Teachers’ acculturation in culturally diverse schools - How is the perceived diversity climate linked to intercultural self-efficacy?

Abstract

While in the school context, acculturation is often studied in relation to students of immigrant descent, the current study applies an acculturation framework to teachers mostly representing the mainstream culture. Specifically, we investigated whether teachers’ acculturation attitudes towards their students mediate effects of the perceived cultural diversity climate at school on teachers’ intercultural self-efficacy in culturally diverse classrooms. Analyses were based on reports of 186 teachers (14% of immigrant descent; Mage = 40.8; SDage = 11.8, 73% female) in 22 culturally diverse secondary schools in Southwest Germany. Path analyses indicated that perceived norms of cultural pluralism, and perceived norms of equality and inclusion are directly and positively associated with facets of intercultural self-efficacy. Moreover, teachers’ support for cultural maintenance amongst their students was associated with intercultural self- efficacy, but no mediation was found between climate and intercultural self-efficacy via acculturation attitudes. Implications for teacher training, educational practice and future research on the acculturation and adjustment of teachers in culturally diverse classrooms are discussed.

Culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and cultural diversity climate are positively associated with the academic and psychological adjustment of immigrant and nonimmigrant students.

“…Schwarzenthal et al (2023) found that teachers' perceptions of a multicultural school climate (e.g., offering multicultural events) were positively associated with teachers' CRT self-efficacy at the school level. Similarly, Ulbricht et al (2022) found that German teachers' perceptions of equality and inclusion and cultural pluralism climate were positively associated with their CRT self-efficacy.…”

“…Specifically, CRT self-efficacy refers to the extent to which teachers feel capable of, for example, preparing culturally relevant lessons, reducing cultural conflicts, or creating a supportive classroom climate (Siwatu, 2007; Siwatu et al, 2017). While there is evidence on CRT self-efficacy and teachers’ outcomes (e.g., Comstock et al, 2023; Ulbricht et al, 2022), limited quantitative research has focused on the association between teachers’ CRT self-efficacy and students’ academic and psychological adjustment so far.…”

Unveiling the black box: exploring teachers’ approaches to ethnic victimization incidents at school

“…Consequently, they may find it challenging to work with diverse populations (Geerlings et al, 2018) and experience higher levels of burnout (Gutentag et al, 2018). Recent studies have shown that the multicultural climate within a school may contribute to teachers' sense of efficacy in working with diverse student profiles (Ulbricht et al, 2022;Schwarzenthal et al, 2023). For example, teachers were found to feel more confident in handling the challenges of a multicultural classroom and responding effectively to students with different abilities and cultural backgrounds when they perceived a strong emphasis on inclusion and cultural pluralism in their school context.…”

“…For example, teachers were found to feel more confident in handling the challenges of a multicultural classroom and responding effectively to students with different abilities and cultural backgrounds when they perceived a strong emphasis on inclusion and cultural pluralism in their school context. Additionally, they demonstrated a greater sense of efficacy in promoting positive intercultural relations when their school environment appreciated cultural diversity and adhered to a multicultural curriculum (Ulbricht et al, 2022).…”

The influence of school inclusive education climate on physical education teachers’ inclusive education competency: The mediating role of teachers’ agency

“…The school carries out inclusive practice activities, including the planning and deployment of school leaders on the implementation of inclusive education in the whole school, and the activities to promote the development of teachers' professional ability of inclusive education, such as training related to inclusive education, experience sharing and exchange meetings, etc. A good school climate can improve teachers' self-efficacy (Malinen and Savolainen, 2016;Ulbricht et al, 2022), create a more inclusively school climate, and improve teachers' inclusive education efficiency (O'Toole and Burke, 2013;Hosford and O'Sullivan, 2016;Neville et al, 2020). Improving teachers' attitude toward inclusive education (Fu et al, 2021) is an important variable affecting teachers' inclusive education competency, therefore, Hypothesis 1 was put forward: the school inclusive education climate has a positive predictive effect on the inclusive education competency of physical education teachers.…”