One school's process of becoming more culturally responsive: an ethnographic case study
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Abstract
Student demographics in K–12 education have changed dramatically over the past few decades. Classrooms are increasingly more linguistically, culturally, and racially diverse than ever before, yet our educator workforce remains predominantly white.
Moreover, racial and cultural opportunity gaps continue to widen. In this ethnographic case study, the researcher studies one school’s process for becoming a more culturally responsive community. Through semi-structured interviews, field notes, and surveys, the researcher describes what happened after the school launched an Equity Team consisting of six educators who played the role of lead learners and professional development facilitators for the staff at large. The researcher found that the educators willing to join the Equity Team shared specific characteristics and beliefs. He also found that while Equity Team members focused carefully on the content they wanted to present, they were not as deliberate about their facilitation strategy and response to conflict. Moreover, he found those educators who participated in the professional development demonstrated
changes in their understanding of cultural responsiveness, although sometimes in surprising ways. Through the lenses of culturally responsive teaching, transformational learning and racial identity development, the researcher offers implications and recommendations about the design and implementation of future professional development on culturally responsive teaching.