Supporting Teachers for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Pedagogy: A Cross-National Examination

• In Event: Evidence-based decision making in education
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Teachers and teacher education for equity and development

Proposal

As the world continues to globalize, the increased movement of individuals across borders is reflected in the greater diversity present in the classroom. Teachers, already tasked with many responsibilities, must be prepared to create welcoming environments, including fostering intercultural competence and critical thinking (UNESCO, 2018). The empirical analysis presented here draws from a socio-political perspective to examine the support teachers receive for working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

Evolving from Dewey’s socio-political philosophy, research that adopts a socio-political perspective starts from the concrete reality that dictates everyday life. It points to multiple social forces – ideas, economic forces, vested interests – shaping the current environment and recognizes that responses to the social environment vary depending on the political context (Pappas, 2017). Although best understood as a perspective or orientation, Salter & Tapper (1981, p. 1-2) put forth a socio-political theory to help understand “how the social and economic pressures for change have to be politically negotiated in the context of state institutions which may, or may not, be sensitive to these pressures and may have their own ideas as to what constitutes desirable change”.

In applying a sociopolitical perspective it is useful to disentangle, to the extent possible, the social from the political (Valero, 2004). For the current study the globalized world with increased interaction across boundaries, cultures, and technological channels, forms the present social reality. The cultural other is no longer an exotic notion that individuals can ignore but a challenge in today’s multi-cultural/multi-lingual world to our understanding and willingness to listen and recognize different perspectives. Within this social space, the political component plays out. The political world is driven by power. Confronted with increased diversity, state level politics often decides who is included or excluded, who drives educational reform, and the content of beneficiaries of such reform (Cauller, 2011). The excellent work of Nieto (2017, 2013, 2006, 1992), demonstrates the ability of the socio-political perspective to aid understanding on a variety of issues in multicultural education.

In this politically charged context, education plays a key role. Education helps individuals address preconceptions and breakdown socially constructed divisions. It provides space for intercultural engagement to overcome fear of the unknown and increased cognitive and critical thinking skills that help limit simplistic overgeneralization. Culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) is one prominent way to demonstrate the value of different cultures during instruction. CRP recognizes the inherent value of having multiple perspectives presented in a classroom and fosters reflexive thinking about one’s own culture while developing an appreciation for the culture of others (Wells et al., 2016). Teachers, however, often feel ill-prepared to teach in multicultural classrooms (Adair et al., 2012). For example, in the United States, an estimated 87 to 90% of teachers have received no training for second language learners (Rubinstein-Avila and Lee, 2014).

Using data from the 2013 TALIS this cross-national research asks two main questions. First, do teachers receive support for working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners? This includes receiving professional development for working with multilingual/multicultural students and receiving feedback during teacher appraisal meetings specific to that student group. Second, how targeted is support for teachers? This includes both cross-country and within country analysis. Across countries (see figure 5.4 below, from UNESCO, 2018) it is clear that countries with a larger number of teachers in more diverse classrooms do not receive additional professional development for working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Within countries, multilevel modeling is used to evaluate if professional development and increased feedback are provided for teachers that self-report a need for support and those that teach in more diverse classrooms.

Initial results show generally good targeting within countries but from a low baseline. This suggests that minimal resources are used for supporting teachers for working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners, but the efforts that are put forward are given to those with perceived higher needs. Still, to highlight the minimal attention given to this important student population, appraisal feedback for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners is contrasted with other feedback received during appraisal meetings. Using a relative measure of perceived importance it is clear that in the vast majority of countries feedback related to this student group falls well behind other areas of feedback.

Finally, variance in national results will be interpreted in the context of the country’s political environment. Returning to our socio-political perspective, select national case studies will help us better understand how more nationalist policies or public discourses relate to support for a student group that is often without power and is, at times, seen as challenging the status quo. Unfortunately, even when professional development is provided, past research is pessimistic on whether it will focus merely on knowledge acquisition over pedagogical practice (April et al., 2018) or whether it will encourage the creation of a critical conscious necessary to overcome entrenched power relations (Groski, 2009).

Authors

• William Smith, University of Edinburgh

• Anna Persson, Metro State University - Denver