Examining Classroom Contexts in Support of Culturally Diverse Learners’ Engagement: An Integration of Self-Regulated Learning and Culturally Responsive Pedagogical Practices.

Abstract

Research shows that culturally diverse students are often disengaged in multicultural classrooms. To address this challenge, literatures on self-regulated learning (SRL) and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) both document practices that foster engagement, although from different perspectives. This study examined how classroom teachers at schools that enrol students from diverse cultural communities on the West Coast of Canada built on a Culturally Responsive Self-Regulated Learning Framework to design complex tasks that integrated SRL pedagogical practices (SLPPs) and culturally-responsive pedagogical practices (CRPPs) to support student engagement. Two elementary school teachers and their 43 students (i.e., grades 4 and 5) participated in this study. We used a multiple, parallel case study design that embedded mixed methods approaches to examine how the teachers integrated SRLPPs and CRPPs into complex tasks; how culturally diverse students engaged in each teacher’s task; and how students’ experiences of engagement were related to their teachers' practices. We generated evidence through video-taped classroom observations, records of classroom practices, students’ work samples, a student self-report, and teacher interviews. Overall findings showed: (1) that teachers were able to build on the CR-SRL framework to guide their design of an CR-SRL complex task; (2) benefits to students’ engagement when those practices were present; and (3) dynamic learner-context interactions in that student engagement was situated in features of the complex task that were present on a given day. We close by highlighting implications of these findings, limitations, and future directions.
 

Examining culturally diverse learners’ motivation and engagement processes as situated in the context of a complex task

“…In this section, we introduce an integrated framework that draws SRL and CRT practices together (see Figure 1; for more specific information about this framework and its development, see Anyichie and Butler, 2017;Anyichie, 2018). The integrated pedagogies in this framework are consistently related to increase in students' motivation, engagement, SRL and achievement (Brayboy and Castagno, 2009;Elaine and Randall, 2010;Wolters and Taylor, 2012;Aceves and Orosco, 2014;Anyichie, 2018;Kumar et al, 2018;Perry et al, 2020;Anyichie et al, 2023). This framework was developed as a guide for educators in designing an inclusive classroom context that are connected to students' cultural background, interests, lived experiences in order to motivate them to engage in new knowledge construction (e.g., learning a new topic).…”

“…SRL-Promoting Practices (SRLPPs) include offering students opportunities to make choices and decisions about their learning, engage in self and peer assessment, evaluate their work and engage in cycles of strategic action. SRLPPs are linked to student motivation and quality of engagement (McCann and Turner, 2004;Anyichie and Onyedike, 2012;Perry, 2013;Anyichie andButler, 2015, 2019;Schmidt et al, 2018;Anyichie et al, 2023).…”

“…This situated model provided a practical guide for the development of the integrated framework drawn on in this study. For example, a deliberate integration of culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy and SRL-Promoting practices has the potential to boast culturally diverse students' motivation and engagement especially when explicitly designed to support both sociocultural and individual processes of learning (Anyichie et al, 2016(Anyichie et al, , 2023Anyichie, 2018;Anyichie and Butler, 2019). Learning contexts that foster SRL, such as building meaningful complex tasks that involve students in choice making, collaboration, self-evaluation, monitoring, and strategic action (e.g., task interpretation, planning, monitoring) increase students' engagement (Wigfield et al, 2008;Perry, 2013).…”

“…Learning contexts that foster SRL, such as building meaningful complex tasks that involve students in choice making, collaboration, self-evaluation, monitoring, and strategic action (e.g., task interpretation, planning, monitoring) increase students' engagement (Wigfield et al, 2008;Perry, 2013). Such contexts have the potential to foster culturally diverse learners' regulation of their motivation and learning engagement especially if they are deliberately designed to attend to both individual and sociocultural processes of learners (Anyichie et al, 2016(Anyichie et al, , 2023Anyichie and Butler, 2017).…”

“…Based on the complementarity between self-regulated learning (SRL) and culturally responsive teaching (CRT), it may be beneficial to integrate their practices to support culturally diverse students (Anyichie and Butler, 2017;Anyichie, 2018). Integrating these pedagogical practices can support culturally diverse students' motivation and learning engagement when deliberately woven into activity design to connect with students' backgrounds, interests and lived experiences; and empower learners' active participation (Gay, 2013;Anyichie, 2018;Anyichie andButler, 2018, 2019;Kumar et al, 2018;Gray et al, 2020;Anyichie et al, 2023). Therefore, this research focused on examining the motivation and learning engagement of all students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in a classroom context (e.g., complex task) that embedded self-regulated learning and culturally responsive teaching practices.…”