Organizational Conditions for and Teacher Conceptions of Culturally Responsive Instruction

• In Event: Conditions and Effects of Professional Learning Partnerships Focused on Ambitious and Culturally Responsive Instruction

Abstract

Purpose
CR instruction has been long studied as an instructional approach that leverages students’ cultural, racial, and linguistic assets in service of rigorous and social justice-oriented academic instruction. Some evidence suggests that district and school conditions shape teachers’ capacity to implement CR instruction (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011). Yet, few studies have examined how organizational conditions influence teachers’ conceptions of CR instruction and efforts to enact it. This study examines how the organizational conditions in teachers’ schools are associated with teachers’ conceptions of and reported use of CR instruction.

Theoretical Framework
This study bridges the theoretical foundations of CR instruction with organizational theory. Building on seminal scholarship in asset-based pedagogies (Gay, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1995), CR instruction emphasizes several core tenets, including high academic expectations for students, development of students’ cultural competence, and critical awareness of power dynamics in broader society based on race and culture. From organizational theory, this paper theorizes teachers as nested within three levels of context which influence how they engage in CR instruction (Bridwell-Mitchell, 2013; Hallett, 2003): the micro level—teachers' beliefs about and capacity for CR instruction; the meso level—the resources available in their organizational contexts, such as relationships with colleagues and leadership; and the macro level—messages from policy and society.

Methods
I use a qualitative, interpretive design, which allows for an in-depth examination of the relationships among teachers’ organizational conditions, their beliefs about CR instruction, and their implementation of CR instruction (Erickson, 1986; Moss & Haertel, 2016). Data analysis includes iterative coding using a priori and emergent codes, memo writing to document emergent themes in the data, and analytic matrices to distill key patterns and assertions (Miles et al., 2014).

Data
Data include 24 semi-structured teacher interviews across five PLPs from the larger study. Partnerships and teachers were selected to vary based on how frequently they reported engaging in CR instructional practices (a range of high and low engagement).

Results
Teachers conceptualized CR instruction on a spectrum—from seeing it as a set of achievable practices (a static conception) to instruction that required constant learning (a dynamic conception). School leaders and a supportive, collegial school culture promoted a dynamic conception through the centering of social justice and encouragement of dialogue among staff about sociopolitical issues. Still, macro-level influences, such as the political climate around critical race theory and policy demands for content coverage, and micro-level factors like teachers’ comfort with and capacity for discussions of racism in schools, buffered the influence of organizational conditions in shaping teachers’ CR instruction.

Significance
While the CR instruction scholarship is robust, it has primarily focused on defining and examining the challenges associated with implementing CR instruction, such as misunderstandings of CR instruction and problematic beliefs that may hinder CR instruction (Sleeter, 2012; Young, 2010). There is limited literature that specifically examines the role of school conditions in supporting or hindering teachers' implementation of CR instruction (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011). This study offers an important organizational perspective to the CR instruction literature, with implications for how policymakers and school leaders may better support CR instruction.

Author

• Meghan Comstock, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author