CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING IN KARAKALPAKSTAN: BRIDGING LINGUISTIC DIVIDES THROUGH EQUITY-CENTERED PEDAGOGY

Аннотация

This article applies pedagogies of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) to the multilingual Karakalpakstan classroom, an autonomous republic in Uzbekistan. Underpinned by sociolinguistic theory and by practice in the classroom, the article discusses how the background languages, school medium, ethnic background, and gender of the students can affect English language tutoring among 14-15-year-old pre-intermediate learners. Techniques addressed in the article range through differentiated instruction, strategic code-switching, gender-sensitive group work, identity-informed materials, and fluid assessment. Effects addressed by the article relate to decreasing educational disparities among Russian- and Karakalpak-medium learners, making classrooms more inclusive and supportive of learners' identities, and challenging fixed notions about learners. A sociolinguistic framework sets learners' embodied experience and intersectional identities to the forefront of the enterprise about language pedagogy