Perceptions Of Public Middle School Math Educators Who Use An Asset-Based Pedagogy On New-Century Student Engagement

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of new-century student engagement held by public middle school math educators who used an asset-based pedagogy. This study was guided by one research question: How do public middle school math educators describe new-century student engagement in their middle school math classroom when an asset-based pedagogy is in place? The scholarly research important to this study included concepts related to culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris & Alim, 2017) and culturally responsive classroom management (CRCM; Gay & Howard, 2000). The theoretical framework was culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP; Paris & Alim, 2017). Woven together, these concepts created a blueprint for a detailed picture of how asset-based pedagogy may relate to engagement in the middle school math classroom. This study used the data collected from semistructured interviews to understand the participants’ perspectives on engagement. The findings of this study suggested that asset-based pedagogies may enhance student engagement through recognizing and leveraging students’ existing strengths, knowledge, and cultural backgrounds (Ladson-Billings, 2022). The participants said that asset-based pedagogies establish a more inclusive and empowering learning environment for new-century students by enabling educators to better connect with students through having established behavior norms, embracing mistakes, having high academic standards for all learners, and promoting movement and discourse. Asset-based pedagogies validate new-century students’ identities and foster a sense of belonging and agency within the classroom, resulting in increased motivation and engagement (Ilett, 2019).