Teaching Culture in the EFL Classroom as Informed by Teachers' Approaches to Student Diversity

• In Event: Teachers' Approaches and Assessments of Culturally Responsive and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies

Abstract

This study investigated teachers’ reported practices of teaching culture in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms from the perspective of their approaches to student diversity. Specifically, it examined the relationship between teachers’ orientations toward the cultural elements integrated in curriculum materials and their approaches to teaching cultural content in the context of linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity of Israeli schools. Interview data from majority, minority and immigrant teachers obtained through open-ended questions, critical incidents and vignettes were interpreted through the lens of DOPA (Diversity in Organizations: Perceptions and Approaches) model. Emergent teacher profiles are discussed with regard to the ways of coping with diverse student populations developed by teachers in each group and reflected in adopted teaching practices.

Authors

• Evgenia Lavrenteva, Haifa University

• Lily Orland-Barak, University of Haifa