Culturally Responsive Teaching through Spatial Justice in Urban Neighborhoods

As part of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project to create culturally responsive curriculum that uses critical spatial thinking and geospatial technologies to address spatial justice in urban neighborhoods, students from a predominantly African American inner-city public high school in Toledo, Ohio participated in two summer workshops in 2015 and 2016. Using a range of data sources including sketch maps, interviews, and neighborhood-based student projects, this paper addresses two research questions: (a) How did students’ spatial narratives of their community change as a result of using a culturally responsive teaching approach to explore neighborhood challenges? (b) How does a culturally responsive teaching approach and a critical geography perspective support spatial justice among youth?