Making a difference: A study of the perceptions, classroom management, and instructional practices of teachers who use culturally responsive strategies to teach African American adolescent male students

Increasing concern for the pervasive failure of African American adolescent male students has resulted in numerous studies documenting test results and other evidence of their lack of achievement. Few studies, however, have highlighted or revealed information about teachers whose instructional and classroom management practices are culturally responsive. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions, classroom management, and instructional practices of teachers who claim to use culturally responsive strategies to teach African American adolescent male students. Teacher observations and teacher and student questionnaires were used to collect the data. The 5 teachers who participated in this case study cultivated a classroom environment that promoted caring and respectful relationships with their African American adolescent male students, affirmed and appreciated their cultural identities, and implemented instructional strategies that helped them attain academic success. The teachers' perceptions about their African American adolescent male students not only served as the driving force behind their use of the instructional and classroom management practices that they employed, but also suggested a genuine concern for the academic welfare of this group of students. An important implication that evolved from this study is that the African American adolescent male students' chances of academic success might improve if their teachers developed the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of culturally responsive teachers; furthermore, teachers who engage in self-examination and reflection of their own attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of what it means to be a culturally responsive teacher might gain deeper understandings toward a greater awareness and sensitivity relating to the needs of diverse students.