Talking Respect: Classroom Discourse Analysis of One White First-Year Teacher’s Developing Cultural and Communication Competence

To teach today’s increasingly racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse students successfully, new teachers, the majority of whom are still White and monolingual (Sleeter, 2008; Villegas & Lucas, 2002b), must develop communication (Cazden, 2001) and cultural (Ladson-Billings, 2001, 2009, 2017) competence. Teachers’ language use in the classroom is of paramount importance in this process. In this study, class discussions about respect were a prime opportunity for the author, in her dual role as researcher and supervisor, to assess a White first-year teacher’s progress toward communication and cultural competence. Findings derived through classroom discourse analysis of the teacher’s language use in these discussions suggest culturally responsive intentions to prioritize student voices undermined by struggles in facilitating discussion and failure to acknowledge the influence of culture on views of respect. Implications and responsibilities for culturally responsive instructional supervisors, teacher educators, and classroom teachers are discussed.