Addressing students’ need in mixed ability intercultural classrooms: An examination of teachers’ perspectives and practices of interculturally differentiated teaching

Lefkios Neophytou, Stavroula Valiandes, Christina Hajisoteriou

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    The challenge teachers and schools face nowadays is twofold: adopting an intercultural education framework and introducing high-quality teaching that will provide an equal opportunity for learning to all students, regardless of their ethnic origin or other characteristics. In this context, after we intro-duce the framework of Interculturally Differentiated Teaching (IDT), we examine the implementation of IDT in real classroom settings that are characterised by both mixed ability and cultural diversity. Drawing upon interview and observation data, we examine how teachers attempt to deal with this twofold challenge by focusing on their practices, the barriers they face, and their suggestions. Our findings caution that teachers are rather ill-pre-pared to deploy differentiated instruction in order to address both the goals of cultivating intercultural competence and maximising the learning potential for all their students. Our research bears wider implications, suggesting that for IDT to be successfully implemented in practice, education policy should promote comprehensive approaches of intercultural education and differentiated instruction, both in terms of teaching and teacher training.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)83-108
    Number of pages26
    JournalCurriculum and Teaching
    Volume35
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Keywords

    • Academic excellence
    • Collective identities
    • Differentiated in-struction
    • Globalization
    • Inclusion
    • Intercultural education
    • Intercultural understanding
    • Interculturally-differentiated teaching
    • Teacher training

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