Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Tahseen MuhammadED 7202 NET

Statement of the Problem Hypothesis: Students’ who perceive their teachers to be culturally

responsive would perceive a greater sense of teacher support and a greater sense of belonging within the school.

The purpose of the current study iss to develop a measure of students’ perceptions of culturally responsive teaching practices. The increasing disparity between the cultural backgrounds of students and

teachers in the public schools has prompted the need for teaching practices that are culturally sensitive and responsive (Gay, 2002).

The need for culturally responsive pedagogy is further exemplified by reports indicating that students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds experience academic achievement at significantly lower rates than others (U.S. Department of Education, 2005).

As our understanding of the importance of culturally responsive teaching continues to develop, it is important to have adequate measures of culturally responsive teaching practices.

Methods Parental consent form Pre-Test survey/questionnaire Post-Test survey/questionnaire 2(45 minute) periods per week for 4

weeks

Details School belonging. The Psychological Sense of School

Membership Scale (PSSM; Goodenow, 1993) is 18 Likert-type items that measure the extent to which

students feel that they are accepted and belong within their school. Response ratings range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree).

Teacher support. The Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASS; Malecki, Demaray, Elliot, & Nolten, 1999) a 60-item assessment of students’ perceived social support.

Sample items include: “My teacher (s) care about me”; and “My teacher (s) makes it okay to ask questions.”

CASS provides five subscale scores of perceived support from teachers, parents, classmates, close friends, and the school.

Experimental Design This Action Research Project uses the Quasi-

Experimental Design known as Nonequivalent Control Group Design

The participants come from two groups (two separate classrooms).

The groups are randomly assigned. Both groups will be pre-tested. Only one group will be exposed to a

treatment. Both groups will be post-tested.

Threats of Validity

Internal Validity External Validity Generalizable Conditions

It is likely that this study could be reproduced in another school setting and possibly improves literacy comprehension for students.

Experimental Effects The interaction the experimenter will

have with the teachers in the study will be passing out of the surveys and permission to access their classrooms during literacy lessons twice a week. The experimenter’s gender and age compared to the student’s teacher may have an impact on how students feel about the experimenter.

History Historical events can cause an internal validity threat. is a

possibility of natural disaster or bad weather that may cause schools in the area to close down, therefore delaying any progress in the research. Students may also lose focus if a change in weather occurs outside their windows during periods of research, therefore impacting their pre and post test treatments.

Testing/Pre-test Sensitization Surveys will only be conducted once, therefore no threats

are seen. Pretest can affect posttest if students become more familiar or comfortable with exams and their formats.

Instrumentation There will be no instrumentation changes affecting the

internal validity of the main conclusion.

Selection-Maturation Interaction Participants in the study could mature and/or have a

change of mind about their feelings towards their teachers due to their adjustment into normal classroom routine.

Survey Question: “I feel like my teacher cares about me”

Likert Scale 1. Strongly

disagree 2. Disagree 3. Agree 4. Strongly agree

Stud

ent

1

Stud

ent

2

Stud

ent

3

Stud

ent

4

Stud

ent

5

Stud

ent

6

Stud

ent

7

Stud

ent

8

Stud

ent

9

Stud

ent

100

1

2

3

4

"My teacher cares about me”

Pre-Test

Post-Test

Students

Opti

on c

hosen o

n L

ikert

Scale

Correlation: Students’ knowledge with students’ comfort

Student Knowledge Comfort#1 2 2#2 2 4#3 3 3#4 2 2#5 2 2 #6 4 3#7 3 3#8 3 3#9 2 3

#10 3 3  rxy 0.30151134

0 2 4 6 8 10 120

1

2

3

4

5

How student knowledge affects student comfort

comfortLinear (comfort)

x Axis Knowledge

Y A

xis

C

om

fort

Correlation: Students attitudes towards Social Studies Pre/Post Test

Student Pre Post

#1 3 4

#2 1 3

#3 2 2

#4 4 4

#5 3 3

#6 3 4

#7 2 2

#8 4 4

#9 3 4

#10 2 3

rxy 0.69709

0 2 4 6 8 10 120

0.51

1.52

2.53

3.54

4.5

Student Attitude Towards Social Stud-

ies

PostLinear (Post)

x Axis Pre Survey

Y A

xis

Post

Surv

ey

References O’Connor Petruso, S. (2008, February). Descriptive Statistics.

Seminar in Applied Theory and Research II. Course at Brooklyn College Graduate School of Education, Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Gay, G. (2002). Culturally responsive teaching in special education for ethnically diverse students: Setting the stage. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(6), 613-629. doi:10.1080/0951839022000014349

U. S. Department of Education, NCES. (2005). The condition of education 2005. NCES 2005-094, Washington, D.C., U. S. Government Printing Office.

Malecki, C., & Kilpatrick Demaray, M. (2002). Measuring perceived social support: Development of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale. Psychology in the Schools, 39(1), 1-18. doi:10.1002/pits.10004