Fostering Culturally Relevant Literacy Instruction: Lessons from a Native Hawaiian Classroom

While a good deal of research has been conducted on the benefits of culturally relevant education for indigenous and culturally diverse students, many educators continue to ponder what a culturally based literacy curriculum might look like in practice. This article draws from a Native Hawaiian second-grade classroom to offer a number of practical examples for classroom teachers who are committed to providing culturally and linguistically diverse students with a rigorous, strengths-based approach to literacy instruction that honors their students’ lived experiences and cultural frameworks alongside mainstream academic literacies.