The purpose of this study was to explore possible relationships between the acculturation level and culturally responsive teaching practices among Korean American mathematics teachers in K-12 schools. In addition, this study aimed to see how Korean American mathematics teachers applied culturally responsive teaching in their culturally diverse classrooms. This research further examined a possible difference in applying culturally responsive teaching among Korean American mathematics teachers from urban schools and from suburban schools. A total of 30 Korean American mathematics teachers with more than 3 years of experience in teaching mathematics in K-12 schools participated in the study.
This study used mixed methods: quantitative research methods were used to explore participants’ responses on three surveys, focused on their cultural experiences, teaching expertise, and culturally relevant pedagogy, and a subset of 10 participants participated in in-depth interviews for the qualitative research component. For quantitative research, the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (Suinn et al., 1992) was used for the acculturation level of participants, the Attitudes Towards Mathematics Inventory (Tapia, 1996) was used for general attitudes towards mathematics among participants. In addition, the Culturally Responsive Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (Siwatuet et al., 2015) was used to evaluate how familiar participants were with culturally responsive teaching. Interviews were designed based on four elements suggested by Ellis (2019): supporting deep learning, valuing and engaging identity, sharing authority, and applying mathematics.
Results in this study indicated that school environment was a more important factor than acculturation level when it came to culturally responsive teaching. Furthermore, all the participants still held beliefs in Korean subculture (known as “education fever”) prioritizing test-driven performance among students as an important factor in their teaching strategies regardless of acculturation level. Perceptions of most appropriate mathematical support for students’ learning varied; more acculturated participants expressed that family support for mathematics was most important for students, while less acculturated participants shared that outside classroom support including private academies was best. Participants from urban schools felt more pressure from school administration about test-driven performance of students, while those from suburban schools expressed that the major issue for teaching and learning was the language barrier between teachers and students.
After moving to the United States, participants realized how they went through the acculturation process in their lives, but did not believe that it affected many of their teaching strategies. Most immigrant participants still held strong beliefs in Korean subculture in education, and even those who were born and raised in the United States knew what Korean subculture in education was, and how it affected their teaching strategies in one way or another. However, the acculturation process was believed to be contextual and differed depending on who participants frequently interacted with, and the school environment where they taught students largely determined their teaching strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:columbia.edu/oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/a5nh-cp43 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Walker, Erica |
| Source Sets | Columbia University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Theses |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds