Becoming Culturally Responsive: Teachers Making Sense of Cultural Responsiveness

• In Event: Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Impacts of Professional Development on English Language Learners

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe the ways in which teachers participating in professional development (PD) on culturally responsive education connect to various elements of the professional development, focusing on how they are able to relate the material and activities in the PD to their own experiences. This study uses a mixed-method research design analyzing focus groups, surveys, and participants’ personal reflections The data suggests that participants engage the content of the PD through their own reflection and reconsideration of prior experiences, both in and out of the classroom. In this active reflection and reconsideration, they searched for the evidence of the themes of cultural responsiveness, relying heavily on their personal and professional experience and storylines.

Authors

• Roey Ahram, New York University

• Chemay Morales-James, New York City Metropolitan Center on Urban Education

• Adeyemi Stembridge, New York University