Abstract
The mission of this chapter is two-fold. First, it reports on a mixed-methods study examining teachers' instructional growth, including challenges and perceived influences, while pursuing CRT with differentiation for English learners within their English-medium classrooms as they participated in a sustained professional development program. Second, it discusses challenges and opportunities in empowering teachers to provide equitable educational opportunities for English learners. Results indicated that teachers' instructional practices became more relational, and their instructional change was statistically significant and practically meaningful in all standards of effective pedagogy measured. Instructional changes were most noticeable in the contextualization of learning and joint-productive activity. The most challenging practice was using native languages as instructional resources. Teachers reported English-only school policies and other institutional factors as influential factors.
TopIntroduction
Scholars agree that research on culturally responsive teaching (CRT) as a pedagogical approach and how teachers’ instructional quality improves as they grow toward CRT, significantly as it extends to linguistic diversity, remains scant (Aronson & Laughter, 2016; Brown & Crippen, 2017; Morrison et al., 2008; Santamaría, 2009; Young, 2010). In 2009, Santamaria argued that
Although the guiding principles and descriptions of CRT are inclusive and comprehensive in terms of CLD students, they fall short of specifically recognizing those with varying levels of English language development (ELD). …CRT’s emphasis on culture without much attention to linguistic difference is important to acknowledge because it is students’ language acquisition that is often the principal source of misunderstanding in schools. (pp. 227-228)
Moreover, Lim et al. (2019) stressed the need to explore “deeper, more abstract principles” (p. 50) underpinning enacted culturally responsive instructional practices.
The research literature on professional development (PD) targeting mainstream teachers (i.e., grade-level teachers in English-medium classrooms) serving students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, particularly the subgroup of students identified as English learners, shows that relevant research initiatives most frequently (a) address CRT markers or selective practices rather than CRT as a pedagogical approach (Berg & Huang, 2015; Choi & Morrison, 2014; Mellom et al., 2018; National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, 2014; Shea et al., 2018), (b) are small-scale, and (c) utilize qualitative methodology. Therefore, there is a need for research with a broader scope that incorporates quantitative measurements of CRT (Debnam et al., 2015), especially targeting differentiation for English learners.
Addressing these calls for research, this mixed-methods study examined growth in instructional quality among 80 mainstream teachers that participated in a sustained PD program using the CLASSIC© model of capacity building for classroom cultural and linguistic diversity (Murry et al., 2015). This study contributes to the field in several ways. First, the study expands the scope of previous research by utilizing Biography Driven Instruction (BDI) as a novel instructional method for implementing CRT, with differentiation for students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Second, this study extends the conversation on PD focused on the multidimensionality of CRT while attending specifically to children identified as English learners. Third, the study contributes empirical evidence with granular details on the ebb and flow of teacher instructional growth while pursuing CRT with differentiation for students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds within their English-medium classrooms. The three research questions guiding data collection and analysis were:
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How did the extent, nature, and trajectory of teachers’ instructional practices change over time as they participated in PD focused on CRT with differentiation for students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds?
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What instructional challenges or dilemmas did teachers confront?
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What did teachers perceive as influential factors in the challenges encountered?
Key Terms in this Chapter
Culturally Responsive Education: Education recognizing and affirming the diversity that students bring with them, including sociocultural identities, languages, cognitive applications, academic backgrounds, and learning differences, among others.
Asset Perspective: A mindset focused on students’ biographical strengths and potential that promotes culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and learning.
Student Biographies: Interdependent and complex students’ sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive dimensions at the heart of teaching and learning.
Sociocultural Dimension: Core of the student biography. It includes students’ social, cultural, and psychological factors influencing their academic success.
Reciprocity: Teachers’ and students’ mutual interchange and accommodation during teaching and learning during lessons.
Contextualization: Teachers use student biographies to support instruction that advances students’ learning, including students’ meaningful connections to language and content.
Biography-Driven Instruction: Instructional method operationalizing culturally responsive teaching with differentiation for students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.