Exploring Conceptual Links Between Mastery-Focused and Culturally Inclusive and Responsive Learning Environments

• In Event: The Intersection and Integration of Motivation and Multicultural Theories in Education Research

Abstract

Objective

This mixed methods study examines the alignment between schools’ cultural climate as outlined in culturally responsive and relevant education (CRRE) and motivational climate as described in achievement goal theory (AGT) on students’ academic and psycho-social well-being.

Theoretical Framework

The hallmark of CRRE is teachers’ display of cultural consciousness, humility, flexibility, and openness to diverse perspectives as they frame curriculum, practices, and interactions with students. CRRE is validating and empowering for minoritized students because it legitimizes their cultural heritage, bridges gaps between their lived sociocultural realities and academic abstractions, and teaches to and through their strengths (Gay, 2000). Unique among social cognitive theories of motivation, AGT integrates personal motivational goals, labelled mastery- and performance-focused, and goals emphasized in the learning environment (Maehr & Midgley, 1991). Ames (1992) identified a constellation of instructional practices that make the learning context either more or less mastery- or performance-focused. In a mastery-focused classroom, students engage in a variety of personally relevant tasks; the teacher is autonomy-oriented, empowering students by involving them in decision-making and providing opportunities for self-directed and -regulated learning. In contrast, performance-focused classrooms emphasize competition and social/normative comparisons among students, primarily regarding their academic abilities. Teachers in such classrooms exert control through a system of rewards such as public honor rolls or special privileges. Conversely, mastery-focused classrooms, unlike performance-focused classrooms, promote intellectual curiosity and openness to diverse ways of knowing, thinking, and being.

Research Questions

1. In what ways do students describe their perspectives of the school cultural climate and academic climate, specifically on issues of academic motivation and psychosocial well-being?
2. What is the relationship between students’ perceptions of school cultural climate as inclusive and responsive and their perceptions of school academic climate as mastery-and performance-focused?
3. What is the relationship between teachers reported instructional practices as defined by AGT goal theory, their sense of responsibility for providing CRRE, and students’ perceptions of schools’ academic, motivational, and socio-cultural climate?

Methods, Results, and Discussion

Twelve culturally diverse middle schools participated in the study. The sample for the quantitative phase included students (1423 White, 977 Arab American, 270 Black, and 224 Chaldean) and teachers (N = 240). The focus-group sample consisted of randomly selected eighth-grade students (N =333), stratified by ethnicity and primary language spoken at home who participated in 57 focus-group interviews. Initial analysis of quantitative data revealed that students were significantly more likely to be more mastery-focused when they perceived teachers as more mastery-focused and engaging in culturally relevant and responsive teaching. Perceiving teachers as more mastery-focused and less performance-focused and more culturally relevant and responsive to their needs were significantly positively associated with higher academic-efficacy and self-esteem, greater sense of school-belonging, and lower levels of home-school dissonance. For the final paper, integrating results of linear multi-level hierarchical regression analyses of quantitative data and thematic analysis of qualitative data (Braun & Clarke, 2006) will help establish conceptual links between CRRE and AGT.

Authors

• Revathy Kumar, University of Toledo
  Presenting Author

• Jeffery Warnke, Walsh University
  Non-Presenting Author