Using Cultural Responsiveness to Promote Access in the Virtual Setting

• In Event: Equity for Urban Students: Novice Teachers' Efforts to Virtually Impact Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objectives
· To identify how the use of culturally responsive practices foster accessibility for students in the virtual setting.
· To examine the use of care, building relationships, and centering culture to support learning in the virtual setting.
Theoretical Perspective
Culturally responsive teachers must bridge gaps between school and home through diversified instructional strategies and multicultural curricula (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2009). Grounded in Afrocentric feminist epistemology, culturally responsive pedagogies (CRP) should demonstrate care and personal accountability (Collins, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 2009). Lawrence (2020) examines ways culturally responsive teaching looks in a virtual setting. She found that teachers engaged in frequent and continuous dialogue with their students and used a variety of strategies to get to know their students, to create and sustain class community, to adapt instruction to students’ learning needs and preferences thereby making learning relevant. Building on this work, our study examined culturally responsive teacher moves in order to understand how centering students’ cultures in the curriculum fosters care and builds student relationships and thus accessibility to teachers.
Method and Data Sources
The qualitative study presents a case study of a teacher’s culturally responsive pedagogical moves in a virtual setting. Located in the heart of a city, the study took place in one urban elementary school nested with a close-knit community. The school population was 100% Black. All students received free and reduced lunch. All instruction was virtual and included both synchronous and asynchronous learning sessions. Non-participant observational data included 16 (10 minute) Family Huddles (grade level morning meetings) and 16 (20 minutes) Social Justice/Nonfiction lessons (social studies/science blocks). Documents collected included lesson plans, seesaw assessments, and classtag announcements. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with the case study participant. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative approach (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) to identify themes in virtual CRP components of care, relationships, and centering culture and in relation to Milner’s (2006) Culturally Informed Relationships and Jackson’s, et al. (2014) Ethos of Care.
Results
Preliminary findings demonstrate that CRP can foster relationships with students in addition to infusing students’ cultures into the curriculum and offers the potential to help students remain connected to learning even in a virtual setting. Demonstrated care manifested as explicit connections to culture and an understanding family, home and community needs in order for students to maintain access to learning. The maneuvers observed during instruction resulted from both skill and care. Discussion of how accessibility extends to engagement is provided.
Significance
Accessibility in virtual settings has traditionally centered on the tools needed to connect to instruction. This study provides support for the argument that helping connect with students virtually is more than bandwidth. Culturally Informed Relationships (Milner, 2006) and an Ethos of Care (Jackson, Sealey-Ruiz, & Watson, 2014) theorize that student success can only be measured in relation to the success of his or her community and a certain level of connectedness to community. Accessibility, therefore, continues to present as an equity-based construct.

Authors

• Christal Walker, Georgia State University

• Diane M. Truscott, Georgia State University