<i>Cultura en Cuarentena</i>: LatCrit Perspectives on Culturally Relevant Education during COVID-19

Purpose: Although culturally relevant education (CRE) practices support student achievement, particularly for students of color, these practices are rarely adopted or effectively implemented in US schools. This study examines what policies facilitate or impede Latinx teachers’ use of CRE practices. Research Methods/Approach: Utilizing Latina/o critical race theory (LatCrit), we analyze pláticas and semistructured interviews with 11 public school, Latinx educators from the 2020–21 academic year. These pláticas were situated in the context of Eagle Academy, a Saturday cultural and language revitalization program that partners with the local school district. Findings: We find that high-stakes accountability systems that center Eurocentric curricular standards greatly reduce the ability of instructors to implement CRE. In addition, teacher burnout prevents the implementation of CRE, particularly when associated with teacher’s intersectional identities. Conversely, CRE was most successfully implemented when working outside the settler-colonial system of education or where it converged with the interests of the existing K–12 system. Implications: These findings suggest that challenges in implementing CRE are indicative of deep fissures between culturally responsive approaches and traditional schooling. States must address the underlying racial frameworks guiding student and district assessments that disincentivize CRE. LatCrit suggests that the culture of Latinx students and teachers continues to be constructed as foreign within a Eurocentric school context that centers Whiteness and that education leaders and policy makers must actively engage in reflective practices aimed at recognizing the limitations of interest convergence when implementing CRE.