The Brilliance is Lit: A Review of ‘Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices’
With respect to asset-based pedagogies, you’ll know that an educator is the real deal when Dr. Django Paris pens the foreword for their book. As Dr. Paris, the establishing proponent of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), indicated within his contribution to the book, Lorena Escoto Germán’s gravitational pull on pedagogues and students alike emanates through the authenticity of her “vision, passion, [and] commitment” towards the project of justice for marginalized “communities across intersections.” Textured Teaching is an extension of that pull, and, as readers will discover, Germán is truly an instructional force to be reckoned with.
Sharing a strong linkage to CSP, the conceptuality of Textured Teaching (TT) is “a purpose-driven” means of instruction with strong emphasis on the concepts of learning, growth, consciousness, beauty, and liberation. Similar to its umbrella-theory, this is indeed an instructional approach which places love for the fabric of all students - their cultures, their languages, their concerns, their interests, their very being - at the forefront of everything that happens within the classroom. Educators in search of strategies and techniques to begin or enhance their foray into asset-based methodology will appreciate how Germán’s voice comes to life on the page. As she shares anecdotes related to her experiences as a learner, an educator, and an instructional leader of color, she weaves for her readers a quilt that embraces them in the realness of genuine passion for social equity, best practices for community building, classroom management, and curriculum revitalization, and; most importantly, the courage to become what’s best for kids. Germán’s guidance and exemplars are presented in a manner that is not only easy for the busy facilitator to absorb, but to visualize and implement. Evidence of this can be found not only within the companion resources she offers, but through the reflection-based inquiries, multimodal text recommendations, professional reading supplements, as well as the many low-lift, high-yield strategies she intertwines within the framework.
Lorena Escoto Germán is a Dominican American educator focused on anti-racist and antibias work in education. She earned her master's degree at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English. She's a two-time nationally awarded educator and featured in newspapers, journals such as, The New York Times, NCTE journals, EdWeek, National Writing Project, and Embracing Equity. She published The Anti Racist Teacher: Reading Instruction Workbook. She's a cofounder of the groups #DisruptTexts, and Multicultural Classroom. She is the director of pedagogy at EduColor and is also the chair of National Council of Teachers of English's Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English. Of all her work, Germán’s most dedicated to her roles as wife and mami.
You can connect with Germán via Twitter and Multicultural Classroom.
Germán is the author of Textured Teaching: A Framework for Culturally Sustaining Practices which is due for publication on September 14, 2021. Pre-orders can be purchased via Heinemann.
