Exploring Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) in the third space : A study in the English language classrooms of two higher learning institutions in Malaysia

Abstract

In the Executive Summary of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education), it is stated that Malaysia is aiming to be an excellent international education hub in Asia. Malaysia aims to be a globally-connected higher education player and expects to have more international students enrolment by 2025. Most of the students who come to Malaysia to study in the tertiary levels are non-native speakers of English. It is significant for teachers to know who their students are, how they think and how they best learn. Thus, this study investigates the teachers’ take on Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) in culturally diverse classrooms. This study utilised the Third Space theory, the space that works as a bridge, which connects the first and second space (Moje et al., 2004), in exploring the phenomenon of CRT. The central research question asked “What is CRT to English teachers teaching non-native speakers of English in two higher learning institutions in Malaysia?” Semi-structured interviews (SSIs), focus groups (FGs) and classroom observations (OBs) were conducted to collect data which revolved around the teachers’ and students’ perceptions of CRT in the English language classroom and to find out the elements of CRT that the teachers have, if any. Field notes were written to triangulate data from the other three instruments. Furthermore, the themes emerged from the phenomenological research revealed that teachers did have the traits of CRT. They gave positive feedback in adopting CRT as an approach in their teaching process. Moreover, two important findings were drawn from this study. First, there was inter-dependency in terms of expectations and funds of knowledge. Not only the teachers had high expectations from the students, the students had similar expectations from the teachers. Second, teachers did not only encourage the students to use their funds of knowledge in the third space, but also used their own funds of knowledge in the classroom. Teachers in this study had the potential to utilise CRT as one of the most suitable approaches in the classroom of diverse people from all corners of the world. Following the in-depth analysis and discussions based on the themes emerged from the study, implications and recommendations are also presented in the study. Keywords: Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT), The Third Space Theory