La educación culturalmente relevante: un modelo pedagógico para los estudiantes de origen cultural diverso. concepto, posibilidades y limitaciones

Abstract

This article presents a study of the extensive scientific production on Culturally Relevant Education (CRE), a pedagogical model that aims to significantly enhance the success of culturally diverse students. This model, of North American origin, is practically unknown in Spain. Hence, the contributions of this work can be considered a true novelty. Its objective is twofold: to deepen knowledge of the CRE, which effectiveness is supported by numerous empirical researches, and to assess its translation to our context, in which students of immigrant origin tend to have lower average academic performance than their peers. Through the analysis of the most important literature on CRE, it has been possible: 1, to establish the most important theoretical characteristics of this pedagogical model, in relation to those of other concomitant and complementary approaches; 2, to estimate its impact on the improvement of the performance of culturally diverse students; and 3, to determine its possibilities and limitations of translation to our context. The results of this work show the great potential of CRE in improving the learning processes of culturally diverse students. Moreover, the importance of initial and ongoing teacher training in the development of this educational model is stressed, in addition to its valuable guidelines for pedagogical research and teaching practice.