Personal and Professional Readiness of In-service Teachers of English for Culturally Responsive Teaching

Abstract

The aim of this study was twofold. First, it investigated the extent to which in-service teachers of English were personally and professionally ready to carry out culturally responsive teaching (CRT). Second, it aimed to understand teachers' perceptions of CRT.Research Method: This study was carried out in a sequential explanatory mixed methods design. Accordingly, first quantitative data were gathered in the first phase through administering CRT readiness scale. In the second phase, qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews to gain detailed insights about their perceptions. A total number of 415 in-service teachers of English participated in the quantitative phase of the study, and 12 teachers participated in the semi-structured interviews.

Applied linguistics and language education research in Turkey: 2016–2022

“…While some teachers were OK with students drawing from their home culture and language, others totally banned the use of languages other than Turkish in the classroom under the pretext of improving teacherstudent communication. Resonating with the findings of Zorba (2020), this study calls for more attention towards culturally responsive (Ladson-Billings, 1995) and culturally sustaining pedagogies (Paris, 2012) that draw from learners' funds of knowledge (González et al, 2005) to support their educational experience and academic achievement.…”

“…We have also noticed a growing interest in multiculturalism/multilingualism, social justice language education, critical pedagogy, and culturally responsive teaching (CRT). Having said that, Turkish-Kurdish bilingualism as a topic emerged only in one of the articles we reviewed in this paper (Yalçın Su & Çetin, 2021) and Zorba's (2020) study was the only one that focused on language teachers' readiness for CRT. Turkish as a foreign language has also emerged as a field, with many studies focusing on Arabic L1 learners of Turkish (e.g., Arı & Top, 2018;Gezer & Kıymık, 2018;Tanrıkulu, 2020).…”

“…Although relatively more limited in number, there were studies that also focused on the socio-cultural aspects of language teaching (Bozdoğan, 2016; Özışık et al, 2019; Şimşek, 2017; Taşdemir, 2019; Zorba, 2020). Focusing on Bourdieu's (1986) cultural capital, for instance, Taşdemir (2019) examined EFL teachers’ methods and techniques to develop their learners’ cultural capital through language teaching.…”

“…'friend-friend' speech situation was the most common, with 'suggesting' being the only statistically different speech act that occurred much less in Turkey-based textbooks. Lastly, Yılmaz and Koban Koç's (2020) quasi-experimental study suggested the positive effects of corpus-based teaching to improve EFL learners' comprehension and production of formulaic expressions.Although relatively more limited in number, there were studies that also focused on the sociocultural aspects of language teaching(Bozdoğan, 2016;Özışık et al, 2019;Şimşek, 2017;Taşdemir, 2019;Zorba, 2020). Focusing onBourdieu's (1986) cultural capital, for instance, Taşdemir (2019) examined EFL teachers' methods and techniques to develop their learners' cultural capital through language teaching.…”

Evaluating the perceptions of pre-service teachers' personal and professional readiness to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students

“…Readiness has shown to develop through exposure to practical training and exposure to CRT but also in multi-cultural/culture-oriented course enrollment that discuss theoretical knowledge and how to apply that knowledge to implement CRP teaching practices (Moore et al, 2021;Ozudogru, 2018;Zorba, 2020). Effects of increasing readiness results in improvement in cultural awareness knowledge, skills and abilities related to CRP and an increase in culturally responsive classrooms (Moore et al, 2021).…”