Using skateboarding to develop a culturally relevant tutorial on static equilibrium

Abstract

Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), initially developed by Ladson-Billings, is an instructional framework for supporting diverse learners by drawing on their cultural backgrounds and experiences. In line with the CRP framework, we developed a tutorial on static equilibrium using skateboarding, a popular activity on university campuses, as a culturally relevant context. To address specific student conceptions about static equilibrium documented in the physics education research (PER) literature, we used the elicit-confront-resolve (ECR) strategy to develop the tutorial. In this paper, we provide a detailed account of how we operationalized the ECR strategy in designing the sequences of questions in the tutorial. Additionally, we present anecdotal evidence to show that the culturally relevant tutorial appears to effectively engage students and motivate their interest in learning physics.