Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Dr. Jessica Fudda-Daddio

Abstract

The problem addressed in this study is that multicultural literature is not being used consistently to address the needs of the growing diverse population in the local middle school language arts classroom. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore middle school teachers’ perceptions of using multicultural literature to teach language arts to address the needs of the increasing population of students. The conceptual framework that guided this study was Ladson-Billings' culturally relevant pedagogy and Austin et al.’s ideas about student representation in texts. For this basic qualitative study, I conducted 11 interviews with teachers who are teaching or had taught middle school language arts for more than one year in a southern state of the United States. Participants were recruited via social media and interviewed using Zoom. Open coding and Saldana’s method of qualitative analysis were used for data analysis to develop common themes throughout the interviews. The results included teachers’ position that in order to address race and racism, teachers must do more than simply use culturally responsive practices. According to the findings, all participants viewed multicultural literature as any informative materials about culture and the people embracing it. The findings also found that teachers felt that they were lacking in administrative training in managing community pushbacks and focused on the integration of activating prior knowledge among a diverse group of learners. This research may positively influence social change by highlighting the importance of using multicultural literature in the middle school language arts classroom to make language arts curriculum accessible to all students, including those with a more diverse background.

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