Teachers’ Expectations and Challenges in Using Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) Strategies in the ESL Classroom

This study explores two ESL teachers' experiences in accommodating culturally diverse learners in a classroom. A case study is adopted to obtain an in-depth understanding and detailed information about the teachers’ expertise in accommodating students with different cultures, ethnic, and genders in the classroom settings. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews with four English teachers teaching culturally diverse students in standard classroom settings from secondary schools. Descriptive and qualitative content analyses were conducted to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the ESL teachers possessed the adaptation to the circumstances with their expectations in teaching multicultural diversity learners. The participants also showed that ESL teachers faced challenges in teaching English to culturally diverse students in secondary school settings in terms of language barriers, syllabus, and socioeconomic background. The findings from the interview sessions showed the implementation of CRT strategies to facilitate more meaningful participation in the classroom by CRT approach, positive reinforcement, syllabus adjustment, and peer tutoring/group projects.