20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Paper
Student-Teachers' Experiences with Culturally Responsive Pedagogies in Diverse Irish Second-Level Classrooms
Seun Adebayo, Manuela Heinz
University of Galway, Ireland
Presenting Author: Adebayo, Seun
The global composition of societies is changing rapidly with an increase in migration, refugees and asylum seekers across the world. This has created challenges for education systems in delivering equitable and quality education for all learners, particularly for teachers in culturally diverse classrooms. Teachers play a crucial role in ensuring equitable education, as recognized by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) passed by the United Nations in 2015. Despite this, many teachers worldwide struggle to meet the changing demands of students in culturally diverse classrooms.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis study focuses on the experiences and views of second-level student-teachers/beginning teachers in Ireland on Culturally Responsive Pedagogies (CRP) in culturally diverse classrooms. Using qualitative research methods, 16 second-level student-teachers/beginning teachers were interviewed, and data was analyzed using the theoretical framework of CRP. The findings showed that many participants had limited knowledge and competence in CRP and encountered difficulties engaging in culturally responsive teaching practices. Some participants shared their conceptualizations of CRP, which involves understanding students' learning preferences, requirements, and backgrounds and using inclusive teaching methods. This suggests that student-teachers/beginning teachers are receptive to being culturally responsive, and teacher education programmes should aim to empower them to make it a reality.
Other examples of culturally responsive teaching shared by participants include creating a lesson plan that appeals to students, relationship-building with students, adapting the curriculum and providing unreserved praise for students' efforts. Another participant mentioned that she adopted a teaching strategy that was culturally inclusive by mastering how to pronounce students' names in her classroom, which is crucial because names are usually tied to identity.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe implications of the above findings suggest a need to prioritize the training and support of student-teachers/beginning teachers in CRP) to ensure access to equitable and quality education for all students in culturally diverse classrooms. The findings highlight the challenges that student-teachers/beginning teachers face in understanding and implementing CRP in their practice, despite their receptiveness to the idea. This calls for greater attention to providing effective training and ongoing support for student-teachers/beginning teachers in this area and a more comprehensive approach to incorporating CRP in teacher education programmes. Additionally, the study's findings demonstrate the importance of teachers understanding their students' cultural backgrounds and incorporating that knowledge into their teaching practices. The participants' experiences of using culturally inclusive strategies, such as understanding students' home lives and interests, using culturally diverse materials and knowledge, and building relationships with students, highlight the positive impact of culturally responsive teaching on students' learning experiences.
Moreover, the results of this study contribute to the ongoing discourse around the role of teachers in promoting equitable and quality education within culturally diverse classrooms. Given the shifting demographics of societies around the world, it is more important than ever for teachers to be culturally sensitive in their practice, and this study provides helpful insights into student-teachers/beginning teachers' experiences in this regard. In conclusion, the findings of this study also offer important implications for policymakers and teacher educators to address the challenges and support the development of culturally responsive teaching practices in Irish schools and beyond.
ReferencesAgirdag, O., Merry, M. S., & Van Houtte, M. (2014). Teachers’ understanding of multicultural education and the correlates of multicultural content integration in Flanders. Education and Urban Society, 1-27.
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Condon, J. (2017). The experience of migrant students in an Irish second level school, (Doctoral dissertation, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (Ireland).
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Howard, T. C. (2010). Culturally relevant pedagogy: Ingredients for critical teacher reflection. Theory into Practice, 42, 195–202.
Keane, E., Heinz, M., & Lynch, A. (2020). Identity matters? ‘Working class’ student teachers in Ireland, the desire to be a relatable and inclusive teacher, and sharing the classed self. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-17.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995a). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy, Theory into Practice, 34(3), 159-165.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995b). Towards a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy, American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491.
McGinley, H., & Keane, E. (2021). “The School for the Travellers and the Blacks”: Student and Teacher Perspectives on “Choosing” a Post-Primary School with a High Concentration of Disadvantage. Education Sciences, 11(12), 777.
Morrison, S. A., Thompson, C., & Glazier, J. (2021). Culturally responsive teacher education: do we practice what we preach?. Teachers and Teaching, 28(1), 26-50.
Siwatu, K. O. (2007). Preservice teachers’ culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs, Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(7), 1086-1101.
Siwatu, K. O., Chesnut, S. R., Alejandro, A. Y., & Young, H. A. (2016). Examining preservice teachers' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy doubts, The Teacher Educator, 51(4), 277-296.
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20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Paper
Global Competence and Cross-cultural Encounters in Student Teacher Education
Cinzia Zadra1, Simona Bartoli-Kucher2
1Free University of Bolzano, Italy; 2University of Graz, Austria
Presenting Author: Zadra, Cinzia
Our contribution aims to present an interdisciplinary research idea that aims to develop global competences from the use of multimodal and transcultural narratives in the university classroom.
By transcultural narratives we mean a broad spectrum of literary, hybrid and polysemous texts, as well as films and graphic novels that cross or transcend different languages and cultures, and are thus characterised by cultural hybridity and plural linguistic and visual codes, by the intersection of semiotic systems such as word-image constellations
Our research project critically reflects on the current curricular standards in these areas by sensitising 'student teachers' to 'become active citizens in an interconnected' (OECD, 2018, 58) and rapidly changing world and, at the same time, developing respect and understanding and concern for the other.
Dealing with transcultural authors and texts makes it easier for trainee teachers to implement innovative teaching formats for diversity-sensitive teaching based on action-oriented approaches. Due to their distinct factuality and authenticity, transcultural narratives offer direct access to reflection and to the discussion of concepts such as plural identities, ways of promoting global citizenship, activating cognitive, emotional and social participation.
From the data gathered through narrative methods and reflection, we promise further insights into the extent to which multimodal transcultural texts can not only support diversity-sensitive teaching practices, but also the need to reconsider and highlight interdisciplinary training for teachers and student teachers.
Our theoretical framework draws on theoretical approaches that emphasise the need to rethink the concepts of citizenship, identity, diversity and relating to diversity by recognising the potential of hybrid and multiple identities (Bhabha, 1994; Nussbaum 2010; Welsch, 2000).
Dealing with authors and texts that come from an in-between space where teachers and students can and sometimes have to decide between different culturally-shaped offers of identification (values, traditions, lifestyles, roles and life projects) motivates them to reflect on the phenomena of cultural fluidity and the self in our society.
With regard to the concept of transculturality, it is necessary to refer to the reflections with which Welsch (2020) opened the discussion in the field of cultural studies, clarifying that the concept reflects the interweaving, interpenetration and hybridisation of cultures, in a network vision in which it is necessary to start from the specificities of the subject, from categories such as gender, generation, age, sexuality, geopolitical social environment and others, going beyond the narratives of original and initial subjectivities to focus on moments or processes that are produced in the articulation of differences. Accepting Welsch's proposal does not, however, prevent us from strengthening the potential of dialogue between the concepts of interculturality and transculturality.
The specific aims of our research project are to understand whether transcultural narratives can contribute to:
- addressing the challenges of complexity in teacher education;
- promoting global competences;
- grasping the multiple cultural and identity intersections of individuals who need to work together across national boundaries.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedWe conducted this study with students from the Faculty of Education of the University of Bolzano (Italy) and the Institute of Romance Studies of the University of Graz (Austria), which are borderline realities and characterised by multilingual teaching.
With regard to the reflection on the development of global competences and the evaluation of the development process of these competences, following the many studies recommending the introduction of qualitative and narrative instruments, we used reflective learning diaries as a very useful tool to facilitate students to reflect on their current perspectives in light of the theories and themes and textes discussed in class. The literature indicates that reflective diaries writing enhances critical thinking, integration of theory with practice. The very nature of a diary also allows to search for and express their learning process in a personal way, a learning that makes personal meaning and is useful in the student’s own context and awareness process.
Another instrument chosen for data collection, in addition to diaries, were phenomenologically-oriented vignettes. Vignettes are a dense description of a selected scenes that are often overlooked in class. These are short narrative scenes that contain exemplary experiences gathered during the students’ work with the texts and written by a researcher. Vignettes contain concise descriptions of perception; they focus on what we perceive through the sensing organs – as far as possible without any interpretation. The vignette allows a more nuanced and various perception of students’ experiences with the transcultural texts and their affective reaction, appreciation, meaning assignment. The reading and discussing of vignette, which represent a sort of close analysis of them, in a small students group raise self-discovery and awareness of one’s thoughts, feeling, values while exploring and considering new perspective and ideas.
The reflections from diaries and vignettes were subjected to a phenomenological analysis which, through an open and recursive process, led to the identification of particular themes and the relationships between them.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe results obtained seem to provide valuable insights into the integration of literary texts in the development of global competence, and help us obtain new data on the validity and consistency of global competence self-assessment methods.
Dialogical encounters with literary and multimodal texts and with their transcultural authors became possibilities for considering texts as fields of action, because they promote the ability to act. These texts offer a diverse mix of authentic stories and perspectives and thus increase the willingness and motivation to speak, write, participate.
Analysis of the data also led to reflection on the possibilities provided by transcultural texts with regard to developing sensitivity to perspective, the ability and willingness to change perspective, to consider multiple possibilities of perspectives and views, and to coordinate them.
Reflection on the texts also led to a path of reflection on oneself, on one’s own ability to be open to diversity also within oneself, and to one’s own linguistic and cultural diversity and belonging. Direct contact with texts constitutes learning experiences that allow one to investigate the structures of understanding and sift through the experience itself.
Putting one’s own points of view into perspective also responds to others, and exercises the pleasure of acceptance, the formation of the ability to engage in dialogue with the other and with oneself. The experience is seen from the inside, from the perspective of the protagonists, from the folds of the events they went through, and the need to transcribe them. This allows for an attitude of global citizenship and includes the need to engage with issues and problems that transcend the borders of states, and engagement with destinies that are globally intertwined.
ReferencesAgostini, E., Peterlini, H. K., Donlic, J., Kumpusch, V., Lechner, D., & Sander, I. (2022). (Eds.). The vignette as an exercise in perception. Handbook on the professionalisation of educational practice. Budrich Verlag.
Andreotti, V. (2010). Global education in the'21st century': Two different perspectives on the'post-'of postmodernism. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning. 2(2). Pp.5-22.
Barrett, M., Byram, M., Lázár, I, Mompoint-Gaillard, P., & Philippou, S. (2014). Developing Intercultural Competence through Education. Council of Europe Pestalozzi Series, No 3. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The Location of Culture. Routledge.
Biesta, G. (2021). Phenomenology and Educational Theory in Conversation. Routledge.
Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M. (2000) Multiliteracies: Literacy and Learning and the Design of Social Futures. Routledge.
Dervin, F., & Simpson, A. (2021). Interculturality and the political within education. Routledge.
Kalantzis M., Cope, B.: (2009). Multiliteracies: New Literacies, New Learning, Pedagogies. An International Journal, 4(3), 164-195.
Kramsch, C. 2011. The Symbolic Dimensions of the Intercultural. Language Teaching 44(3): 354-367. doi: 10.1017/S0261444810000431.
Nussbaum, M. C. (1997). Cultivating Humanity. A Classical Defence of Reform in Liberal Education. Harvard University Press.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2010). Not for Profit: why Democracy Needs the Humanities. Princeton University Press.
UNESCO (2015). Global citizenship education: topics and learning objectives. In https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232993.
UNESCO (2021). Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education. Inhttps://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707.locale=en
Welsch, W. (1999). Transculturality: The Puzzling Form of Cultures Today. In Theory, Culture & Society: Spaces of culture: City, nation, world, eds. M. Featherstone and S. Lash, 195-213. Sage Publications.
20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Paper
In-service Language Teachers Learning About Plurilingual and Intercultural Education in School
Ana Sofia Pinho
Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Educação - ULisboa, Portugal
Presenting Author: Pinho, Ana Sofia
Teacher learning in the context of pedagogies for linguistic and cultural diversity is not a recent desideratum in educational policies, teacher education, professional development, and schools.
At the European level, Putjata et al. (2022) underline the need and the challenges of a multilingual turn in teachers’ professionalism, as regards linguistic diversity in society and schools, in students’ profiles and learning scenarios, but also as a path to overcome traditional linguistic hierarchies, marginalisation, invisibilisation, and social injustices perpetuated through teaching practices and school language policies. Among the conclusions, the striking role of teachers’ autobiographical experiences with multilingualism in education, is highlighted: “Personal and professional experiences at school shape their approaches to pedagogy as well as their ways of dealing with multilingualism in the classroom” (p.400). Additionally, teachers’ cognitions and language ideologies regarding multilingualism and multilingual education have proven to be an important factor when discussing classroom and overall school practices, notably as regards variations between monolingual and multilingual mindsets (Paulsrud, Juvonen, & Schalley, 2023).
Duarte et al. (2023), analysing research priorities about multilingualism in education in five European countries (Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, and Spain), conclude that it is relevant to research educational interventions resorting to multilingual approaches and their effectiveness, and that teachers’ didactical knowledge is crucial to the implementation of multilingual approaches in mainstream settings. Moreover, Krulatz et al. (2022) reinforce the role of professional development initiatives to the reconfiguration of teachers’ cognitions on the topic of multilingualism and pedagogical practices in linguistically diverse classrooms. Yet, the authors also reveal that the effects of such initiatives may vary according to participants’ personal and contextual situations, and that teacher educators would need to consider the structure of the intervention and the content and how it is delivered. Dockrell et al. (2022) carried out a survey across different (eleven) European countries (including Portugal) on teachers’ views about multilingualism. As conclusions, the authors point out that policies should be more attentive to structural and contextual factors involved in teachers’ challenges in implementing multilingual teaching practices, and that teacher education practices would need to focus on developing teachers’ multilingual awareness and diversity responsive teaching.
Current education policy in Portugal speaks in favour of inclusive education, making the case that “all students should have access, participate and be supported to succeed within mainstream settings” (Alves, 2019). Legislative frameworks, such as Decree-Law 54/2018, which determines the juridical regime on inclusive education, state as guiding principle (among others) to “value learners’ and community’s linguistic diversity, as an expression of individual and collective identity”. Yet, regarding pluri/multilingual education, studies have signalled that teachers’ need professional development that supports them in embracing the multilingual turn in education (Pinho & Moreira, 2012; Szelei, Pinho & Tinoca, 2021).
This presentation reports a case study that addresses in-service language teachers’ learning about pluri/multilingual (and intercultural) education when involved in a one-year learning community in a Portuguese public, urban school. This community involved 23 teachers of a language department (which included official languages of the national curriculum offered at that school: language of schooling – Portuguese – and foreign languages, e.g., English, French, and Spanish).
The following research questions guide the study:
- What is the in-service language teachers’ understanding of pluri/multilingualim and plurilingual education, and how does such understanding evolve?
- What opportunities and challenges do the participants identify regarding pluri/multilingualim and plurilingual education in schools?
- What are the main professional development needs expressed by the teachers before, during and after the involvement in the learning community?
- How do the participating teachers assess the dynamics of the learning community?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedOver a school year, a group of 23 schoolteachers were involved in a learning community and professional development workshop, oriented by school-based, collaborative and action-research principles. The teachers developed intervention projects in groups resulting from joint interests, practice- or contextual-sensitive issues. In this context, qualitative data were collected, such as written reflective learning accounts, project reports, and working sessions recordings.
Considering the study’s research questions, a phenomenological, interpretative approach was adopted, according to which research is interested in participants’ experience, meaning making, and interpretations of reality (Boavida & Amado, 2006). Hence, a content analysis procedures were applied to the dataset, which involved coding for themes, looking for similarities, grouping them into categories, and finally finding patterns to discuss the findings.
Ethical procedures were ensured. Participating teachers agreed to the data collection through informed consent, and their names were all coded to safeguard identity and anonymity. Informed consent to perform the study was also obtained by the school board.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe findings point out to teachers’ learning processes regarding conceptions of multilingualism and plurilingual education; didactical knowledge about plurilingual teaching practices and curriculum development; benefits and constraints of plurilingual education to pupils, teachers, and the school. Interestingly, the participants very clearly signal what they believe to be the conditions for their continuous professional learning about plurilingual education, notably school culture and leadership, individual and
organisational features, and time management.
Through the dissemination of this case study and by comparing and contrasting its findings with current research literature, our purpose is to contribute to the development of knowledge base regarding in-service language teachers’ learning about multilingualism and plurilingual education at a European level.
ReferencesAlves, I. (2019). International inspiration and national aspirations: inclusive education in Portugal. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(7-8), 862-875, DOI: 10.1080/13603116.2019.1624846
Boavida, J., & Amado, J. (2006). Ciências da Educação. Epistemologia, Identidade e Perspectivas (2.ª ed.). Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra.
Duarte, J., García-Jimenez, E., McMonagle, S., Hansen, A., Gross, B., Szelei, N., & Pinho, A. S. (2023). Research priorities in the field of multilingualism and language education: a cross-national examination. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 44:1, 50-64, DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2020.1792475
Dockrell, J. E. et al. (2022). Teaching and learning in a multilingual Europe: findings from a cross-European study. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 37, 293–320. DOI: 10.1007/s10212-020-00523-z
Putjata, G., Brizić, K., Goltsev, E., & Olfert, H. (2022). Introduction: Towards a multilingual turn in teacher professionalization. Language and Education, 36(5), 399-403, DOI: 10.1080/09500782.2022.2114804
Paulsrud, B., Juvonen, P., & Schalley, A. C. (2023). Attitudes and beliefs on multilingualism in education: voices from Sweden. International Journal of Multilingualism, DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2022.2153851
Krulatz, A., Christison, M., Lorenz, E., & Sevinç, Y. (2022). The impact of teacher professional development on teacher cognition and multilingual teaching practices, International Journal of Multilingualism, DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2022.2107648
Pinho, A. S., & Moreira, G. (2012). Policy in practice: Primary school teachers of English learning about plurilingual and intercultural education. L1 – Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 12, 1-24. DOI: 10.17239/L1ESLL-2012.02.04
Szelei, N., Pinho, A. S., & Tinoca, L. (2021). Teaching in multilingual classrooms: strategies from a case study in Portugal / Ensinar em salas de aula multilingues: estratégias de um estudo de caso em Portugal. Revista Brasileira de Educação, 26, 1-25. DOI: 10.1590/S1413-24782021260038.
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