Investigation of culturally responsive school culture and cultural competence level in secondary schools: A mixed method study

Culturally responsive school culture is a type of school culture defined for a culturally responsive school where culturally responsive education is implemented. The purpose of the study was to define culturally responsive school culture, to identify its components, to determine a road map for school administrators to transform school culture into culturally responsive school culture and to examine the relationship between culturally responsive school culture and cultural competence skills. The research was designed with mixed method. In accordance with the sequential exploratory design, qualitative data were first collected through a semi-structured interview form and in-depth research was conducted on an unknown situation. Then, quantitative data were collected through the Culturally Responsive School Culture Scale and the Cultural Competence Scale. Trough to the mixed method, the generalizability of qualitative data with quantitative data was examined. The research was conducted on teachers working in randomly selected provinces from Statistical Regional Units. In the qualitative part, there were 91 participants in total, including school administrators, teachers, students, and student parents, while there were 541 teachers and 397 administrators in the quantitative part. As a result of the research, it was found that culturally responsive school culture consists of three dimensions: technical, institutional, and managerial, and has three outputs as success, development and universalization, and cultural competence skill is at the center. A definition of culturally responsive school culture was developed, and its values, assumptions and elements were identified. A culturally responsive school model for schools was proposed and various suggestions were made to researchers and practitioners within the scope of this model.