Purposeful Placements: An Exploration of Middle-Level Teachers' Experiences With Culturally Responsive Instruction

• In Event: From Dialogue to Action: Centering Equity and Justice in the Middle Grades

Abstract

Research questions for this descriptive study were (a) How do middle-level teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for culturally responsive instruction (CRI) change after their first year of classroom teaching? (b) How do middle-level teachers experience CRI in their year-long internship and in their first year of classroom teaching? (c) What are middle-level teachers’ perceptions of preparatory experiences that benefit their understandings of CRI? Four middle-level teachers who participated in a year-long internship designed to emphasize developmental and culturally responsive approaches participated in the study. Findings revealed participants maintained high levels of self-efficacy for implementing CRI after their first year as in-service teachers and described successes with using students’ backgrounds and interests to guide classroom instruction and to explore real-world issues.

Authors

• Pamela Correll, Missouri State University

• Kimberly J Stormer, Houston Independent School District

• Ximena Uribe-Zarain, Missouri State University