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Beyond the Highlight ReelLearning from a Multimodal Expression of Culturally Responsive Teaching in a Middle

School Classroom

Hannah E. MackayUndergraduate Honors Student

&Martha J. Strickland, Ed.D.

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Teacher-Student Relationships• T-S relationships are key predictor of success– Successful instruction and learning outcomes– Heightened student engagement– Increased motivation

• Positive teacher-student (T-S) relationships – Teachers perceived as empathetic and warm

• Democratic interactions– Students gain a sense of cohesion, connectedness,

security (Wentzel, 2009)(Roorda et. al., 2011)(Klem & Connell, 2004)(Davis, 2006)(Noddings, 1992)

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A Decade of Change• U.S. public school student population is evolving– Notable increases in Hispanic and foreign-born students– Fast-paced advances in technology– Increased access to technology

• T-S relationships face challenges:– Cultural differences– “Digital divide” between home and school

(Aud et al., 2012)(Henderson, 2011)(Ertmer, 2005)

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Technology Crosses Cultural Barriers• Technology is a common denominator in U.S.

– 93% of adolescents ages 12-17 are online (Jones & Fox, 2009)– Adolescents spend 7.5 hours interacting with technology

each day (Rideout, Foehr & Roberts, 2009) • Digital mode of communication is preferred

– Multimodal: Images, sounds, symbols, and words• Connections between home and school literacy and

experiences

(Ertmer, 2005)(Casey, 2012)(Henderson, 2011)

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Theoretical Framework• Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)– Celebrate, recognize, value students’ funds of

knowledge– Must know students well in order to be responsive– Instructional relevance that builds on students’ prior

knowledge and experience– Strategies to bridge home and school literacies

(Villegas & Lucas, 2002) (Moll, Amanti, Neff & González, 1992)

(Gay, 2010)(Banks, 1999)

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Technology: 21st Century CRT?• Stories cross cultural barriers• Photography as a tool to approach narrative development• Multimodal narratives invite students’ home literacies and

experiences into the classroom– Trusting T-S relationship established when teachers ask students the let

them into their lives (Ennis & McCauley, 2002)– Bridge “digital divide”

• Teachers learn about students– Develop relevant, meaningful instruction that connects classroom

learning to students’ lives

(Villegas & Lucas, 2002) (Henderson, 2011)

(Gay, 2010)

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Purpose of the Study• To explore how a multimodal project can impact the

development of positive T-S relationships among academically at-risk students and their teacher

• To investigate how students and their teacher attempt to make classroom instruction relevant to the real lives of students

• Unlike other studies, this study specifically ties technology use in the classroom to CRT

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Research Questions1. How do the teacher and students approach their

relationship within the multimodal culturally responsive classroom setting?

2. How do the teacher and students connect contexts within this multimodal culturally responsive classroom?

3. What insights concerning culturally responsive teaching do the narratives of the teacher and students provide?

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Method: Context• Two 8-week summer school English classes

– Required participation by 8th grade students who failed 2 English courses during the previous year

• Large suburban school district• 41% eligible for free or reduced lunch and breakfast

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Method: Participants• Two summer school English classes

– Adolescent age range 14-16– 20 invited to participate– 18 consented– 16 returned iPods

• 3 females/ 13 males

• One teacher participated– One Korean male teacher

39%

28%

22%

11%

WhiteMulti-EthnicAfrican AmericanHispanic

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Method: Procedures1. Consents/Questionnaire completed by teacher and

adolescents’ parent/caregiver. 2. Pre-interview with teacher3. Week 1: observations and field notes of teacher-

student classroom conversations4. Week 2: students take iPods to capture videos,

photos, and narrations of their lives outside of school. (90 second practice video)

5. Videos uploaded into PSU-secured VoiceThread.

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Method: Procedures6. Teacher interacted with videos, providing oral and

typed comments on each.– 16 student videos with teacher comments transcribed

verbatim

7. Weeks 3-8: observations and field notes of teacher-student classroom conversations

8. Week 7: Students reviewed teacher comments and reflected on their relationship with teacher

9. Post-interview with teacher

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Method: Data Analysis• Data Sources: Teacher interviews, 18 classroom practice videos,

16 multimodal narratives with teacher comments, student interviews, observation records, field notes

• Phase 1: Open coding of transcripts for repeated words and phrases

• Phase 2: Axial coding to organize information into categories• Phase 3: Emergence of themes

– Relationships Portrayed– Relationship Revoiced– Relevance Revoiced

• Phase 4: Organized by research questions

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Findings: Relationships PortrayedStudent Relationships(Videos)

Teacher Relationships(Comments)

Teacher-Student Relationship (Interviews)

Student-Teacher Relationship (Interviews)

Mom Mother in Korea Likeable FunDad Dad Set them up for

successFunny

Sister Sister Recognize ListensBrother Brother Pep talks Makes us work (+)Grandpa Baba (grandma) Mentor Really niceSister’s husband Wife Interesting/interested ConsequencesNephew Kids Tell storiesFriend Friends Avoid self-fulfilling

prophesyLike Reminds me Public narrativeLove Growing up Reputation of drug

issuesWork Adoption Behavioral issuesChurch Church Interrupt identity

formation

Neighborhood NeighborhoodHang out

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Findings: Relationships Revoiced• The teacher revoiced student relationships, but then built

upon their words.• He responded with the following formulations (Farini,

2012):1. Formulated a lesson or word of advice2. Connected students’ relationships to his own experiences3. Evaluated or judged the students’ relationships

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Findings: Relationships Revoiced

3. Evaluated or judged student relationshipS: I’m with my grandma right now. Just here to pick up some medicine.T: It’s also good to know you go to the

store for your grandma and everything…

A lot of kids might have this impression or give the impression that they go off and have a lot of fun with their friends all the time, and it seems like you make a lot of time for family. So I’m glad to know that.

1. Formulated a lesson or word of advice:S: They—explain my mom’s job. Hey, it’s the tree. She works at like, a government facility. T: As you’re telling about your mom, and

about what she does for work, I see a silhouette of the trees nearby, I mean, I just find myself looking up all the time. And I would encourage everybody to look up a little more often, and fall in love with what they see up there.

2. Connected students’ relationships to his own:S: Yeah, dad’s actually deceased, so no that’s not the best topic to talk about.T: Your dad had died when you were four. I immediately made a connection with you because my own mother in Korea had died when I was four.

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Findings: Relationships Revoiced3. Evaluated or judged student relationshipS: I’m with my grandma right now. Just here to pick up some

medicine.T: It’s also good to know you go to the store for your

grandma and everything… A lot of kids might have this impression or give the impression that they go off and have a lot of fun with their friends all the time, and it seems like you make a lot of time for family. So I’m glad to know that.

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Findings: Relevance Revoiced• Student narratives revealed a disconnection between home

and school relevance– 90 second practice videos: survey response, listed answers; talked

about why they were in summer school; school friends– Multimodal narrative: rich descriptions and images; never mentioned

school unless camera fell on a school-related artifact• Teacher tended to protect the disconnection in how he

revoiced the relevance of their lives to their classroom work– Highlighted student stories with which he personally connected– When students attempted to make a connection, he reframed it to

match his own understanding.• Teacher revoiced their lives to connect with academics

– “Bring some of those into your stories”– Suggested books based on student interests

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Findings: Relevance RevoicedRevoiced to connect to his own life:S: So, I’m gonna feed them [chickens] real

quick. And no we’re not hillbillies.

T: I myself grew up with chickens, and my dad still occasionally will have some hens for

laying. I don’t know if you use them like we use them. We used to get eggs from our chickens, and we’d also end up butchering the chickens sometimes and having the fresh meat that we could

freeze and have. And at the time, when I was younger, I wasn’t really digging that. I

didn’t think that was really cool to tell my friends and stuff in school. But, not that I am much older, I certainly appreciate where my food comes from and knowing where my food comes from whenever dad would butcher chickens and stuff like that. I didn’t really appreciate until much older. It seems like you appreciate that now. That’s great.

Revoiced to connect to academics:S: I stomped out this path. It took awhile. Through the path, there’s a little opening down here where I like to hang out.

T: I love the path you stomped out. Have you ever read Bridge to Terabithia?

You’d love it. Maybe I’ll hear more about that through your triptych

narratives.

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Discussion• Culturally Responsive Teaching/ Sociocultural Consciousness

– While attempting to build relationships through self-disclosing his own stories, the teacher shifted the focus away from students and onto himself. He only valued and affirmed stories with which he connected.

– CRT asserts that we must know students well in order to help them build bridges between existing and new knowledge (Villegas & Lucas, 2002).

• Relevance reframed– Rather than celebrating the rich, diverse experiences of his students (Villegas & Lucas,

2002), the teacher suggested that only his understanding and interpretation of the students’ lives were important to learning.

• Disconnection protection– The teacher reinforced the disconnection between home-school, by implying that only

some parts of their lives were relevant to learning.– It is tempting to compartmentalize students’ lives (home and school), but students bring

the whole of their experiences into the classroom (Villegas & Lucas, 2002).• Technology and relationship building

– Using the multimodal narratives project was valuable as it showed the teacher parts of his students lives that were never revealed in the classroom.

– Unclear if technology enhanced T-S relationships.

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Significance• What is relevance?• How do we open spaces for students’ whole lives to emerge in the classroom?

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Implications/ Further Research•Strategies for exploring relevance in culturally responsive teaching•Strategies for utilizing technology to bridge connections•Professional development

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Conclusion“It’s easy to get the highlight reel out and say, ‘Ah, those

were great moments.’ But you know, it’s all the stuff in between– it’s the gap– that’s where we live and I think it’s important that we acknowledge where the gaps are…” -Teacher (post-interview)

We must go beyond our own highlight reel!

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Questions?Hannah E. Mackayhew5043@psu.edu

Martha J. Strickland, Ed.D.mjs51@psu.edu

For a copy of this presentation visit:www.mackayenglish.wordpress.com

Or Twitter: @mackayenglish