Culturally Relevant and Responsive Practices in Literacy Instruction

This qualitative study focused on investigating the ways in which educators utilise culturally relevant and responsive practices (CRRP) in order to improve their literacy instruction. Through a detailed literature review, as well as direct, in- person or telephone, interviews with three experienced teachers from various school boards in the Greater Toronto Area, four important themes emerged. The first theme: recognising, celebrating and learning from cultural diversity in the classroom; describes the need for safe and respectful settings for cultural diversity to be acknowledged. The second theme: teaching literacy skills to students; educators should give their students engaging tasks to spark interest in literacy. The third theme: using culturally relevant and responsive practices to develop literacy; educators should utilise cultural texts within their instruction. The fourth theme: teacher identified challenges (and benefits) to the approach; emphasises that teachers may face lack of support and resources when trying to integrate CRRP into their instruction, but positive relationships are built with students and their families as a result. Through interviewing educators, it was concluded that these practices could be utilised in classrooms but teachers would still need proper training and support. There would be a call for culturally relevant and responsive changes within the current curriculum and proper professional development for educators to be properly prepared to meet the cultural and literacy needs of their students. Based on the findings, this research project expresses how educators can use culturally relevant and responsive practices to guide their own teaching and improve their literacy instruction