A study of EFL instructors' multicultural teaching competence at tertiary level in Turkey

Recently, due to due to the conflicts that have occurred beyond the borders, there have occurred large-scale immigration movements around the world. Compared to many countries in the world, our country is one of the countries that have been most affected by this migration wave. As a result of this mobility, social, cultural, linguistic, political interactions have been seen in many areas and some difficulties that were not felt before in formal education institutions have come to light. Teachers who strive to maintain a student-centered teaching approach face various difficulties owing to linguistic and cultural diversity in student population; nevertheless, the studies in the Turkish context indicate that there is a need to include multicultural education in pre-service teacher education programs and teachers should be encouraged to adopt its principles (Aydın & Acar-Çiftçi, 2014; Erbaş, 2019; Unlu & Orten, 2013; Aydın & Tonbuloğlu, 2014). The main purpose of multicultural education is to approach all individuals at an equal distance in educational environments, provide a sense of belonging by ensuring unity and integrity, and eliminate the gap in academic achievement among diverse groups from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds by ensuring equal opportunities for all (Banks, 1995a; Bennet, 1995; Gay, 2001; Gorski, 2010; Talbot, 2003). In this regard, the present study intends to (1) explore the multicultural teaching competences (namely awareness, knowledge, attitude and skill) of the EFL instructors at tertiary level; (2) identify the challenges they experince due to linguistic and cultural diversity, and the strategies they employ in order to cope with the challenges. A mixed method research design was utilized to conduct the study, and data were collected through Critiacal Multicultural Teaching Competency Scale (Acar-Çiftçi, 2016), video-stimulated interviews, and semi-structured interviews. A purposeful sampling method was pursued in the selection of participants and 114 EFL instructors working at the School of Foreign Languages in various universities in Gaziantep and surrounding provinces (Harran University in Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman University in Adıyaman, Sütçü İmam University in Kahramanmaraş, Çukurova University in Adana, and Kilis 7 Aralık University in Kilis) in order to collect quantitative data. The qualitative data of the study were collected through video-stimulated interviews with four instructors and semi-structured interviews with 20 lecturers at from Gaziantep University School of Foreign Languages. The triangulation of data collection and the mixed method of research design strengthened the validity of the results obtained in the study. The results obtained in the study revealed that the EFL instructors at tertiary education were sufficiently competent in terms of four dimensions of multicultural teaching competence. Although, in the quantitative data obtained through the scale, the participating instructors perceived themselves highly competent mereley in regards to multicultural attitude and moderately competent in regards to awareness, knowledge and skill dimensions, the diversity and richness of the data obtained by quantitative methods indicated that the participating instructors were amply competent in terms of multicultural teaching. The findings further revealed that the EFL instructors at tertiary level experience various challenges in their language classrooms and they manage to develop numerous strategies to overcome these challenges. In the interviews, the participating instructors particularly emphasized the cultural diversity of students and the significance of showing empathy and avoiding prejudices in regards to multicultural awareness; placed considerable emphasis on the essential role of experience for multicultural knowledge; valued diversity as richness, an opportunity for communication and learning about differences in regards to multicultural attitude; and emphasised the ability to bring students from diverse groups together for multicultural skills. On the other hand, the interviews further revealed that the participating instructors most frequently experienced challenges in regards to language and communicaiton, and they used linguistic strategies such as gestures, facial expressions, paraphrasing, body language, and translation to cope with communication breakdowns in their language classrooms. Considering the research process and its results, the current research study provided various pedagogical implications and suggestions for the main stakeholders of education.