Situated in a majority-minority school setting, this action research study focused on developing culturally responsive teaching (CRTchg) approaches in a group of Caucasian teacher leaders. Highly qualified teachers who determined the curriculum, professional development, assessments, and school-level policies were leading two alternative schools, but this group of predominantly majority teachers had difficulty relating to their African-American and Hispanic students and fostering student learning. Specifically, the intervention provided methods to encourage and support them on their journey towards implementing CRTchg. I developed interactive professional development workshops to introduce concepts from servant leadership. Additionally, I used culturally responsive school leadership and critical race theory as part of the professional development process to promote the implementation of CRTchg and foster a sense of self-efficacy for its use. In the study, I used a mixed-methods approach that included surveys, reflective journals, and interviews to gather data to determine how and to what extent professional development sessions for these teacher leaders affected their perspectives and teaching styles with respect to CRTchg. To understand better these effects, I explored six constructs including servant leadership listening; servant leadership awareness; servant leadership empathy; servant leadership building community; using CRTchg; and self-efficacy for employing CRTchg. Quantitative results indicated teacher leaders scores on the four servant leadership variables, increased significantly indicating they were more aware of cultural matters, listened more closely to students, were more empathetic, and engaged to a greater extent in building community with their students. Additionally, quantitative data showed significant increases in teacher leaders use of CRTchg and their self-efficacy for its use. Results from the qualitative data were consistent with those from the quantitative data and exhibited a high degree of complementarity, pointing to the same conclusions. Notably, as they progressed through the workshops, teacher leaders questioned educational and cultural assumptions that influenced their instructional practices and revised them as they began to implement CRTchg, which made their instructional practices more meaningful to students. The discussion focused on the complementarity of the data, understanding the results, limitations, implications for practice, implications for research, and personal lessons learned.

This action research addressed teacher effectiveness in supporting students’ critical thinking skills by implementing differentiated instructional strategies in eight 3rd- and 4th-grade, self-contained, inclusive classrooms. This study addressed how third- and fourth-grade teachers perceived their instructional effectiveness, how differentiated instructional strategies influence third- and fourth-grade teachers, and how third- and fourth-grade teachers make further use of differentiated instruction to support students’ critical thinking skills across cultures, linguistics, and achievement levels to increase student achievement. Out of the enrollment in a southwest Phoenix elementary school, there was a 35% mobility rate; 76%, free and reduced lunches; 35%, Spanish-speaking homes; 10%, ELL services; and 10%, special education. The school was comprised of 52 certified teachers, out of which there were five related arts teachers, and four teachers who served gifted and special education students. Participants included all eight third- and fourth-grade teachers, 75% female and 25% males; 75% identified as Caucasian and 25% Hispanic/Latina, middle-class citizens. Professional development training was provided to these eight individual teachers during four months on differentiated instructional strategies to support students’ critical thinking. At this study’s beginning, these teachers perceived an obstacle to supporting students’ critical thinking as they struggled to learn new curriculums. Persevering through this challenge, teachers discovered success by implementing design-thinking, developing students’ growth mindsets, and utilizing cultural responsive teaching. These teachers identified three differentiated instructional strategies which impacted students’ academic progress: instructional scaffolds, collaborative group work, and project-based learning. Building upon linguistic responsive teaching, cultural responsive teaching, and Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory, teachers revealed how to support students’ critical thinking through the use of graphic organizers, sentence frames, explicit instructions, growth mindsets, cultural references, and grouping structures. In addition, the outcomes demonstrated teachers can make further use of differentiated instruction by focusing on instructional groups, teachers’ mindsets, and methods for teaching accelerated learners. This study’s results have implications on teachers’ perception toward using differentiated instructional strategies as a viable method to support the multiple ways all students learn.