Building professional learning communities in culturally responsive education: An action research

In this study, it was aimed that a professional learning community consisting of voluntary teachers of different branches working a secondary school was established and its work was initiated, maintained, and monitored and its effectiveness is evaluated according to the opinions of the members of the community along with the researcher's observations. The research was designed according to the collaborative action research model and was carried out between October and November in the 2022-2023 Academic Year. As part of the implementation, four culturally responsive professional learning community activities were conducted, and six community meetings were held. The data of the research were obtained through focus group interviews, individual interviews, observation, and examination of documents. The data were analyzed by content analysis method. Within the action plan, four activities were conducted/implemented and evaluated by the professional learning community. At the end of the process, in line with the research findings, a Culturally Responsive Professional Learning Community Model proposal was made to enable teachers to be responsive/develop cultural responsiveness through professional learning communities. This model is a school-based teacher professional development model in multicultural education. This model is established on planning of Culturally Responsive Professional Learning Community practice based on challenges that teachers face in multicultural education and their needs to cope with these challenges, that is, to be aware of and respond to the cultural diversity in their classrooms, and on the implementation of practices through common sharing and cooperation, supportive school culture and leadership, and providing continuous and school-based professional development by being carried out at regular intervals. In this process, "How was the movie?" activity to increase socio-cultural skills, exchange ideas with colleagues, gain different perspectives, and develop a critical perspective on education; "We are preparing a Culturally Responsive Lesson Plan" activity in order to develop in-class practices by collaborating and to enable learning from each other; "Micro-teaching Time" activity to develop self-evaluation skills in order to realize individual needs and thus to realize deficiencies and practices that can be done differently and "I'm Observing My Colleague's Lesson" to ensure teaching practices' and teacher's individual and professional development with the power of feedback and learning from each other can be used. As a result of the research, it is concluded that Culturally Responsive Professional Learning Community Practice could be solution to the problems faced by teachers in multicultural education by enabling teachers to develop responsiveness and thus to adopt a culturally responsive educational approach, to design and conduct teaching activities in accordance with the principles and practices of culturally sensitive pedagogy.