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NCTE Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching (PDCRT)

The Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching (PDCRT) program supports early childhood educators of color and educators who teach elementary children of color, children who are emerging bi/multilinguals, and children from low-income households in studying about culturally relevant pedagogies and generating, implementing, documenting, evaluating, assessing, and disseminating classroom practices and process reflections from work done in preK to fifth-grade classrooms. The program was created by the Anti-Racist Committee of NCTE’s Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA).

2025–2027 PDCRT Application

Applications Due: Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Before deciding to apply, please carefully review the participation requirements below. The program is guided by a definition of culturally relevant pedagogies that requires a commitment to:

  • Developing a critical consciousness that recognizes inequities and injustices; and strengthening that consciousness in ourselves and others through our work with students, colleagues, administrators, families, and community members
  • Broadening what counts as normalized/centered social, cultural, linguistic, and heritage knowledge; validating students’ home, community, and heritage knowledge and using it as foundational to teaching; and focusing particularly on knowledge marginalized, neglected, or distorted in typical curricula, policies, and practices
  • Supporting all children in developing the skills and strategies that will enable their success within existing systems, as well as fostering their use of literacy and content knowledge to challenge and change unjust systems

Applicants must apply as dyads; classroom teachers and teacher educator partners complete one application together. The new dyads will be notified in summer 2025.

To apply, dyads may submit the application form along with PDF documents of the following items by Tuesday, April 15, 2025:

  1. Dyad Letter of Agreement
  2. Administrator Letter of Agreement
  3. Résumés of each dyad member

Participation Requirements

By submitting an application, both members of the dyad agree to the following requirements:

  • They must be members of NCTE’s Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) and maintain NCTE membership while in the PDCRT program:
  • The dyad teacher must work in a preK–fifth-grade classroom where at least 50 percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunch and at least 75 percent of students are children of color.
  • The teacher, at least, must be an educator of color; however, preference will be given to dyads in which both members are educators of color.
  • The dyad teacher educator must have their terminal degree and be working in the teacher education field.
  • The teacher educator must commit to weekly work with the teacher in the classroom, and the dyad must commit to meeting at least once every two weeks to discuss readings, plans for teaching, and the process of the work.
  • The dyad must additionally commit to:
    • Building and using further knowledge about culturally relevant/sustaining practices
    • Collecting, organizing, archiving, and analyzing data about the dyad relationship, classroom work, student and family interactions, etc., and using data in biannual dyad reports, as well as other publications and presentations
    • Collecting, organizing, analyzing, and reporting on literacy assessment data for selected students at three predetermined times throughout the school year
    • Engaging fully in the project’s professional development activities (reading and discussing readings, viewing and discussing videos and weblinks, active participation in the PDCRT Facebook site, etc.), and using new knowledge to develop, test, and document culturally relevant practices in the classroom
    • Sharing work electronically and through other means of virtual communication; each dyad member must have consistent and dependable internet access
    • Participating in all virtual meetings with all program dyads (typically monthly); the first virtual meeting will be held in September
    • Regularly checking email and responding promptly to project-related messages
    • Submitting signed consent forms from students’ parents/guardians annually
    • Attending and participating in the NCTE Annual Convention; PDCRT will provide some funding (see Dyad Letter of Agreement) and participants are responsible for remaining costs
    • Participating in the project’s three-day Summer Institutes; PDCRT will provide some funding (see Dyad Letter of Agreement); and participants are responsible for remaining costs

Questions? Please contact Kristen Ritchie, NCTE Director of Affiliated Groups.

SUBMIT AN APPLICATION

Meet the 2023–2025 Dyads

Luis Bernard is a teacher in a special education program for students from primarily Spanish-speaking homes. He was born and raised in Mexico but attended college in the United States. His formal education is in the fields of special education, bilingual education, and early childhood education. His teaching practice and philosophy include collaborating with the interdisciplinary team that serves the students in his program. His focus is teaching neurodivergent Latinx students who use a multimodal form of communication.

Lilly Padia is an assistant professor of teacher education at Erikson Institute in Chicago and a former public school teacher in the Bronx. Her research looks at the intersections of language learning and disability. Specifically, she focuses on children who are multilingual and do not speak to communicate and their expansive forms of communication. She centers families’ communication practices and systems to highlight what  school professionals can learn from children and families to co-learn toward liberation.

Cristina Celaya is currently a dual language teacher at Biltmore Preparatory Academy in the Creighton School District in Phoenix, Arizona. She received her master’s in education from NAU in early childhood education with a reading endorsement; prior to that she graduated from ASU with her BA in elementary education. Cristina has taught for twenty years total in other various Arizona public schools as well as in a private school focused on language immersion. Cristina’s experience involves teaching overseas in international schools in the Philippines and Brazil. She is passionate about learning from different cultures and life experiences, and she travels to grow in that richness of exposure.

Alexandria Estrella Bridges is a clinical associate professor in teacher preparation and directly works with and coordinates the Elementary Multilingual Education (EME) program at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. Her research interests involve literacy development, educational policy, and classroom practices that impact the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Dr. Estrella Bridges is also passionate about centering culturally relevant and sustaining practices in P–12 classrooms while also supporting efforts to prepare more Black and Brown educators for these classrooms. She is formally a middle school language arts teacher and has now served as a teacher educator for over ten years.

Laquita Ngando Duvall—MEd, Reading Endorsed Teacher, ESOL Endorsed Teacher, and Personalized Learning Endorsed Teacher. Laquita is an educator for the Dekalb County School District. This makes her fourth year teaching fifth grade. Her interest in education is rooted as far back as high school, when she enjoyed tutoring younger students. Educational degrees include a bachelor’s and master’s degree in elementary education from Kennesaw State University. Laquita is a team player on her school’s ELA leadership team. Her professional passion is working with students and stakeholders to build authentic literacy skills.

Dr. Virginie Jackson is an assistant professor of literacy education and a program coordinator in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education in the Bagwell College of Education (BCOE) at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Jackson’s research focuses on culturally responsive literacy practices and critical literacy development of young learners through digital literacy. Her work centers on the preparation of preservice teachers to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students in engaging, multimodal, and multifaceted ways.

Kyanna Samuel is in her fourth year of teaching kindergarten. As an undergraduate student, she received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Social Justice. She believes all students are capable of success, and she works daily to ensure that all students receive not only the tools needed for success but also the skills of knowing how to use those tools wisely.

 

 

Jennipher Frazier has been in education for twenty years and is in her tenth year as an elementary literacy coach. She is a wife, mother, and educator who understands the importance of having a strong foundation in literacy and instructional environments that support and provide culturally relevant instruction throughout the day. Therefore, she strives to give all children opportunities to experience and develop cultural awareness and critical consciousness while being academically successful.

Born and raised in Jamaica, Kadesha Scharschmidt is an English language arts teacher who teaches reading and writing to fifth-grade students at Hodge Elementary School in Savannah, Georgia. Kadesha believes that a good teacher cannot begin or continue to inspire learning without being a learner. Kadesha is also the grades 3–5 teacher leader for ELA and was a part of her district’s curriculum collaborative team which oversaw the writing of fifth-grade learning plans for the 2023–2024 school year. She holds two master’s degrees in reading and literacy and educational leadership and a bachelor of arts degree in guidance counseling.

Jarvais Jackson is an assistant professor of elementary education and culturally responsive pedagogy in the Department of Elementary and Special Education at Georgia Southern University. Jackson earned his PhD in teaching and learning from the University of South Carolina. His career experiences include teaching in elementary and middle school classrooms and, most recently, serving as director for the Center for the Education and Equity of African American Students in Columbia, SC. Dr. Jackson’s research highlights Black people’s learning experiences seeking an equitable learning experience for Black students. His research and scholarship extend internationally; he has participated in Fulbright-Hays Group Abroad Studies in Ghana, Nigeria, and Barbados. Through his research and service, Dr. Jackson seeks to bridge the gap between research and practice.

Alexa Weeks, Smithland Elementary, Harrisonburg City Public Schools, Harrisonburg, VA

Chris Hass is an assistant professor in early childhood, elementary, and reading education at James Madison University. His major research interests include culturally relevant teaching, social justice education, and student activism. He currently serves as an editor for the Civic Literacy column in Language Arts and has published one book, Social Justice Talk: Strategies for Teaching Critical Awareness. Prior to moving to higher education, he spent twenty years teaching in elementary and early childhood classrooms.

Meet the 2023–2025 Co-Directors

“Teaching is a craft.
Teaching is a joy.
Teaching is a calling.
Teaching is a profession that impacts lives.
Unfortunately, teachers are also under attack; whether physically from violence in schools, emotionally from working the frontlines of a global health pandemic, and professionally through nationwide anti-CRT policies and book banning. This is why a program such as PDCRT is so critical. PDCRT is a community of educators committed to serving children’s diverse abilities through culturally and linguistically sustained curriculum and practices. A channel that amplifies educators’ and scholars’ work that seeks to validate and serve communities. PDCRT provides a supportive environment for educators to learn together, support each other, and support children in reaching their full potential. This will be a space for educators and teacher educators to reclaim their joy.”

Sandra Lucia Osorio (she/her/ella) is an associate professor of raciolinguistic justice and Director of Teacher Education at the Erikson Institute, Chicago. She is a former bilingual educator who worked with children from diverse racial, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds for over 10 years. Her own personal narrative growing up bilingual and having a deficient-based identity placed upon her because of her linguistic and cultural differences has served as a source of motivation to become an educator and researcher. Osorio considers the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) one of her professional homes. She participated as part of a dyad in PDCRT for Cohort 4. She is also a member of the Elementary Section, is a Language Arts journal coeditor, and has served as Latinx Caucus chair, Elementary Section Steering Committee member, Early Childhood Education Assembly chair, Rainbow Strand Program chair, and as a member of Cultivating New Voices (CNV), Nominating Committee, and Mentor Program Task Force.

Kamania Wynter-Hoyte is an associate professor in the Department of Instruction and Teacher Education at the University of South Carolina. Her scholarship is anchored in African diaspora literacies that foster liberation in teacher education and early childhood spaces. She teaches culturally relevant pedagogy, literacy methods, and linguistic pluralism courses with an emphasis on countering anti-Blackness and draws from her years of experience as an elementary school teacher in diverse school settings. Wynter-Hoyte is the recipient of the 2018 Early Childhood Education Assembly’s Early Literacy Educator of the Year Award from the National Council Teachers of English. She has participated in PDCRT as a dyad in cohort 5.