CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING IN THE HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

This paper presents an evident that there is a need for Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) in English language classrooms in higher learning institutions. CRT is relatively a new concept to be explored in the Malaysian educational setting and studies have been conducted and researchers suggested trainings to help teachers to manage their racially diverse classroom should be carried out (Tengku Nor Rizan, Nooreiny, & Manisah, 2013; Faizah, 2014). With an increase enrolment of international students to Malaysian higher learning institutions, the teachers teaching in the universities who prepare the students with English language proficiency and also other related English courses should be equipped the with culturally responsive pedagogy. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to 9 English language teachers teaching in 2 different language faculties from two universities in the country to find out if the teachers do have traits of CRT. The findings show that teachers do have traits of becoming culturally responsive and welcoming the idea of becoming culturally responsive in the classroom.