Relationships between Organizational Factors and Teachers’ Knowledge and Use of Culturally Relevant Education

IF 1.3 4区 教育学 Q2 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Hannah Mathews, Rachel Oblath, Elizabeth Bettini, Erica D. McCray, Akash Chopra, Terrance Scott
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background/Context: Culturally relevant education (CRE) is a powerful tool for improving students’ educational experiences and outcomes. Yet CRE is not the norm in U.S. public education systems (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011, 2012; Borrero et al., 2016; Coffey & Farinde-Wu, 2016), perhaps because teachers are socialized into systems that reproduce and uphold white-normed practice (Leonardo & Manning, 2017). The organizational contexts and conditions surrounding teachers’ practice could be a tool for leaders and policy makers to promote the use of CRE in schools. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how three organizational factors—administrative support, school culture, and curricula—may contribute to teachers’ knowledge and enactment of CRE. We framed our analysis using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) (Cole & Engeström, 1993), a tool for examining how learning is situated in contexts and conditions, and how these contexts and conditions mediate teaching practice (Foot, 2014). Research Design: Guided by the tenets of quantitative critical inquiry (Stage, 2007; Stage & Wells, 2014), we used survey data from 534 teachers in 33 schools in the 2019 school year to explore how three organizational factors (i.e., administrative support, school culture, and curricula) contribute to teachers’ knowledge and enactment of CRE. We collected data in spring 2019 in a high-poverty urban district in the southeastern United States serving predominantly students of color. We used confirmatory factor analysis to test each scale’s dimensionality, accounting for clustering by school, and then used structural equation modeling (SEM) to model relationships among the organizational factors and teachers’ self-reported CRE knowledge and practice. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our analysis indicated that curricular resources for CRE and collective expectations for CRE—an element of school culture—were both positively associated with teachers’ self-reported CRE knowledge. CRE knowledge, curricular resources for CRE, and administrative support were positively associated with teachers’ self-reported CRE practice. Finally, CRE knowledge partially mediated the relationship between curricular resources for CRE and CRE practice. Notably, general curricular resources were negatively associated with CRE practice. Findings suggest that norms and curricula focused on the use of CRE are crucial for enhancing teachers’ knowledge and use of CRE practice; general curricular resources may not foster teachers’ work in providing CRE in their classrooms. Finally, findings suggest that administrators may be uniquely positioned to help teachers transform their practice. We discuss implications for research and practice, in light of present efforts to curtail teachers’ use of CRE in seeking to provide students with meaningful educational opportunities.
组织因素与教师对文化相关教育的了解和使用之间的关系
背景/语境:文化相关教育(CRE)是改善学生教育经历和成果的有力工具。然而,在美国公共教育系统中,文化相关教育并非常态(Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011, 2012; Borrero et al., 2016; Coffey & Farinde-Wu, 2016),这或许是因为教师被社会化到了复制和维护白人规范实践的系统中(Leonardo & Manning, 2017)。围绕教师实践的组织环境和条件可以成为领导者和政策制定者在学校推广使用 CRE 的工具。目的:本研究旨在探讨行政支持、学校文化和课程这三个组织因素如何促进教师对 CRE 的了解和实施。我们采用文化历史活动理论(CHAT)(Cole & Engeström,1993 年)进行分析,该理论是研究学习如何在环境和条件中进行,以及这些环境和条件如何对教学实践起中介作用的工具(Foot,2014 年)。研究设计:在定量批判性探究原则(Stage, 2007; Stage & Wells, 2014)的指导下,我们使用了2019学年33所学校534名教师的调查数据,以探索三个组织因素(即行政支持、学校文化和课程)如何促进教师对CRE的认识和实施。我们于 2019 年春季在美国东南部一个以有色人种学生为主的高贫困城区收集了数据。我们使用确证因子分析来测试每个量表的维度,并考虑到学校的聚类,然后使用结构方程建模(SEM)来模拟组织因素与教师自我报告的 CRE 知识和实践之间的关系。结论/建议:我们的分析表明,用于 CRE 的课程资源和对 CRE 的集体期望(学校文化的一个要素)都与教师自我报告的 CRE 知识呈正相关。CRE 知识、CRE 课程资源和行政支持与教师自我报告的 CRE 实践呈正相关。最后,CRE 知识在一定程度上调节了 CRE 课程资源与 CRE 实践之间的关系。值得注意的是,一般课程资源与 CRE 实践呈负相关。研究结果表明,以使用 CRE 为重点的规范和课程对于提高教师对 CRE 实践的认识和使用至关重要;一般课程资源可能无法促进教师在课堂上开展 CRE 工作。最后,研究结果表明,管理者在帮助教师转变教学实践方面具有独特的优势。目前,教师在为学生提供有意义的教育机会的过程中,努力减少对 CRE 的使用,有鉴于此,我们讨论了研究和实践的意义。
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来源期刊
Teachers College Record
Teachers College Record EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
3.20
自引率
0.00%
发文量
89
期刊介绍: Teachers College Record (TCR) publishes the very best scholarship in all areas of the field of education. Major articles include research, analysis, and commentary covering the full range of contemporary issues in education, education policy, and the history of education. The book section contains essay reviews of new books in a specific area as well as reviews of individual books. TCR takes a deliberately expansive view of education to keep readers informed of the study of education worldwide, both inside and outside of the classroom and across the lifespan.
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