Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Bridge over the Diversity Divide in Historically White Multicultural Schools of South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report on white teacher perceptions of the characteristics associated with multicultural education and the related classroom practices in promoting Cultural Responsive Teaching (CRT) in historically white schools (HWS) in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The pre-democratic South African education system was characterised by inequality based mainly on race. There were enormous inequalities between the education provided for blacks and whites. The advent of a democratic South Africa in 1994 made it possible for black learners to enroll at HWS. The majority of schools reacted by assuming an assimilation approach. This resulted in a number of challenges for HWS's. The authors argue that the promotion of CRT in HWS's could serve as a bridge to address the diversity divide experienced in most HWS's. The researchers are elected to employ the quantitative research method, to ascertain white teachers' perceptions of the characteristics of multicultural education and their perceptions of multicultural classroom practices in promoting CRT in HWS's in South Africa. Some of the findings of the study indicate that white teachers regard the eradication of fear and suspicion as an important multicultural characteristic to promote CRT.