Teachers do not always know how to cope with increasingly diverse classes. In her thesis, Sabrina Alhanachi (Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences) mapped how this could be improved. She studied the state of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in the Netherlands. She also set up 'professional learning communities' at a number of secondary schools. Among other things, her research shows that the school's attitude is important.
The Netherlands is experiencing increasing ethnic and cultural diversity. Yet only 17% of Dutch teachers feel well prepared to teach culturally diverse classes or multilingual classes. For her doctoral research, education scientist Sabrina Alhanachi took questionnaires from students and teachers and interviewed teachers and team leaders. She also set up professional learning communities at four secondary schools. In these, teachers and their colleagues reflected on their own views and knowledge about diversity. They also worked on skills to make lessons more culturally responsive.
Her research focused on mapping culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in the Netherlands and identifying obstacles and success factors. "CRT is a vision of education where you don't see pupils' migration background as a barrier, but rather as a resource to learn from," explains the PhD student. "Students from different cultures all bring their own cultural experiences and perspectives. In culturally responsive teaching, as a teacher you are aware of this and respond accordingly. This allows you to better connect to the experiences of all pupils in the teaching material, but also in communication and interaction."
Golden age or dark period?
As an example, she cites the different manners young people have grown up with. For instance, some students have been taught from home that you are not allowed to talk until you are given permission: "A teacher who does not know this may think that a student who is quiet shows little proactive behaviour or that perhaps there are things going on at home. Even the lesson material itself often has a western perspective. Think of history lessons: often the Golden Age is presented in a very positive light. For descendants of enslaved people, this is a dark period, precisely because of the history of slavery. More room should be made in education for other perspectives."
"Often teachers do their best to approach all students the same. In doing so, you ignore pupils' backgrounds and part of their identity."
Sabrina Alhanachi
PhD Candidate - Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences
According to Alhanachi, a change is needed to counter the inequality of opportunities in education. She thinks culturally responsive teaching (CRT) can contribute. Previous research showed that CRT improves the learning performance and motivation of students from migrant backgrounds and also makes them feel more at home. "Often teachers, usually well-meaning, do their best to approach all students the same. But with this, you ignore pupils' backgrounds and part of their identity. It's hard for pupils to leave that at home."
But how do you ensure a turnaround in thinking? That turns out to be not so easy for many teachers, the PhD student observed. It requires them to learn to empathise more with the perspectives of others, and in doing so, they sometimes have to revise their own worldview. "Many teachers preferred me to come with a clear lesson plan, like 'just tell us how to do it'. But culturally responsive behaviour is not something you learn from a booklet. You first have to be aware of your own upbringing, norms and values you have been given and how that affects your way of teaching."
Pupil as sparring partner
In the learning communities Alhanachi designed, teachers from four schools met several times over a year. The ultimate goal was to develop culturally responsive lessons or adapt an existing lesson. For example, one economics teacher realised that interest is forbidden in Islam and included this topic in lessons to connect with students from Islamic backgrounds. "What can also be done is to let a student explain this himself. In culturally responsive teaching, the approach is that you see the student as a sparring partner," she says.
Attitude school important
The learning communities showed that the school's attitude matters. The more the school is mindful of both differences and similarities, teachers seem more motivated to engage with CRT. Previous research showed that greater confidence in one's own competences promotes the application of CRT. School beliefs seem to contribute to this self-confidence, according to the questionnaires the PhD student administered to 145 teachers. Remarkably, it did not matter how long a teacher has been working as a teacher. It did show that teachers working in a diverse school became more confident in their own competences. And if a teacher has a migrant background herself, this self-confidence was also found to be stronger.
Alhanachi was partly driven for her research by her own experiences. She received a much lower school recommendation than she turned out to be able to cope with. Like many students with a migration background, she was sent to VMBO. In second grade, she still went to VWO, where Alhanachi continued to get high marks. "I suffered from fear of failure in grade 8, but my teacher did not see it that way. My experience is not unique. It still happens to many students from migrant backgrounds. I hope teachers will increasingly learn to see the potential in all students by connecting more with their environment."
- More information
Sabrina Alhanachi works as a trainer and consultant and lectures at schools on culturally responsive teaching, among other things. On 9 February, she defends her PhD thesis 'Creating Space for Culturally Responsive Teaching. A multi-method study in Dutch secondary education.’
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