must be disrupted and the lived experiences of diverse students brought into the center of the teaching and learning process. Through the use of narratives and critical reflection teachers critically examined ways to develop agency and take action to create change. The findings highlighted in this chapter have significance for experienced and novice teachers, teacher educators and faculties of education and school leaders who are seeking to address issues of diversity and equity in critical ways.