Abstract
Over the past twenty-five years, there have been considerable demographic shifts in public school populations in the United States particularly in urban schools and in some of the largest states in America. As the school populations become more diverse, they pose serious challenges for teachers because of the academic and disciple gap that exist between White and African American, Latino, Native American and some Asian American students. Today, educators are looking to culturally responsive teaching as a way of closing the achievement and discipline gaps especially as school districts focus more and more on rigor as a way of meeting the needs of the Common Core Standards. Numerous researches have shown that culturally responsive teaching is the most effective way of meeting the learning needs of culturally diverse students. Consequently, scholars have written extensively on culturally responsive teaching, but most often, these scholars mention social justice as essential components of culturally responsive teaching without delving into the underpinnings between culturally responsive teaching and social justice in students’ academic achievement. Some scholars have even ignored the issue of social justice in their studies completely, and one editor even wondered if we can realize social justice in the field of teaching? In other words, although social justice is an essential component in the conceptualization of critically responsive teaching, in most cases, it is either overlooked or marginalized. The purpose of this article is to present a conceptual framework that integrates critical reflection, social justice, and critical questioning and analyses into culturally responsive teaching as meaningful ways of improving student learning.

Keywords
Social justice, Culture, Equity, Education, Political knowledge, Social change

Cite this paper
Magnus O. Bassey, Where is Social Justice in Culturally Responsive Teaching? , SCIREA Journal of Education. Volume 5, Issue 3, June 2020 | PP. 59-73.

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