Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Modeling Teachers’ Professional Learning to Advance Plurilingualism

Abstract

Heritage languages bring forward an intriguing challenge in the cosmopolitanization era as diversity is defined on the basis of interconnectivity. Heritage languages are not an ethnospecific issue alone confined in traditional binaries (mainstream vs. minority status). They are intangible aspects of cultural heritage and an important component of plurilingualism. Modern citizens communicate in plurilingual settings and develop a wide range of language repertoires over their lifespan in their effort to sustain personal/professional growth and inclusive participation in local/global democratic processes. Only plurilingual and intercultural competent citizens have the ability to fully participate in public discourse and interact with “others” in all aspects of their interconnected lives. In this context, a culturally responsive pedagogy recognizes the active role teachers and students must undertake to construct their learning and acquire intercultural competence acting as “agents of change.” Remodeling teachers’ intercultural training emerges as an urgency due to widespread nationalization, ethnocentricity, and radicalization of modern world. Culturally responsive teachers avoid “methodological nationalism” as well as reflect on and adapt their teaching philosophy using learners’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds as a valuable resource. Culturally responsive pedagogy paves the way to a more reflective professional practice presupposing teachers’ strong intercultural awareness, competence, and responsiveness. Finally, culturally responsive instructional design reaffirms equitable pedagogy through collaborative teaching praxis, responsive feedback, epistemological framing, and scaffolded learning. Heritage languages teaching can be contextualized in a mainstream and culturally responsive pedagogy framework.