CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING PRACTICES IN HIGHER EDUCATION ONLINE ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Higher education online classrooms are not experienced equitably by all students. As the student population becomes increasingly diverse, teaching must adapt to meet the needs of learners by reducing sociocultural barriers. This is particularly so within a Western-dominated education system that was designed to privilege majority students, thereby excluding minoritized students from their culturally diverse ways of learning. Extensive research asserts the positive learning impacts of culturally responsive teaching, a sociocultural practice that supports all students by bridging culture with the cognitive and social processes of learning. Yet, minimal research exists on this practice in higher education, particularly in online contexts. This study sought to gain deeper insight into the experiences of eight instructors who used culturally responsive teaching online, the specific practices they implemented, and the challenges and benefits they experienced to more fully understand how they equitized the learning for all students. A qualitative, phenomenological design used descriptive interviews and course observations to explore instructors’ experiences enacting culturally responsive teaching in their online classrooms. Results suggest that culturally responsive teaching can play a significant role in higher education online environments and is actualized differently through contextualization, understanding the relationship between culture and technology, centering a sociocultural presence, and decentering a majority culture. Results indicated that instructors were also met with challenges and benefits. They described challenges that required support and resources from their institution, colleagues, and support units, while sharing benefits that centered on relationships with students, empowerment in teaching, feeling valued, and having flexibility.