Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
From Theory to Action
Welcome to the fifth annual Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: From Theory to Action conference organized by the
Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective
for New Haven Public Schools educators!
Throughout the two days of the conference — Tuesday, August 5th and Wednesday, August 6th — you will engage in four 90-minute sessions, each focused on a different theme within culturally relevant pedagogy. This is a conference organized for educators and by educators, so you can expect sessions that offer a balance of theoretical and practical learning, including opportunities for learning new content, for reflection, interaction, and preparation for application. Sessions are facilitated by a mix of NHPS colleagues and New Haven community members, as well as educators engaging in this work nationally.
In both selecting your sessions and engaging in them, be intentional, open-minded, and try new things. Also, keep in mind that this conference is just one piece of a larger, ongoing practice. We are excited to be doing this necessary work alongside you.
Conference Schedule
An overview of program days and times.
Session Themes
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1. What is an Anti-Racist School?
This conference begins with the necessary question: what is an anti-racist school? The answers are many, spanning restorative justice, the role of unions, mental health, curriculum, language immersion, approaches to planning and facilitating lessons, and so much more. Each session approaches the vital question through a different lens, all contributing to deepening our collective work toward building anti-racist schools.
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2. Identity and Intersectionality
Schools and classrooms are places where people of a range of different identities intersect. Our work is to strengthen our consciousness of our own identities and their impacts, as well as our awareness of students, colleagues and families’ identities, and how these varying identities intersect. While no workshop can cover the multitude of identities represented in our schools, these sessions aim to offer a deeper understanding of identity and intersectionality.
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3. Curriculum and Pedagogy
As we move into the second day of the conference, we want to ensure educators have the opportunity to gain new knowledge and think practically about their classrooms and content areas, all through the lens of anti-racist and culturally relevant pedagogy. Spanning various subjects and grade levels, sessions will offer practical methods useful to educators from elementary to secondary levels, and across content areas.
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4. Community Connection and Youth Activism
Our final conference theme is centered on community and youth. These sessions will help you connect with local New Haven organizations engaging in important education-related work, and will center on the fundamental importance of community connection and youth activism.
Keynote Speakers
Day 1: Closing Panelist
Alejandra Lopez
Leslie Blatteau
Dr. Gholdy Muhammad
Wayne Au
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Leslie Blatteau has been a proud New Haven Public Schools social studies teacher and union member since 2007. She began her second term as President of the New Haven Federation of Teachers in January. During her tenure, NHFT has worked to address educator retention & wellbeing and organized to improve working conditions & learning conditions. NHFT’s commitment to fully funded schools is part of a larger vision to strengthen the labor-community coalition in our city and state. Leslie lives in the Hill neighborhood of New Haven with her husband Jim and their daughter Francine.
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Wayne Au, a former public high school teacher, is currently professor and dean for the School of Educational Studies at the University of Washington Bothell. A longtime editor and writer for Rethinking Schools, Wayne’s work focuses on educational justice in curriculum and policy. His most recent books include Asian American Racialization and the Politics of U.S. Education and Unequal By Design: High Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality.
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Alejandra Lopez is an educator, organizer, and president of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel. Alejandra attended San Antonio public schools K-12, earned her Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Policy studies as a member of the Urban School Leaders Collaborative at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has been involved in social justice movement work in Europe and the United States for over 20 years with focuses in immigration, racial, and economic justice and has worked in education for over 10 years, most recently as a 2nd grade teacher at Hillcrest Elementary. She has served as the President of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel since 2020, a union that represents education workers in San Antonio ISD, and is a founding member of PODER, the union’s rank-and-file social justice caucus. Since 2020, the San Antonio Alliance has run issue based campaigns and won the largest pay increase in over 20 years, the highest starting hourly wage in San Antonio for support staff, double the amount of teacher planning time, and a district-wide culturally responsive and sustaining teacher framework. Alongside their education justice coalition partners they have organized for greater worker, student, parent/caregiver, and community voice in district decision making, against school closures and for affordable housing against the backdrop of a proposed downtown baseball stadium. Alejandra believes that our public schools are the heart of our communities and continues to organize for a San Antonio for the many, not the few.
Day 2: Closing Speaker
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Dr. Gholdy Muhammad is the John Corbally Endowed Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has previously served as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, school district administrator, curriculum director, and school board president. She studies Black historical excellence in education, intending to reframe curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals and books. She has also received numerous national awards and is the author of the best-selling books Cultivating Genius and Unearthing Joy. She also co-authored the book Black Girls’ Literacies. Her Culturally and Historically Responsive Education Model has been adopted across thousands of U.S. schools and districts across Canada. In 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, she was named among the top 1% Edu-Scholar Public Influencers due to her impact on policy and practice. She has led a federal grant with the United States Department of Education to study culturally and historically responsive literacy in STEM classrooms. In the fall of 2025, her first curriculum, entitled Genius and Joy, will be available to schools and educators.