Culturally Responsive Differentiated Instruction: Narrowing Gaps between Best Pedagogical Practices Benefiting All Learners

By Lorri J. Santamaría. Teachers College Record, 2009

213 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background/Context Because of its special education association, differentiated instruction (DI) is a topic of concern for many educators working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners, whereby bilingual, multicultural, and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is considered more appropriate for responding to cultural and linguistic diversity. Furthermore, although the literature base on DI recognizes cultural and linguistic diversity, it offers little in terms of ways to address these differences. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The focus of this contribution is to assist the educational community in recognizing pedagogical differences, while finding common ground, in identifying complementary teaching practices for all students, including culturally diverse students and English language learners (ELLs). CRT and DI provide frameworks with which to discuss a reconciliation of both theory-to-practice approaches with the hope that a common framework will better serve educators and preservice teachers working with diverse students in complex multidimensional classrooms. Setting This research took place at two CLD elementary schools serving ELLs in North San Diego County, California. Schools were chosen because both are reaching high levels of academic achievement and are closing achievement gaps, dispelling the myth that high levels of poverty and/or CLD student populations lead to lower student achievement. Research Design The research design employed was a qualitative case study. Data Collection and Analysis Over 5 years, observations, recorded conversations among teachers, administrators, students, and parents, and supporting documents collected from both schools were initially coded by reading through responses and documents. Using a qualitative analysis procedure, codes were generated to identify data relevant to general features of DI and CRT. This was followed by more focused coding wherein previous codes were reviewed, erroneous information was eliminated, and smaller codes were then combined into larger ones. Finally, codes were organized into larger themes identified and grounded by DI and CRT literature. Conclusions/Recommendations The best teaching practices are those that consider all learners in a classroom setting and pay close attention to differences inherent to academic, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity. Through a closer examination of two different, seemingly distinct, theoretical models that have rarely been linked or reconciled, educators may be able to determine what is appropriate for particular groups of students in particular classrooms in particular locales. In implementing school reform efforts to improve student achievement, reconciliation of best teaching practices and the creation of hybrid pedagogies are critical in addressing a future of an increasingly diverse country and global community.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Culturally responsive computing: a theory revisited (2015, background): “Integral to CRC is its roots in CRT. Researchers have provided thorough syntheses articulating the elements of this pedagogical approach (see, for example, Santamaria 2009; Paris 2012).”
Culturally resPonsiVe teaChing (2008, methodology): “Page 8 of 37 interacting that support CLD students’ cultural, linguistic, and racial experiences and integrate the methods with evidence-based practices (EBPs; e.g., Harlin & Souto-Manning, 2009; Hersi & Watkinson, 2012; Nieto et al., 2008; Santamaria, 2009).”
The 20th-Year Anniversary of Critical Race Theory in Education (2015, background): “Related, Santamaría (2009) discusses how culturally responsive teaching fails to address the unique needs of students who are English-language learners.”
Getting Inside Rehearsals (2016, background): “…et al., 2013) and used by others (e.g., Windschitl, Thompson, & Braaten, 2011) puts children’s sensemaking and the social, intellectual, and linguistic resources that they bring to learning disciplinary ideas at the center of instructional relationships (Ladson-Billings, 2001; Santamaria, 2009).”
Differentiated Literacy Instruction: Boondoggle or Best Practice? (2020, methodology): “As students are drafting compositions, some students may benefit from using text-to-speech software, concept mapping software (e.g., van Kraayenoord et al., 2009), sentence frames, paragraph starters, or T-graphs (e.g., Santamaria, 2009).”