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Part B: Literature Review and Revised Research Question(s)

Walden University

EDUC 6733: Action Research for Educators

July 22, 2018

Part B: Literature Review and Revised Research Question(s)

In the literature review relative to my stated research question, the recurring overlap centered on the importance of a teacher’s level of cultural competency and its impact on their perceptions regarding the students they teach. Nelson & Guerra (2013) found that while the majority of teachers who participated in their study conducted in both Texas and Michigan had a general awareness of different cultures, only three percent were classified as culturally aware and one percent as culturally responsive. Overall, they noted that participants displayed deficit thinking, i.e., negative beliefs, regarding their students’ academic capabilities and home lives resulting in lowered expectations and blaming them for failing to see the value of education. Nelson & Guerra additionally call for everyone involved in the educational process to examine their own beliefs about diversity and cultural knowledge while attempting to obtain the requisite knowledge and skills through professional development to remove this roadblock to student achievement. However, cultural competence and a strong commitment to equity do not develop overnight and are part of a self-voluntary transformative process.

Our current U.S. History curriculum, beginning during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War and extending into contemporary events, covers various demographic changes to our country as well as the nation’s ongoing quest to define what it means to be a U.S. citizen and whether we actually adhere to our founding credo that all men are created equal. In examining the stories and people behind these changes, it is important that a teacher ensure respect for all cultural differences in the material as it relates to the students expected to learn it.

Li (2013) examined a three-stage approach for teachers; knowing ourselves and others, developing skills and competences to bridge differences, and becoming skilled cultural workers. Through this process, teachers move beyond their role of simply disseminating information and into that of a change agent who is most notably more self-aware as well as willing to relate to their students. Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students see themselves through the prism of their own culture and perceive others see them the same way. Therefore, as our nation’s demographics continue to change, teachers must be willing to change with them. However, change of this type must extend beyond the classroom to educational leaders at the state, local, and federal levels to allow the overall educational process to evolve.

Ladson-Billings (2014) describes her own evolution in thinking from culturally relevant teaching to culturally sustaining pedagogy. Where at one point in her career she thought teachers displaying skill in a cross-cultural or multicultural setting was sufficient, she later embraced a viewpoint calling for teachers to be more self-aware and develop ways to best include and honor cultural differences among their students. Though her individual research focused on AfricanAmerican students, the use of deficit terms such as culturally disadvantaged, at-risk, or underachieving are unfortunately common in regard to various minority student populations. The importance of culturally aware teachers, in her opinion, manifested itself in fewer instances of classroom death; when teachers who stop trying to reach each and every student, succumbing instead to dehumanizing rules and regulations. In instances where classroom death occurred, academic death which manifested itself in disengagement, failure, suspension, expulsion, and dropout followed soon thereafter.

To avoid these long-term negative effects, cultural competency can be augmented through the use of differentiated instruction. Tomlinson (2015) stressed the importance of using differentiated instruction to reach all learners and veer away from deficit thinking altogether. In the process of embracing differentiated instruction, teachers acknowledge that students bring different cultural experiences, family circumstances, and abilities to the classroom with them. By embracing cultural differences, teachers avoid reserving a pedagogy of poverty, colored by low expectations and perceptions of lower capabilities, for some while simultaneously providing a pedagogy of plenty, emphasizing a richer curriculum and higher expectations, for others. In a learner-centered classroom, a teacher is consistently respectful of each student’s humanity, culture, and experiences, factoring all these elements into a formula for overall student success.

The literature review, particularly the commonality of viewpoints concerning cultural competency, made it clear that my original research question, “how does a teacher’s portrayal of different cultures impact a student’s motivation to learn U.S. History?,” required revision. Therefore, my revised research question is, “how does a teacher’s level of cultural competency impact a student’s desire’s motivation to learn U.S. History?”

The methodology based on my research question will include student interviews, classroom observations, and discussions within our Professional Learning Community (PLC) as well as an examination of test scores, discipline files, and attendance records. So while my endeavor is principally an individual action research project, it does have elements of collaboration in terms of integrating insights gained through conversations with members of my PLC. Getting the problem or issue into a commonly defined and articulated set of issues or questions requires understanding of the contextual issues at the student, school, and district level.

(Mandinach, 2016).

It is my hope that the results of my action research project shed a light on the impotance of cultural competency on the part of teachers to the overall success of students. In the simplest terms, our country and the world itself is changing. By 2055, the U.S. will not have a single racial or ethnic majority. Much of this change has been (and will be) driven by immigration.

Nearly 59 million immigrants have arrived in the U.S. in the past 50 years, mostly from Latin America and Asia (Cohn, 2016). Despite the level of discomfort displayed by our current administration in Washington, D.C., these changes will indeed occur and the every member of the educational community must be realistic enough to see that we all must change our thought processes along with them. In fact, whether we are willing or not, we need only watch the demographic compositions of our classrooms continue to change in order to arrive at the conclusion that we simply have no choice.

References

Cohn, D. & Caumont, A. (2016). 10 Demographic trends that are shaping the U.S. and the World. Retrieved on July 21, 2018 from http://www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2016/03/31/10-demographic-trends-that-are-shaping-the-u-s-and-the-world/

Gloria Ladson-Billings (2014). Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0: a.k.a. the Remix. Harvard

Educational Review: April 2014, Vol. 84, No. 1, pp. 74-84.

Li, G. (2013). Promoting Teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Students as

Change Agents: A Cultural Approach to Professional Learning, Theory Into

Practice, 52:2, 136-143, DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2013.770331

Mandinach, E. B., & Gummer, E. S. (2016). Data literacy for educators: Making it count in teacher preparation and practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Chapter 2, “The Context for Data Literacy” (pp. 19 – 37).

Nelson, S. & Guerra, P. (2013). Educator Beliefs and Cultural Knowledge: Implications for

School Improvement Efforts. Educational Administration Quarterly 50(1):67-95, DOI:

10.1177/0013161X13488595

Tomlinson, C. (2015). Teaching for excellence in academically diverse classrooms. Society

52(3), pp. 203-209. DOI: 10.1007/s12115-015-9888-0

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