Beyond Representation: Towards Culturally Sustaining School Cultures
(Seeds of Knowledge: Future-Ready Inclusive Schools Series — Article 4)
It is no longer enough to talk about “diversity” in our schools. Nor is it enough to ensure that our curriculum offers “representation.” These are important first steps, but future-ready inclusive schools must go further. They must become culturally sustaining.
What does this mean?
Representation asks:
Do our students see themselves reflected in the materials, images, and voices that surround them in school?
It is a vital question, and one that many schools have rightly begun to take more seriously. But sustaining cultures ask a deeper set of questions:
Do we honour the cultural identities our students bring, not only by reflecting them, but by making space for them to grow?
Do we affirm that these identities are assets, not deficits to be “remediated” or “fitted” into dominant models of success?
Do we create school cultures that not only tolerate difference, but celebrate it, and sustain it as part of the living fabric of the school?
As Dr. Django Paris, a leading scholar of culturally sustaining pedagogy, writes:
“Our goal is not to help students fit into existing cultures of power, but to sustain and develop the cultural practices of communities themselves.”
This marks an important shift. Representation says: “You can see yourself here.” Culturally sustaining practice says: “You can grow yourself here, and your culture, language, history, and ways of knowing are valued as vital to our community.”
In a future-ready inclusive school, this means:
Valuing students’ languages, not just teaching them the dominant language.
Honouring multiple ways of knowing, oral, experiential, communal, alongside written and academic forms.
Making space for students to shape the curriculum, not simply absorb it.
Building partnerships with families and communities that are reciprocal, recognising that schools have as much to learn as they have to teach.
Encouraging students to bring their full identities into learning, not leaving parts of themselves at the school gate.
This work matters profoundly. In an interconnected world, our students will need to navigate and contribute to cultures that are diverse, dynamic, and evolving. They will need to understand both themselves and others, and to do so with empathy, respect, and confidence in their own identity.
Schools that stop at representation risk freezing identity, reducing it to a static image in a textbook or a token display on the wall. Schools that embrace culturally sustaining practice invite students to be active participants in shaping a more inclusive, equitable future.
This is not about abandoning academic rigour, far from it. It is about recognising that rigour and relevance go hand in hand. When students see that their cultures, languages, and lived experiences are valued in school, they are more likely to engage deeply with learning. They bring their full selves to the work, and they are better prepared to contribute meaningfully to the world beyond school.
As we look to the future, this must be part of what it means to build future-ready inclusive schools:
