AAACE 2021 Annual Conference

ABE, Instructor, Postsecondary, Hybridity

Culturally responsive teaching has myriad researchers and practitioners most of which focus on pedagogy, instructional approaches, and classroom management. This study builds upon them and conducts a more integrative approach when examining biography-driven instruction in ABE classrooms. This integrative approach explores the social, cultural, and historical factors on student achievement.

There is two-fold importance for culturally responsive teaching in adult basic and post-secondary education classrooms and instructional gatherings. One is hybridity and cultural diversity are gaining long due recognition resulting in a multiplicity of backgrounds, language, and culture in one classroom being recognized as a robust learning source. Expansive learning horizontally crosses these formal boundaries and encourages multivoicedness in the learning experience that is spawned through celebrating the differences located in backgrounds and perspectives. The second is a global economy, rapidly advancing technology, and quickly evolving expectations on adults will widen the socio-economic gap leaving the disenfranchised and vulnerable to increasingly endure suffering. Those ABE and post-secondary teachers who are culturally responsive will examine and mitigate the gap between standard ABE/postsecondary education provider instructional intentions and the learners’ actual actions for literacy, knowledge, and skill improvement. When teaching and learning should be seamlessly intertwined, there is a seeming disconnect between instruction and learning suggesting the scripted lesson plans and standardized tests may not translate to the learners experiencing learning transfer. Instead, the teachers must compare the scripted lessons with the actual learning outcomes performed by the culturally and linguistically diverse learners.