DEVELOPING A SCALE FOR CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE:
VALIDATION, RELATIONSHIP WITH SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS,
AND APPLICATION
By
Jae-Bum Han

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
K-12 Educational Administration - Doctor of Philosophy
2017

ABSTRACT
DEVELOPING A SCALE FOR CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE:
VALIDATION, RELATIONSHIP WITH SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS,
AND APPLICATION
By
Jae-Bum Han
The primary goal of this dissertation is to develop and provide preliminary validation
for a new measure of culturally responsive practice. This instrument, which is called the
Culturally Responsive Practice Scale (CRPS), include items that reflect ways that teachers
teach multicultural students in their classrooms. To accomplish the goal, three studies are
presented in this dissertation.

In chapter 1, the study sought to develop the initial instrument to measure the
construct of culturally responsive practice among teachers in secondary schools in South
Korea. Based on the results of analyzing the literatures about culture-oriented pedagogy and
of review of the initial items by professionals, the face and content validity has been
demonstrated. In addition, the statistical analysis results provided evidence of reliability of
the scale of CRP with strong Cronbach values ranging from .93 to .95. The multidimensional
factor structure of the CRP scale received support from the results of EFA and CFA, which
yielded the construct validity for the measurement. Finally, the study suggested that the
multidimensional construct of CRP has four distinct components: (a) Recognizing student
diversity; (b) Acknowledging family background; (c) Teacher efficacy; and (d) Teaching
application. Throughout the process of developing the scale, CRP has evidences supporting
its validity, especially in face and content validity and construct validity.

In the chapter 2, the study aimed to examine the structural relationships among
leadership, organizational learning, and culturally responsive practice and to test the

mediating effect of organizational learning between leadership and culturally responsive
practice. This process also sought evidence for criterion-related validity of the CRP scale. By
using structural equation modeling (SEM), confirmatory factor analysis was run to test
whether the proposed factor structure and the scales represent the reality. After confirming
the measurement model, the causal relationship among organizational learning,
transformational leadership, shared instructional leadership, and culturally responsive
practice were tested by using SEM, and confirmed by good values of model fit indices (

/df

= 2.19, NFI = .976 , TLI = .954, CFI = .972, RMSEA = .057, p < .001). Finally, the
mediating role of organizational learning between principal leadership and culturally
responsive practice was tested by decomposing the effects among the four latent variables.
The results from the relationship of CRP with school variables offer evidences for criterionrelated validity of the CRP scale.

The chapter 3 examined not only how the constructs of organizational learning,
principal leadership, and culturally responsive practice are related to student achievement in
schools, but explored the evidence of predictive validity for CRP. The results show that all
school level variables except transformational leadership are statistically significant
correlated to student achievement. In addition, the result that mathematics and English as
foreign language are correlated to CRP offer tentative evidence for predictive validity of the
CRP scale.

Copyright by
JAE-BUM HAN
2017

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The journey of completing this dissertation has been supported from many people.
First of all, I am very grateful to Dr. Susan Printy as my academic adviser, who provided the
initial encouragement to take on the challenge of pursuing my doctorate and then tasked me
to maintain high expectations and work. Also, my gratitude goes to the members of my
dissertation committee: Dr. David Arsen and Dr. BetsAnn Smith for leading me through the
challenging process of preparing and completing my dissertation study, and Dr. Cary Roseth
who gave me an insightful feedback and helpful advice for future research. My special
gratitude also goes to Dr. Jonghee Roh at Hanyang University, who first encouraged me
interested in school organization and leadership research, and influenced my academic career.
I am also deeply grateful to Dr. Hongkyu Hwang, a vice superintendent of education of
Gwangju in Korea, who supported me from the beginning of graduate school in Hanyang
University and enlightened me for recognizing the importance of the real field when
conducting research.

Moreover, I would like to thank my lovely wife, Hyojeong, and my daughter, Gia, for
their support and cheering up my work. Finally, I would like to dedicate this dissertation to
my parents, HeeTae and JungSook, for their unconditional love, encouragements, and
patience they provided me throughout my life. Whenever I faced with difficulties, they
supported me with love. Without them, I could not complete this work, and I cannot be here.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................... x
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................... 1
Goals and Significance of the Dissertation................................................................... 2
Organization of the Dissertation................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 1. DEVELOPING A SCALE FOR CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE
................................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction................................................................................................................... 5
Research Questions........................................................................................... 7
Background................................................................................................................... 8
Korean Context: Why CRP is Important in Korea............................................ 8
Immigrant worker................................................................................. 8
International marriage........................................................................... 9
North Korean refugees......................................................................... 9
Efforts for Multicultural Society in Korea...................................................... 10
Culturally Responsive Practice for Multicultural Students............................. 12
Emerging rationale for culturally responsive practice..................... 13
Diverse approaches to culturally responsive practice...................... 15
Background of measures for CRP...................................................... 17
Research Goals: Revisiting Research Questions............................................. 21
Methodology............................................................................................................... 21
Steps for Item Development........................................................................... 22
Defining the construct........................................................................ 22
Designing the scale............................................................................. 23
Pilot testing and expert review......................................................... 23
CRP constructs................................................................................... 24
Distributing the survey....................................................................... 25
Instrument reliability.......................................................................... 25
Analyzing the data.............................................................................. 26
Analysis and Results................................................................................................... 27
Pilot Test......................................................................................................... 27
Participants.......................................................................................... 27
Factor analysis and revision of items............................................... 27
Main Study...................................................................................................... 28
Participants.......................................................................................... 28
Results............................................................................................................. 29
Face and content validity................................................................... 29
Statistical analysis.............................................................................. 30
Verifying construct validity by EFA and CFA.................................. 31
Reliability assessment........................................................................ 35
Discussion................................................................................................................... 35
Limitations...................................................................................................... 37
Sampling methodology....................................................................... 37

vi

Threats to construct validity................................................................ 38
Implication...................................................................................................... 39
CHAPTER 2. STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIPS AMONG LEADERSHIP,
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING, AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE ... 41
Introduction................................................................................................................. 41
Literature Review........................................................................................................ 43
Organizational Learning: Meaning and Application....................................... 44
Diverse approaches to organizational learning ............................... 45
Socio-cultural approach to organizational learning................ 46
Organizational learning as school learning capacity............... 47
Organizational learning as single and double loop learning... 48
Organizational learning as mechanism................................... 48
The potential of OL to overcome the challenges in schools............. 49
Principal Leadership: Leader’s Role in a Shared Way................................... 51
Transformational leadership.............................................................. 52
Shared instructional leadership.......................................................... 54
Conceptual Framework: How They Work Together....................................... 55
How leadership influence organizational learning.......................... 56
Principal leadership to improve teaching quality............................ 57
Improving teaching quality throughout teacher learning process.. 59
Methodology............................................................................................................... 63
Sample............................................................................................................. 63
Measures: Latent Factors and Indicators......................................................... 63
Determinants of organizational learning mechanism....................... 64
Determinants of leadership................................................................ 65
Determinants of culturally responsive practice................................ 66
Validation of Scales........................................................................................ 67
Explanatory Factor Analysis........................................................................... 68
Organizational learning...................................................................... 68
Transformational leadership.............................................................. 69
Shared instructional leadership............................................................ 70
Culturally responsive practice........................................................... 71
Confirmatory Factor Analysis......................................................................... 73
Analysis and Results................................................................................................... 74
Correlations of the Variables........................................................................... 74
Testing Validity for CRP: Criterion-Related Validity..................................... 76
Confirmatory Factor Analysis......................................................................... 77
Structural Model Fit Assessment.................................................................... 78
The Relationships among Variables................................................................ 79
Mediating Effects of OL................................................................................. 80
Discussion................................................................................................................... 82
Summary......................................................................................................... 82
Findings and Discussion................................................................................. 83
Conclusion...................................................................................................... 85
Implication...................................................................................................... 86
CHAPTER 3. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
PRACTICE AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT ……………….......................................... 88
Introduction................................................................................................................. 88

vii

Literature Review........................................................................................................ 90
Importance of Culture in Academic Achievement.......................................... 90
Effect of CRP on Student Achievement......................................................... 92
Impact of Transformational Leadership on Student Achievement................. 94
Impact of Shared Instructional Leadership on Student Achievement............. 95
Organizational Learning and Student Achievement....................................... 96
Impact of SES on Student Achievement......................................................... 97
Hypotheses...................................................................................................... 99
Methodology............................................................................................................. 100
Research Design............................................................................................ 100
Sample............................................................................................ 100
Sources of student achievement...................................................... 101
Sources of lunch support................................................................. 102
Measures of Principal Leadership, Organizational Learning, and Culturally
Responsive Practice....................................................................................... 102
Organizational learning mechanism................................................ 102
Transformational leadership............................................................ 102
Shared instructional leadership........................................................ 103
Culturally responsive practice......................................................... 103
Analysis and Results................................................................................................. 103
Correlations between School-level Factors and Student Achievement........ 104
Hypotheses Results....................................................................................... 105
Discussion................................................................................................................. 108
Summary....................................................................................................... 108
Implication.................................................................................................... 109
Conclusion..................................................................................................... 110
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................... 112
Summary of Each Chapter........................................................................................ 112
Implication for Each Chapter..................................................................................... 114
Implication for Whole Dissertation: Toward Culturally Responsive School in
Multicultural Society................................................................................................. 115
APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................... 118
APPENDIX A RESULTS OF PILOT TEST ............................................................ 119
APPENDIX B ITEMS FOR CRP ............................................................................. 120
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................... 121

viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1-0. Structure of the Dissertation......................................................................................4
Table 1-1. Empirical Studies on Developing CRP Related Scales.......................................19
Table 1-2. CRP Matrix in Pilot Test......................................................................................28
Table 1-3. Demographic Characteristics of Samples in Main Study....................................29
Table 1-4. Items for Culturally Responsive Practice.............................................................31
Table 1-5. Structural Matrix for Culturally Responsive Practice..........................................33
Table 1-6. Model Fit Indices.................................................................................................34
Table 1-7. Reliability for Subscales of Culturally Responsive Practice...............................35
Table 2-1. Demographic Characteristics of Samples............................................................64
Table 2-2. Organizational Learning Factor Matrix...............................................................68
Table 2-3. Revised Organizational Learning Factor Matrix.................................................69
Table 2-4. Transformational Leadership Factor Matrix........................................................70
Table 2-5. Shared Instructional Leadership Factor Matrix (Initial) .....................................70
Table 2-6. Shared Instructional Leadership Factor Matrix (Revised) ..................................71
Table 2-7. Culturally Responsive Practice Factor Matrix.....................................................72
Table 2-8. Correlations among Variables..............................................................................75
Table 2-9. Measurement Model Fit Indices..........................................................................78
Table 2-10. Structural Model Fit Indices..............................................................................79
Table 2-11. Hypothesized Paths for the Model.....................................................................80
Table 2-12. Direct and Indirect Effects of Two Leaderships on CR.....................................81
Table 3-1. The Number of Secondary Schools in Sample .................................................100
Table 3-2. Demographic Characteristics.............................................................................101
Table 3-3. Reliability of Four Variables..............................................................................104

ix

Table 3-4. Correlations among Variables............................................................................104
Table 4-1. Gender in Pilot Test...............................................................................................119
Table 4-2. Age in Pilot Test....................................................................................................119
Table 4-3. Statistics of Pilot Test............................................................................................119
Table 4-4. Items for CRP........................................................................................................120

x

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1. Scale Development Process...............................................................................22
Figure 1-2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis for CRP.............................................................34
Figure 2-1. Conceptual Model for the Study........................................................................62
Figure 2-2. Proposed Measurement Model of Organizational Learning Mechanism..........65
Figure 2-3. Proposed Measurement Model of Leadership...................................................66
Figure 2-4. Proposed Measurement Model of Culturally Responsive Practice...................67
Figure 2-5. Measurement Model for the Study....................................................................78
Figure 2-6. Standardized Path Coefficients of the Structural Model...................................80

xi

INTRODUCTION

In South Korea (hereafter Korea), current changes in the country’s population raise
questions about the system’s flexibility and how it will respond to new demographic realities.
Specifically, once considered largely homogeneous, the children of new immigrants – mainly
of migrant workers, international marriages, and North Korean refugees – have entered
Korean classrooms. Their presence has shown teachers and administrators unaccustomed to
diversity with new challenges (Cho, 2010a). The number of multicultural students is getting
larger, and in 2014 the Ministry of Education announced that almost 1.07% of students are
from multicultural families, which is seven times larger than the last eight years (the Ministry
of Education, 2014). It is not surprising that their dropout rate is also large, because of not
adjusting to their school and to poverty, which is growing, as reflected in the trend over the
past several years (the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 2013). Thus, it is necessary
to discuss how teachers deal with diversity in their classrooms, and how school-wide capacity
supports these teachers.
Notwithstanding that culturally responsive practice (CRP) is widely prescribed as a
mean to deal with diversity in schools, many schools do not or cannot properly develop it in
Korea. The term CRP indicates consideration of the experiences, cultures, and perspectives of
diverse students (Gay, 2002). Related to this, (Ladson-billings, n.d.) coined the phrase
“culturally relevant pedagogy”, which “not only addresses student achievement but also helps
students to accept and affirm their cultural identity while developing critical perspectives that
challenge inequities that schools (and other institutions) perpetuate” (p. 469). This means that
to make pedagogical practice effective, educators need to think about student achievement
and the culture that each student has. Also, it indicates that this practice might be done while
developing critical thinking about the circumstances in which students are situated.

1

This current research proposes that school factors influence teachers to develop and
implement culturally responsive practice. Few previous studies, although contributing
significantly to the understanding of CRP, have addressed how the efficacy of CRP may vary
with the simultaneous influence of different or organizational factors, and they have not
analyzed both direct and indirect influences. Identifying and better understanding those
influences will complement the general prescription that schools need to turn into culturally
responsive communities. In this study, my focus is primarily on research questions that
concern CRP, and how these concepts have relationships each other. Thus, the purposes of
this study are to develop a scale of the culturally responsive practices of teachers; to examine
the nature and strength of principal leadership and organizational learning as antecedents of
CRP; and to determine whether organizational learning mediates the relationship between
principal leadership and CRP.

Goals and Significance of the Dissertation
The primary goal of this dissertation is to develop and provide preliminary validation
for a new measure of culturally responsive practice. This instrument, which will be called the
Culturally Responsive Practice Scale (CRPS), will include items that reflect ways that
teachers teach multicultural students in their classrooms. The goal is to develop a self-report
instrument that may be useful for researchers and practitioners who are interested in studying
the culture-oriented teaching practice. The development of this instrument can help
researchers continue the study of cultural responsiveness, which is recently gaining more
attention in the fields of education. The instrument may also be useful for practitioners who
are designing professional development programs on multicultural education.
A secondary goal of this dissertation is to better understand how culturally responsive
practice is associated with organizational features within schools, as well as to determine if
CRP is associated with student achievement. In other words, this study assumes that in order

2

to cultivate higher level of CRP, organizational supports such as organizational learning and
integrated leadership within schools are needed; an CRP as a comprehensive way of teaching
has an influence on student performance. Thus, examining how CRP has positive effects on
student achievement can help both researchers and practitioners rethink how schools need to
be transformed in a multicultural society.
In light of the scrutiny placed upon schools by diversity in student population, it is
important for schools and faculties to maintain an awareness of all factors which could
contribute to improvements in the academic achievement of students. It becomes the more
important for school members to examine readiness for facing the needs of newly emerging
populations of minority students as well as for newly perceived groups of minority students.

Organization of the Dissertation
To accomplish the goals described above, a series of studies are presented in this
dissertation. Chapter 1 includes a pilot study that was utilized for initial item development, as
well as field studies that focus on refining these items and testing the underlying factor
structure. These studies focus on face and content validity, identification of an underlying
factor structure, and reliability.
In chapter 2, the research focuses on the structural relationships among organizational
learning, principal leadership, and CRP while seeking the evidence for criterion-related
validity of the CRP scale. The primary method of this chapter is structural equation modeling
(SEM) including basic statistical techniques such as correlational analysis and confirmatory
analysis.
In chapter 3, the study moves its attention to CRP’s possibility having positive a
correlation with student achievement as well as its predictive validity. For the purpose of the
chapter, correlation analysis is recruited. Unlike the other chapters, the unit of analysis is a

3

school level, so that the data are aggregated from individual teacher scores to school level
average scores for CRP.
Thus, each chapter focuses on a specific topic related to CRP. Also, each offers some
evidence on certain types of validity of CRP developed in chapter 1. Each chapter is written
as a discrete study, including relevant literature review, methodology, analysis and results,
and discussion.
References for each chapter are listed in the last part of this dissertation.

Table 1-0. Structure of the Dissertation
Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Topic

Developing a scale of
Culturally Responsive
Practice

Does CRP have a
correlation with
student performance?

Types of
Validity

Face & Content
Validity
Construct Validity
Factor Analysis

Structural Relationship
among Organizational
Learning, Leadership,
and CRP
Criterion-related
Validity
Structural Equation
Modeling

Correlation Analysis

Method

4

Predictive Validity

CHAPTER 1.
DEVELOPING A SCALE FOR CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE

Introduction

Culturally responsive pedagogy has recently become a topic of interest to Korean and
American public school educators due to the rapid change in student cultural demographics
over the past ten years. Along with social changes, school faces challenges in diversity.
Teachers who want to maximize learning experiences for all students need to gain knowledge
about their students’ culture, and they may combine their teaching profession with that
knowledge (Villegas & Lucas, 2002). Various researchers (Bennett, 2001; Gay, 2002;
Ladson-Billings, 1995; Villegas & Lucas, 2002) have identified the need for considering
students’ cultural backgrounds in the process of teaching and learning. Ladson-Billings
(1995) insisted that culturally relevant pedagogy is based on the cultural knowledge, prior
experiences, and performance styles of racially diverse students to make learning experiences
more meaningful and relevant. This means that in order to make pedagogical practice
effective, educators need to think about student achievement and the culture that each student
has. Also, Gay (2002) indicated that in schools, when members of the mainstream cultural
group interact with those from the minority groups, those from the mainstream do so from a
position of power and privilege. As a result, culturally responsive teaching requires that the
teacher develop critical perspectives about the circumstances in which students are situated.
Hence, those from minority groups will likely be at a disadvantage if any culture clashes
occur (Bennett, 2002). Conditions ripe for culture clash are increasing in Korean schools, and
as a result, teachers will benefit from bringing the concept of cultural responsiveness into
classroom practices. Along with this, schools will need to help teachers improve their
awareness of diversity in their classrooms.

5

In particular, this study investigates how Culturally Responsive Practice (CRP) can be
expanded to the interactions between teachers and students of the same race, culture, and
nationality. In Korea, multiculturalism, recognized as newly emergent phenomenon, is more
likely to have been blinded by the one concept: Danil minjok. Specifically, Korea has been
considered as a homogeneous society for a long time, having the long-held reverence for one
language, pure Korean blood, and one history. In its culture and race, Koreans consider that
Korea is a nation-state and this is evident through the concept of Danil minjok. Danil minjok
is the traditional norm of Koreans since modern Korea was built. Danil minjok, people of a
country consisting of a single race (Danil minjok, n.d.), is “the belief that Koreans form a
nation, a 'race,' and an ethnic group that shares a unified bloodline and a distinct culture”
(Korean ethnic nationalism, n.d.). This notion has been established in Korean culture after the
Imperial Japan protectorate (Cheon, 2015). Koreans were proud of being Danil minjok, which
is pure and differentiated from other nations that include various races and cultures. Perhaps
it is the way of protecting the nation from other outside powers and consolidating people to
keep the nation safe and unified (Chang, 2012).
After the Korean War and Japanese rule, there have been inter-racial and intercultural marriages, and Koreans experienced children of those families. Under the remaining
fear and hatred of other countries (and the people of those countries), people of different
races (even though they are half Koreans) appeared to be not welcomed by native Koreans
(Chang, 2012). Children from multi-racial and multi-cultural families tried to hide their racial
and ethnic identities in an effort not to be differentiated and to be mingled with other native
Koreans. For Koreans who experienced unforgettable harsh memories from other countries,
discrimination and “othering” people from inter-racial and inter-cultural families were the
way of keeping their nation “pure” in the same way they had protected it from other powers
in the past (Chang, 2012; Moon, 2015). Concerning the concept of Danil minjok, which has

6

been deeply rooted in Korean culture, mingling with students of other cultures and races is
something for Koreans to adjust to. Also, frequent invasions of other powers in their history
made Koreans uncomfortable to live harmoniously with people of other races and cultures. In
that, the term of multiculturalism, which is perceived as a relatively new phenomenon by
Korean, is in fact a phenomenon that Koreans have not seen because they are covered by a
single word that defines them. However, Korea is becoming a multicultural society(Chang,
2012; Choi, 2010; Kang, 2010; Moon, 2015). With the changes in government policies and
their daily lives, Koreans are in the age of transition.
Therefore, this study explores what elements should be considered to teach students
effectively and interact actively with students of the diverse race, culture, and nationality. In
Korean context, racial or national diversity in the student population raises understanding of
culturally responsive practice (CRP). Furthermore, this study examines the potential of CRP
that can play a role to recognize the diversity such as family culture, religion, and SES,
within a racially homogenous student population as mainstream of Korean. In this part, I
introduce constructs of CRP, and I look at the application of it for overcoming challenges that
culturally and racially diverse students face. Then, I develop the CRP scale to measure
teachers’ culturally responsive practice and test its reliability and some aspects of validity.

Research Questions
The rapid change in population in Korea makes school faces challenge in student
diversity. While recognizing the importance of cultures of students, it has been argued that
how teachers deal with diversity in their classroom. Thus, it is meaningful to develop a scale
to measure of teachers’ CRP; utilize the instrument to assess the schools’ and teachers’
readiness to overcome the challenges from diverse student population. Specifically, this study
seeks to develop the reliable and valid survey instrument to measure the degree of secondary

7

school teacher’s culturally responsive practice. Additionally, this study pursues to determine
whether the factor structure of the CRP reflect a multidimensional definition of CRP.

Background
Korean Context: Why CRP is Important in Korea
As Korea has become an increasingly multicultural society, the influence of the global
epoch has been great. International population migration is steadily increasing. In 2015, the
number of immigrants to the total population is 2 million, representing 4.0%. If the current
trend continues, it is expected that the number of foreigners in Korea will reach 2.53 million
in 2020, and 4.09 million by 2050 or 9.2 per cent of the total population (Statistics Korea,
2017). This international population comes from three main sources; immigrant worker,
international marriages and North Korean refugees.
Immigrant worker. The steady increase in domestic migrant workers has come from
the economic need to increase the international price competitiveness of production goods
through the low - wage market of Korean companies and to fill the scarce labor force. In the
early 1990s, the influx of migrant workers mainly came from the need for companies to cut
labor costs, but now Koreans who want to work in the 3D (dirty, difficult and dangerous)
industries such as machinery, dyeing, lathing, and plating are forced to employ migrant
workers is increasing. As of March 2016, 1,940,000 immigrants were in Korea; Among them,
migrant workers account for about 31.9% (Statistics Korea, 2017). In that, there are 190,000
migrant workers entering the Employment Permit System and 300,000 foreign nationals.
Even if the total number of migrant workers is about 720,000, it is estimated that there are
about 800,000 informal migrant workers because many foreign students or marriage
immigrants participate in labor. The number of foreign children increased from 1,200 to
1,400 in 2009 to 1,748 in 2010, an increase of 37.6%. As for the places where children of

8

migrant workers are located, the urban area is 1546 people (88.4%), and the municipal area is
202 people (11.6%).
International marriage. Although the history of international marriage in Korea is
known to have originated from the Korean War, the claims that are opposite to the history of
a single nation have gained considerable persuasiveness. International marriages began to
take a new turn in the early 1990s. In the reality that rural men have difficulty finding a
spouse, the marriage project of the village bachelor and the Chinese woman was promoted.
The ratio of international marriages to total marriages was 1.2% in 1990 and 10.8% of total
marriages in 2010; it reached 21.3% in 2015. The couples of ‘Korean males and foreign
females’ accounted for 62.6 % of the total marriages of immigrants. The couples of ‘foreign
males and Korean females’ accounted for 22.9 % of the total marriages of immigrants.

North Korean refugees. North Korean refugees who have escaped from North Korea
and acquired Korean nationality have also steadily increased since the great flood of 1995,
reaching 1,418 in 2016; the total number of North Korea refugees are 30,212 as of December
2016 (Ministry of Unification, 2017). Superficially, they feel that there will be no problem
because they can communicate with each other and have similar appearance. However, they
are reluctant to reveal their identity as North Korean refugees, so they are struggling with
differences in the meaning of words due to the heterogeneity of the dialect and language. The
most serious problem that North Korean refugees face is cultural differences (Kang, 2010).
For instance, consumption culture is one of them. In North Korea, there is a socialism rather
than capitalism, which does not allow individual to own property, thus, they have difficulty in
managing personal household accounts after settling in Korea. Also, they are experiencing
difficulties in their workplace due to cultural differences. Many of them settled in the country
are unemployed, employed in 3D industries or irregular workers, and live as basic livelihood
recipients. Under these harsh situation, children in North Korean refugee families still suffer

9

from discrimination among peers due to their accent, or for speaking in a different dialect
(Kang, 2010), even though they are the same racial group with little difference in appearance.
As a result, these students undergo hardship adjusting to school life; in turn it leads higher
dropout rates (Cho & Yoon, 2011). Thus, CRP is highly needed for understanding the
cultural background of students and for predicting impacts of diverse culture on their
learning, which will lead to successful academic performance of culturally and racially
students.

Efforts for Multicultural Society in Korean
For multicultural society, the Korean government and social service institutes are
beginning to introduce new policies to address this ethnic diversity challenge. For instance,
the policy –adopted in 2006 by the Policy Coordinating Division of the Human Resources
Bureau of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (now the Ministry
of Education, Science, and Technology)– seeks to “help children of interracial marriages and
migrant parents residing in Korea receive better education” (MEHRD, 2006, p. 1). The
comprehensive policy attempts to address these key challenges for students of diverse
backgrounds. In terms of education MEHRD recognizes that many children from
multicultural backgrounds have been identified as experiencing study difficulties and identity
confusion.
Therefore, the MEHRD policy supports several public and private measures to improve
education for students of diverse backgrounds and help to incorporate them into mainstream
Korean society: (a) after-school programs which include Korean language lessons, help with
schoolwork, IT training, cultural experiences, and other adaptation programs; (b) a separate
counselor in each school to assist multicultural students in schoolwork, developing
friendships, and adapting to school; (c) in-service training for teachers consisting of at least

10

two hours of coursework on multiculturalism that fosters understanding of other cultures,
teaching strategies for diverse students, and ways to deal with student isolation; (d) expansion
of Korean language and culture classes in pre-service teacher programs; (e) provide
promotion incentives for current teachers to obtain Korean as a Second Language (KSL)
certificates; (f) rewrite textbooks to delete references to Korean homogeneity and insert
material that reflects the country’s increasing diversity; (g) encourage volunteerism for
schools in agriculture and fishing villages (MEHRD, 2006).
Schools are to help students prepare for a better future, especially by equipping them
with an understanding of how to live harmoniously with children of diverse cultures. Kang
(2010a) pointed out two educational problems in connection with immigrant minority
students in Korean schools. First, they have lower academic achievement, and second, they
are not integrated into the lives of native Korean students. Further, Kang suggests that
immigrant minority students make slower progress in language development compared to
native Korean children. Due to delayed language development, often these students are
viewed as learning-disabled. This designation alienates them even further from mainstream
Korean life.
In addition, school time generally consumes the largest part of the day for young
children. In schools, children learn and develop values through social interactions. Teachers
play a role in creating learning environments to facilitate the development of such values.
Thus, teachers not only convey fact-based curricular knowledge, but also must now provide
models of acceptance and celebration of ethnic and linguistic diversity. Therefore, teachers in
schools need to recognize the diversity in student population and understand their cultural
background so that they provide students with culturally and properly appropriate teaching
practice.

11

Culturally Responsive Practice for Multicultural Students
There is a growing body of research on the topic, which teaching practice need to correspond
to students’ family and community cultures for their successful learning (Gay, 2002;
Mcallister & Irvine, 2010; Santamaria, 2009). In order to indicate the culture-oriented way of
teaching or pedagogy, scholars used the term of culturally appropriate (Au & Jordan, 1981),
culturally congruent (Mohatt and Erickson, 1981), culturally relevant pedagogy (LadsonBilings, 1995), culturally responsive teaching1 (Gay, 2000), and culturally sustaining
pedagogy (Paris, 2012).
Like this, the terms used in various forms in the early stage have been summarized in
two representative terms to the present, relevant and responsive. Looking up the definition of
dictionary, the difference between responsive and relevant is apparent. The term responsive
means “reacting quickly and positively; answering,” and relevant is “closely connected or
appropriate to the matter at hand.” Following the definition, culturally responsive sounds
reactive, while culturally relevant appears proactive to a culture (Kim, 2017). I also like to
use the word responsive in terms of taking positive and reactive actions in dealing with a
student’s culture in the classroom. Also, this is related to teachers’ behavioral response to
cultural diversity of students as well as their attitudes and beliefs towards different students’
cultures; this is how students can be involved in their learning and then be successful.
In the same manner, the word practice expresses a set of teacher’s jobs within school,
including teaching, counseling, managing students, not restricted to teaching itself. Therefore,
culturally responsive practice was the chosen term for the purposes of this study.

1

The noticeable thing in her book is that she used the term culturally responsive teaching and
culturally responsive pedagogy interchangeably.

12

Emerging rationale for culturally responsive practice. As increasing minority
population, there is an urgency to prepare educators who can effectively facilitate culturally
diverse students’ success (Au, 2007; Gay, 2002; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). Ladson-Billings
(1995) suggested the necessity of curriculum reform making connections between culturally
relevant pedagogy and students’ experience, in order for teachers to establish cultural
frameworks of reference and to improve learning for students under high risk. In the same
manner, culturally relevant teachers build on the strengths of multicultural students, helping
them acquire cultural capital and new knowledge, and connecting the students to the
mainstream of schooling (Lipman, 1997). The combination of culturally relevant teaching
and good teaching practice has evolved into culturally responsive teaching. Culturally
responsive teaching “builds on multicultural education and culturally relevant pedagogy
where teachers use the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and
performance styles of cultural and linguistically diverse (CLD) students to better scaffold
learning concepts” (Gay, 2000, p. 29).
Moreover, Gay (2000) has defined culturally responsive teaching (CRT) “as using the
cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of
ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for
them” (p. 29). In other words, understanding and teaching to a students’ learning style is a
foundation in culturally responsive teaching. She summarized CRT by defining six areas that
are specifically addressed by the effective culturally responsive teacher. The first area is that
CRT is validating. Everything a student has should be given credence by the teacher. The
second area is that CRT is comprehensive. The effective CRT teacher teaches the complete
child. A third area is that an effective CRT teacher is multidimensional. Teaching in the
moment, utilizing prior knowledge and experiences, and looking and understanding from
more than one perspective are all part of being multidimensional. She also included that the

13

effective CRT teacher is transformative and emancipatory. Effective CRT teachers respect
the culture and experiences of their students by using that fund of knowledge to build the
student up rather than tearing down or demeaning the student.
Golnick and Ghinn, (2004) regards CRT as a core multicultural principle to meet the
need of all students. CRT asserts that “students’ cultures, viewing them as transformative and
emancipatory strengths; incorporates students’ cultures in the teaching process, thus
empowering them to take responsibility of their learning; and leads to increased future
participation in societal activities” (Santamaria, 2009, p 226). Also, CRT is based on the
proposition that culture intensely influences how children learn (Smith, 1998). LadsonBillings (2001) calls her theoretical framework “culturally relevant pedagogy” (p. 144). She
assumes that successful teachers (a) focus on students’ academic achievement, (b) develop
students’ cultural competence, and (c) foster students’ sense of sociopolitical consciousness.
Like what Ladson-Billings suggested, Gay explained that culturally responsive
teaching is “a means for unleashing the higher learning potentials of ethnically diverse
students by simultaneously cultivating their academic and psychosocial abilities” (Gay, 2000,
p. 20). Teachers’ knowledge of and attitudes toward cultural diversity are powerful
determinants of learning opportunities and outcomes for culturally different students (Gay,
2002). Similarly, teachers’ beliefs about how students learn and the expectations that they
for different racial groups may influence the way they conduct their lessons (Steinberg &
Morris, 2001). This perspective of culturally responsive teaching seeks to improve
participation and increase learner interest by drawing on students’ homes and communities as
resources as the essence of CRT (Au, 2007; Giouroukakis & Honigsfeld, 2010; Moll,
Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992; Siwatu, 2007). This can be a challenge if teachers are
approaching their students from an ethnocentric perspective.

14

Diverse approaches to culturally responsive practice. As reviewed above, these
studies of Culturally Responsive Practice have paid attention more to teachers’ roles and how
to teach in a culturally responsive way. However, in the discourse of CRP, consideration of
students’ families and their personal background need to be treated as a crucial factor that is
presumed to anticipate how culturally and racially diverse students learn and understand. In
that, recognizing students’ family background might be the first step to engage students in
schooling. More specifically, following the assumption that students’ engagement in learning
increases their academic performance, teachers can facilitate this engagement by creating
individualized and supportive contexts that are focused on students’ learning with
consideration of their family and personal background (Steinberg & Morris, 2001).
Along these lines, Villegas and Lucas (2002) recognized the current status of
educational context that is becoming more diverse, and they tried to find the possible
strategies for the treatment of diversity issues. They suggested that teachers be aware of their
students’ lives in order to teach meaningful content knowledge and to involve students in the
learning process. This does not mean to know their students at the level of a cultural or social
group, but to know individual students’ family makeup, immigration history, favorite
activities, concerns, and strengths. In this regard, creating strong linkages between schools
and families may support student engagement in other ways, as well as by fostering
congruence in the values adolescents are exposed to, both at home and at school.
There are other researchers paying attention to the interactions between teachers and
students, and classroom management. (Weinstein, Curran, & Tomlinson-clarke, 2003)
labeled these actions as “culturally responsive classroom management” (p. 269). In their
study, while focusing on the difficulties in classroom management and organization, the
researchers investigated the abilities that teachers need in order to teach diverse classrooms in
culturally competent ways. They examined what the approaches and strategies are, to have

15

culturally responsive classroom management. Using several examples of classroom settings,
they demonstrated diverse students’ difficulties and where the teachers’ and students’ gap
came from. Based on Weinstein et al. (2003), (Milner & Tenore, 2010) also conducted a
study of culturally responsive classroom management practices, with observations of two
teachers from an urban and diverse middle school. During more than one year of
observations, the authors built on the principles of culturally responsive classroom
management: “understanding equity and equality; understanding power structures among
students; immersion into students’ life worlds; understanding the Self in relation to Others;
granting students entry into their worlds; and conceiving school as a community with family
members” (p. 591).
Even though the primary studies of CRT were usually conducted in the U.S., they
could be applied to other contexts including Korea, even though studies on CRP in Korea are
at an early stage, and empirical studies of CRP are very rare. In the recent research by Hong
and Chang (2006), they explore Korean elementary teachers’ culturally responsive teaching
self-efficacy (CRTSE) by (Siwatu, 2007), and to categorize it based on culturally responsive
teaching theory by Gay (2000). While confirming the factor structure and reliability of the
CRTSE, the results showed that elementary teachers in Korea do not apply cultural response
teaching methods in their classroom.
Chu (2010) explored how to apply CRP to classroom teaching in elementary moral
education in Korea. However, there is a limitation in reflecting the original intention of CRP
which requires a general change that includes the classroom environment and the classroom
culture. In Noh (2009)’s study focusing on the relationship between cultural response
proficiency, self-efficacy, and multicultural teaching ability, it is found that the teachers' selfefficacy is significantly lower than that of middle school teachers. Thus, in order to increase
the self-efficacy of the pre-service teachers, it is necessary to increase the frequency of

16

exposure to the multicultural environment. Like this, in Korea, research on CRP is on the
beginning stage to introduce the theory. However, it is a field that needs to be studied
because it is accompanied by the demands of the field that actually operates the curriculum
including the multicultural perspective and the revised national curriculum, which highlight
the reconstruct the curriculum based on the various needs and characteristics of students.
In sum, scholars commonly insist that teaching practice and classroom management
need to be implemented equitably and in culturally sensitive ways; also, CRP is a universal
construct, which means that it characterizes a common belief that is inherent in all
multicultural contexts. Therefore, one might assume that implementing culturally responsive
teaching would be similarly appropriate across cultures and samples.
The purpose of this study is to examine teachers’ culturally responsive practice,
specifically how to measure it to suit the Korean context, and if so, what school
characteristics might predict CRP. To respond to these two general issues, I create a
questionnaire using existing items from some established measures assessing teachers’ belief
in diversity (Pohan & Aguilar, 2001), teachers’ sense of efficacy (Siwatu, 2007), and
multicultural education scale (Guyton & Wesche, 2005; Groulx & Silva, 2010). Other
measures for analysis are developed from existing scales assessing principal’s leadership and
a set of demographic questions about teachers and schools.
The development of the culturally responsive practice questionnaire involves several
phases –analyzing measures related culturally responsive, designing the preliminary scale,
pilot testing the scale, item analysis, and exploring the relationship of the developed CRP
scale to other known constructs.
Background of measures for CRP. There are some conceptual studies on culturally
responsive teaching or multicultural education, but only a limited amount of literature has
been used in a quantitative measurement. For developing a scale of CRP, the related literature

17

needed to be analyzed. In particular, there are a few works on quantifying culturally
responsive pedagogy or teaching. Here, I synthesize some quantitative research on the related
concept of culturally responsive teaching.
Guyton and Wesche (2005) developed the Multicultural Efficacy Scale (MES) as a
tool for measuring this concept, along with the multicultural teacher education dimensions of
intercultural experiences, minority group knowledge, attitudes about diversity, and
knowledge of teaching skills in multicultural settings. In their study a total of 665
undergraduate and graduate teacher education students from geographic regions across the
United States completed the 160-item MES pilot, and supplied demographic information
regarding their gender, age, socioeconomic status, education level, and ethnic and religious
backgrounds. The first stage of analysis reduced the MES to 80 items. The second stage
produced a final MES consisting of 35 items: 7 experience items, 7 attitude items, 20 efficacy
items, with one additional item asking participants to identify their strongest beliefs about
teaching in multicultural educational settings. The overall intent of the MES is consistent
with the purpose of this study, namely, to use the CRPS as a means of diagnosing the extent
of teachers’ readiness in the schools in terms of the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and
understandings to move teachers toward becoming multicultural efficacious.
Based on the study of Guyton and Wesche (2005), Groulx, and Silva (2010) measured
culturally relevant teaching with three dimensions: background experiences with respect to
diversity, beliefs about practices in teaching culturally diverse students, and efficacy
implementing multicultural teaching strategies. In particular, they emphasized that the MES
scale needs to include teachers’ efficacy for improving student achievement.
In this regard, Siwatu (2005, 2007) researched and created a culturally responsive
teaching self-efficacy instrument that measure the teachers’ beliefs that they can effectively
teach students from diverse backgrounds and achieve the expected goals. In an attempt to

18

increase efforts to prepare culturally responsive teachers, Siwatu (2009) developed the 40item Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (CRTSE). Siwatu (2009) believes
that many of the existing teachers’ self-efficacy measures were insufficient in assessing
preservice and in- service teachers’ culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy beliefs. He
designed a scale to assess teachers’ self-efficacy to execute practices of culturally responsive
teaching. The items on the scale included reference to each of the 29 culturally responsive
teaching competencies (p. 4). These competencies describe the practices (e.g. knowledge and
skills) of successful teachers of students from culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds and whose pedagogical approach is culturally responsive (Siwatu, 2009). It is
well documented that teachers’ beliefs influence their attitudes toward diverse students and
teaching practices (Guskey & Passaro, 1994; Dilworth, 2004; Guyton & Wesche, 2005). In
that, the more confident teachers are, the more actively and flexibly they can respond to the
pedagogical needs of situations where arise in classrooms. Table 1-1 shows representative
empirical studies on CRP using quantitative method.

Table 1-1. Empirical Studies on Developing CRP Related Scales
Guyton & Wesche
Groulx & Silva (2010)
Siwatu (2007)
(2005, 2010)
Scale
Multicultural Efficacy Multicultural Efficacy
Culturally Responsive
name
Scale (MES)
Scale (MES)
Teaching SelfEfficacy Scale
(CRTSE) and
Culturally Responsive
Teaching Outcome
Expectancy (CRTOE)
Aspects 1) Intercultural
1) Background
1) Self-efficacy of
experiences,
experiences with respect to teaching
2) Minority group
diversity,
2) Teaching outcome
knowledge,
2) Beliefs about practices
expectancy
3) Attitudes about
in teaching culturally
diversity,
diverse students, and
4) Knowledge of
3) Efficacy implementing
teaching skills in
multicultural teaching
multicultural setting
strategies
Based on the Bennett
Having subscale of each
Each scale is regarded
et al. (1990)
dimension
as one-factor.
19

However, as examined above, there is a very limited literature to deal with the
concept of culturally responsive teaching in a quantitative way. Even though qualitative and
conceptual studies gave an insight and framework for investigating culturally responsiveness,
quantitative research methods that have the merit of diagnosing, analyzing and generalizing
phenomena are also needed. Also, previous studies have focused on measuring the
effectiveness of education by looking at the culturally responsive competence of pre-service
teachers in the teacher education institutes, or improving the preparation of pre-service
teachers. However, there are few studies that can measure or diagnose the culturally
responsive competence of in-service teachers in consideration of the educational environment
surrounding the students and the real worlds where in-service teachers face.
Moreover, there is a lack of consideration of multicultural education linked to each
task that teachers are responsible for in the school. Specifically, in the school field, teachers
play a variety of roles beside class teaching. For example, counseling with individual
students, communication with parents, and part of school administration work are required,
and it is difficult to neglect these tasks because they ultimately relate to student guidance.
Therefore, it is important to develop a measurement tool that takes into account school
context.
In addition, research on the development of measurement tools considering the
educational environment in Korea is very limited. In particular, when considering the various
roles that Korean teachers play in the school, the tools for measuring culturally responsive
teachers need to be evaluated in various aspects and diagnosed from various perspectives.
Thus, for the purpose of this research, which examines current teachers’ perceptions of
students’ diversity and considers Korean context, I needed to develop and validate the new
scale of CRP.

20

Research Goals: Revisiting Research Questions
The literature review suggests a need for a better scale to measure in-service teachers’
culturally responsive practice. Following in previous research, the scale should be taskspecific and include activities directly related to teaching students. This scale would allow the
researcher to examine the underlying structure of teachers’ culturally responsive practice.
Based on previous research, it is hypothesized that culturally responsive practice of teachers
is multidimensional. Therefore, the current study addresses the following goals, which can be
answers to research questions.
RQ1. Can face and content validity of the Culturally Responsive Practice scale be
established?
Goal 1. Provide evidence for the face and content validity of the CRP
RQ2. Can internal consistency reliability be established for the CRP?
Goal 2. Provide evidence for the reliability of the CRP
RQ3. Can factor structure of the CRP reflect a multidimensional definition of CRP?
Goal 3. Provide evidence for construct validity of the CRP

Methodology
The Culturally Responsive Practice Scale (CRPS) was developed as a teacher selfreport measure of CRP in order to identify those teachers who may be ready to appropriately
interact with multicultural students in their classrooms. CRP scale development consisted of
six main steps that were supported by the literature in scale development (e.g., DeVellis,
2003; Merrell, 2008): (1) define construct, (2) design scale, (3) pilot test and expert review,
(4) revise the items, (5) evaluate items, and (6) validate. The development of the scale
consisted of two phases as illustrated in Figure 1. Phase 1 included creating and refining a
initial version of the scale and testing pilot with a small sample. Phase 2 consisted of main

21

testing the revised scale with a large sample of participants in order to evaluate scale items
and conduct reliability and validity analysis of the scale.

Steps for Item development
The development for CRP items follows the process as described below.

Figure 1-1. Scale Development Process

Defining the construct. Self-report scales can be developed to be reliable and valid
measures when there is strong theoretical support on the relation between the phenomena of
interest and other constructs. Merrell (2008) described this approach as the rationaltheoretical approach. This approach starts with a description of personality traits and
behaviors that can be measured and the creation of items that are suitable within those
domains. Merrell stated that the benefit of using the rational-theoretical approach is that items
in the scale will have strong face validity and be “psychologically meaningful and
theoretically unified” (p. 204). Therefore, the first step in developing the CRP was to clearly
define the construct of interest. The construct of interest for this research study was teacher
CRP. As constructed based on the literature, CRP consists of four core dimensions: attitude,
knowledge, efficacy, and application; attitude refers to multicultural attitude toward diverse
students; knowledge indicates having understandings of diverse cultures and their impacts on
teaching and learning process; efficacy is defined as a teacher’s belief in his or her confidence
to successfully implement multicultural practices (Guyton & Wesche, 2005); and application

22

means use of culture-centered teaching, which is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance
of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings,1994).
These constructs were clearly defined and answered research question two, “Can factor
structure of the CRP reflect a multidimensional definition of CRP?”
Designing the scale. Items included in this scale were generated to reflect the four
core competencies of CRP. Guided by the theoretical and empirical research on culturally
responsive and multicultural education, I developed an initial version of questionnaires for
measuring CRP of teachers. The CRP instrument initially contained 16 descriptive
statements, indicating the extent to which each statement characterizes the aspects of
culturally responsive teaching along a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 5 (strongly agree): Knowledge (4 items), attitude (4 items), teachers’ teaching
efficacy (4 items), and application (4 items)
Pilot testing and expert review. Once the initial pool of items and scale format were
designed, experts reviewed the pool of items. A convenience sample of experts, either
knowledgeable in the content area or with practical experience working in education, were
requested to provide feedback on the relevancy of the item to the
construct of interest, the clarity and conciseness of items, and additional items to consider
including (DeVellis, 2003). These experts came from a variety of Korean professionals with
backgrounds in education and psychology.
Professionals from education (e.g., teachers, professors, principals, etc.) had
minimum of two years of experience working in a middle or high school setting. A total of
five experts reviewed the CRP scale: two professors in universities and three teachers (two
with Ph.D. degree and one with master degree). Experts were invited by email to participate
in the study and sent the pilot version of the CRPS assessment with space beside each item
for comments and questions. The experts had two weeks from the time they received the

23

form to provide feedback. Based upon expert feedback, items were revised and one item was
removed because of item ambiguity.
CRP constructs. In the next section, I provide more information about each of the
four domains in the CRP construct.
Recognizing student diversity is defined as the ability to comprehensively recognize
and respect student’s diversity in terms of their cultural and social background. Teachers who
are recognizing students’ diversity have an understanding of students’ social and cultural
differences, and recognize the importance of valuing their culture in teaching and learning
process. Teachers also have a good understanding of the role of diversity in one’s academic
and social development.
Acknowledging Student Family Background is defined as the ability to take the
perspective of and empathize with students’ family background. Teachers who are
acknowledging student family background build strong and supportive relationships through
mutual understanding and cooperation. They are sensitive to cultural diversity and appreciate
different perspectives of parents, students, and school personnel. This sensitivity allows them
to effectively problem solve conflicts between students and school personnel.
Teacher Efficacy is defined as a teacher’s belief in his or her confidence to
successfully implement multicultural practices (Guyton, Wesche, 2010). Kagan (1992)
asserts the beliefs teachers hold influence their perceptions and judgments, which in turn
affects their behavior in the classroom. In other words, teacher efficacy is a future-oriented
motivational construct that reflects a teacher’s competence beliefs for teaching tasks. Teacher
efficacy contributes to achievement because high efficacy teachers try harder, use
management strategies that stimulate student autonomy, attend more closely to low ability
student needs, and modify students’ ability perceptions (Ross & Gray, 2006).

24

Teaching Application is the reported use of culture-centered teaching, which is a
pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all
aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings, 1995). It plays a role not only in communicating and
receiving information, but also in shaping the thinking process of groups and individuals.
Teaching application that acknowledges, responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures
offers full and equitable access to education for students from all cultures. To be effective in
multicultural teaching, teachers must relate teaching content to the cultural backgrounds of
their students.
Distributing the survey. Questionnaires were sent via Google form. When teachers
completed the survey instrument, the answers were automatically returned into excel file in
Google drive: the anonymous questionnaire was distributed by one teacher of each school
with a specific web address. Also, the questionnaire included school code to recognize where
the answer is from. Thus, the process protected the teachers’ anonymity; their names could
not be associated with their responses.
Instrument reliability. Reliability of a scale demonstrates evidence that a scale is
accurately measuring the same concept over time, across raters, or within items (Gall, Gall, &
Borg, 2007). Evidence of validity suggests that a scale is actually measuring the concept
intended; this definition is usually referred to as construct validity which then encompasses
other forms of validity such as criterion, convergent, and discriminant validity (Messick,
1995). The exploratory factor analysis is considered one way to examine a test’s evidence of
validity and reliability. In general, exploratory factor analysis is used to extract factors or
dimensions of a given construct which are meaningful to that construct (Preacher &
MacCallum, 2003). It is significant to recognize that exploratory factor analysis is a statistical
technique that helps researchers determine how items group together, but it does not tell the
reason why these items cluster a particular way, nor does it provide a formal test of a

25

hypothesis (Agresti & Finlay, 2009). Therefore, the interpretation of the structure of a group
of items need to be based on theoretical background.
Once a structure has been established, the next step is to test the internal consistency
of the subscales that emerged. This can be done using Cronbach’s (1951) alpha statistic,
which examines the internal interrelation of the scale’s items. This analysis can also
determine if dropping items from a particular scale will increase a scale’s reliability.
Analyzing the data. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is run to extract a set of
factors, test stability of the factor structure of the scales, and check that all items loaded on
the appropriate factor. In this phase, common factors are extracted by Principal Component
Analysis and Varimax Orthogonal Rotation. This method is often used to determine if factors
load to predetermined theoretical constructs as hypothesized (Agresti & Finlay, 2009). Using
the SPSS statistical software package, an exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation is
conducted, using an eigenvalue of 1.0 or higher to determine which factors load to which
constructs. The analysis determines if survey instrument items are correlated with the
hypothesized theoretical underpinnings of sub dimensions. Next, A confirmatory factor
analysis (CFA) is conducted to indicate the relation of the observed variables to the proposed
underlying constructs (Kline, 2010). While revealing structural relations, the construct
validity for CRP could be preliminarily supported throughout the CFA.

26

Analysis and Results
Pilot Test
Participants. The participants of the pilot test were selected from a population of
teachers in South Korea. Specifically, the convenience sample for this study consisted of 112
secondary school teachers from 10 secondary schools in Gyungsang province.
Of the respondents, 60.7% were women, and 39.3% were men. Also, 12.8% of
respondents were in twenties, 43.6% in thirties, 23.1% in forties, 15.4% in fifties, and only
0.9% were in sixties. As for the years of experience, 10.2% had less than 6 years, 38.6% had
more than 6 but less than 10 years, 23.1% had more than 11 but less than 15 years, 10.5% had
more than 16 but less than 20 years, 5.8% had more than 21 but less than 25 years, 1.8% had
more than 26 years of experience of teaching.

Factor analysis and revision of items. A factor analysis (principal axis factoring)
was conducted for determining if initial items generated based on previous researches fit to
the reality. Evaluation of the eigenvalues and scree plot are the principles of factor extraction.
The criteria of whether to retain an item include the following ones: (1) the mean of the factor
is no less than 3.0; (2) items load strongly on one single factor (> 0.5); (3) items do not crossload on multiple factors; (4) correlation coefficient between every item and total score is no
less than 0.4. Four factors having eigenvalues greater than 1 accounted for 56.36% of the
total variance, and their factor loadings were between 0.31 and 0.88.
Some items did not meet the criteria described above: there were items with below .40
factor loadings. Also, items in dimensions of knowledge and attitude were not clearly
categorized by the theoretical divisions. In other words, some items in the dimensions of
knowledge and attitude seem to share a commonality characterized differently from the
original theoretical category. More specifically, the first 4-item factor consisted of item

27

number 8, 2, 5, and 6, which were originally designed for knowledge except for number 2.
The second 4-item factor included item number 7, 1, 3, and 4, which were initially generated
for measuring attitude except for item number 7. These results suggested that first and second
dimensions for CRP needed to be revised when it comes to their combinations and
definitions. Professionals and I discussed how to interpret these statistical results and how to
revise the CRP scale.
Table 1-2. CRP Matrix in Pilot Test
Factor 1
Factor 2

Factor 3

Factor 4

CRP8
.881
-.017
-.012
-.102
CRP2
.641
.021
-.087
.164
CRP5
.627
.189
-.013
.058
CRP6
.500
.301
.151
.011
CRP7
-.269
.469
.418
.028
CRP1
-.185
.654
.101
.118
CRP3
.049
.599
-.110
.069
CRP4
.109
.331
-.170
.137
CRP10
-.257
.196
.662
.002
CRP11
.257
-.063
.366
.226
CRP12
.319
-.044
.352
.060
CRP9
.181
.196
.349
.039
CRP13
-.185
.101
.118
.654
CRP14
.109
-.170
.299
.579
CRP16
-.269
.418
.028
.469
CRP15
.049
-.110
.069
.331
Extraction Method: Principal Axis Factoring. Rotation Method: Promax with Kaiser
Normalization.

With consideration of the statistical results as well as related literature, items and the
dimensions are revised as follow: Acknowledging family background (4 items), Recognizing
student diversity (4 items), Teachers’ teaching efficacy (4 items), Teaching application (4
items).

Main Study
Participants. The participants in this study was selected from a population of
teachers in South Korea. Specifically, the convenience sample for this study consisted of 422
28

secondary school teachers from 24 secondary schools in Seoul, Gyeonggi province, Incheon,
and Gyungsang province, which the population of multicultural students in these four regions
is listed on the highest proposition among all over the regions in South Korea. Of the
respondents, 67.53% were women, and 32.47% were men. Also, 15.6% of respondents were
in twenties, 41.6% in thirties, 25.6% in forties, 16.1% in fifties, and only 1.4% were in
sixties. As for the years of experience, 13.3% had less than 6 years, 46.5% had more than 6
but less than 10 years, 20.1% had more than 11 but less than 15 years, 9.5% had more than 16
but less than 20 years, 7.8% had more than 21 but less than 25 years, 2.8% had more than 26
years of experience of teaching.

Table 1-3. Demographic Characteristics of Samples in Main Study
Category
Frequency
Gender

Percentage (%)

Female
Male
20 – 29 years
30 – 39 years
40 – 49 years
50 – 59 years
60 + years

284
138
66
174
108
68
6

67.53
32.47
15.6
41.2
25.6
16.1
1.4

Experience

1 -5 years
6 – 10 years
11 – 15 years
16 – 20 years
21 – 25 years
26 + years

56
196
85
40
33
12

13.3
46.5
20.1
9.5
7.8
2.8

Education Degree

Undergraduate
Graduate

305
117

74.2
25.8

Age

Results
Face and content validity. Content validity refers to the extent to which the
instrument represents all of the content related to the particular constructs (Heffner, 2004).
Instrument items were developed using related research. Face validity requires looking at the

29

items and using subjective judgment to determine if the items appear to measure what they
are intended to measure (Walsh & Betz, 2001). To obtain face validity, the initial items were
evaluated by three teachers with Ph.D. degree. Items that were a) unclear, b) repeated, and c)
double barreled were eliminated, or made clearer. The evaluators individually provided
comments via Word and were returned to the researcher through email. The researcher first
provided each evaluator a handout that had the definition of culturally responsive practice, a
list of 16 items that were originally constructed, and were told that this questionnaire was
about the degree of culturally responsive practice of teachers in their teaching and learning.
The researcher asked these individuals to 1) read the definition of CRP, 2) ensure that all the
items in the list corresponded to the definition, 3) ensure that items were clear, unrepeated,
and not double barreled, and 4) help reword unclear items to become more readable
statements for the questionnaire. Professionals conducted an item-by-item review of the
instrument to consider whether the items appeared to measure teachers’ perceptions of their
degree to the culturally responsive practice. In an initial look at construct validity,
professionals also reviewed each item as they perceived the match to the theoretical
underpinnings of culturally responsive pedagogy, multicultural education, and teacher
efficacy.
Statistical analysis. This study adopts the proposed 16-item scale to measure a
sample of 422 teachers from 24 secondary schools in South Korea. With reflecting the results
of the pilot test and related literature, items and the dimensions are revised with
acknowledging family background (4 items), recognizing student diversity (4 items),
teachers’ teaching efficacy (4 items), teaching application (4 items). Presented in Table 1-4
are item specific mean and standard deviation for all items of the CRP scale. Overall, the
participants responded indicate a positive proposition toward culturally responsive practice
(3.12 – 3.86).

30

Table 1-4. Items for Culturally Responsive Practice
Items
1. I think students have diverse cultural backgrounds.
2. As a teacher, I need to learn about my student cultural backgrounds.
3. I believe students’ diversity must be considered in the classroom
management.
4. I believe students’ self-esteem is increased when their social and
cultural backgrounds is respected.
5. I have participated in the professional development for multicultural
education.
6. I acknowledge students’ family environment.
7. I consider students’ social and family backgrounds in the class plan.
8. I teach students respecting on student’s personal backgrounds.
9. I am able to obtain information about my students’ academic
strengths.
10. I am able to determine whether my students like to work alone or in
a group.
11. I am able to use my students’ cultural background to help make
learning meaningful.
12. I am able to critically examine the curriculum to determine whether
it reinforces negative cultural stereotypes.
13. I think students can understand differently what I teach.
14. I structure the class content based on the difference among students’
background.
15. I am able to facilitate students to work in a group.
16. I encourage students to think differently and have different
perspective on class contents.

M
3.86
3.60
3.76

SD
1.16
1.12
1.05

3.85

1.29

3.12

1.11

3.46
3.72
3.33
3.79

.92
.99
1.18
.90

3.57

1.05

3.69

1.02

3.76

1.14

3.68
3.32

1.27
1.21

3.68
3.54

1.04
1.12

Verifying construct validity by EFA and CFA. An exploratory factor analysis
(principal axis factoring) was conducted, allowing for correlations among factors (Fabrigar,
Wegener, MacCallum & Strahan, 1999). The intent is to assure that the items actually
measure the intended concepts.
Evaluation of the eigenvalues and scree plot are the principles of factor extraction.
The criteria of whether to retain an item include the following ones: (1) the mean of the factor
is no less than 3.0; (2) items load strongly on one single factor (> 0.5); (3) items do not crossload on multiple factors; (4) correlation coefficient between every item and total score is no
less than 0.4. After the above steps, a stable factor structure was established. Four factors

31

having eigenvalues greater than 1 accounted for 57.28% of the total variance. 16 items were
retained and their factor loadings were between 0.52 and 0.81.
The exploratory factor analysis yielded four factors with eigenvalues greater than one;
The number of factors was confirmed as originally suggested in scale development studies.
Each factor yielded four items. Costello and Osborne (2005) recommended the examination
of the scree plot to determine the number of factors to be retained. The scree plot also
indicated that a four-factor solution was most reasonable. All items met the criteria described
above and had commonalities above .40. The first 4-item factor, Recognizing student
diversity, had a Cronbach’s alpha reliability of .96. Recognizing student diversity accounted
for 29.86% of the variance. The second 4-item factor, teaching application, had an alpha
reliability of .85. Teaching application accounted for 10.60% of the variance. The third 4item factor, teacher efficacy, had an alpha reliability of .85. Teacher efficacy accounted for
8.95% of the variance. The fourth 4-item factor, acknowledging student family background,
had an alpha reliability of .85. Acknowledging student family background accounted for
7.87% of the variance. For more details about the primary factor loadings, means, and
standard deviations for each scale item please see Table 5.
Guided by the results of the exploratory analysis, a confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA) was employed. Testing the four-factor model derived from the EFA was coupled with
testing the one-factor model of the CRP construct and initial four-factor model. A
confirmatory procedure was employed, using structural equation modeling software, AMOS
20. AMOS output was generated for the following models: (a) the one-factor model; (b) the
four-factor model derived from the EFA’s results. Using a nested approach allowed for a
direct comparison among these proposed models. Nesting means that the main constructs of
the model remain constant, but the number of estimated relationships changes (Kline, 2010).

32

Put differently, models are considered nested when one, which is more restrictive, can be
obtained by placing constraints on another model, which is more general.
Table 1-5. Structural Matrix for Culturally Responsive Practice
Factor Loadings (Dimensions)
Item Number
1
4
3
CRP1_1
.776
.227
-.044
CRP1_3
.710
-.025
.223
CRP1_4
.547
-.007
.064
CRP1_2
.532
.363
.082
CRP4_3
.242
.752
.022
CRP4_2
.292
.578
.427
CRP4_1
.488
.563
.350
CRP4_4
.225
.548
.074
CRP3_4
.032
-.019
.804
CRP3_2
-.002
.069
.745
CRP3_3
.013
.079
.743
CRP3_1
.012
.111
.672
CRP2_3
.306
-.032
.157
CRP2_2
.041
-.017
.337
CRP2_4
.260
.424
-.020
CRP2_1
.476
.333
-.045
Eigenvalue
4.78
1.70
1.43
Accumulated variance
16.45
32.52
45.56
NOTE: Extraction method principal axis factoring was used.

2
.126
.158
.103
.175
-.087
-.076
-.094
-.220
.170
.265
.258
.254
.678
.646
.624
.516
1.26
57.28

A total of 422 teachers (at least 13 teachers were randomly selected from each school)
from these secondary schools responded to the instrument that contained 16 items for CRPS.
Although it was not possible to select a random sample of secondary schools in this region,
data were taken from both urban and suburban schools from diverse geographic areas,
representing the entire socioeconomic status range. This sample size is considered
appropriate for CFA model testing because the number of participants was greater than the
minimum of 200 (422 secondary school teachers), and the ratio of a sample size to items was
greater than 5:1 (Hair, Babin, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998). In the current study, the
sample size/item ratio was 7:1.

33

Figure 1-2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis for CRP
Table 1-6 reports goodness-of-fit indices for evaluating the three models derived from
AMOS and employed as criteria. CFA results clearly indicate that the one-factor model was
not a good fit for the data and that the revised four-factor model had better fit indices results
compared to the initial four-factor model. Although it is a difficult procedure to generate
models of educational and psychological attributes that can fully satisfy the CFA fit indices
criteria (Kline, 2005), the confirmatory procedure for the four-factor model yielded
acceptable fit measures. The analysis of the four-factor model yielded a sound fit for the data,
with all indices at or near the proposed levels of minimum fit indicative of a good model. As
suggested above, the chi-square statistic must be interpreted with caution (Kline, 2005).
Overall, these indices provide a sound support basis for the postulated measurement model
for CRPS.
Table 1-6. Model Fit Indices
Model Description
χ2/df
Four-factor model

3.31

GFI

CFI

NFI

TLI

RMSEA

.976

.982

.979

.968

.069

(derived from EFA)
NOTE: χ2/(df) improvement is reflected by a lower value. GFI, CFI, NFI, and TLI
improvement is reflected by a higher value. RMSEA improvement is reflected by a lower
value.

34

Reliability assessment. The assessment of reliability could be considered part of the
testing stage of the newly developed measure. Although reliability may be calculated in a
several ways, the most commonly accepted measure is internal consistency reliability using
Cronbach’s Alpha (Henson, 2001). The CRP had high alpha coefficients of reliability of .96
and alpha coefficient of each factor ranged between .93 and .95. Table 1-7 shows four
subscales of CRP based on EFA with number of items and their reliabilities.
Table 1-7. Reliability for Subscales of Culturally Responsive Practice
Subscales

Number of
items

Cronbach a

Recognizing student diversity

4

.94

Acknowledging student family
background

4

.95

Teacher efficacy

4

.95

Teaching application

4

.93

Total

16

.96

Discussion
The present study sought to examine the initial factor structure of an instrument
developed to measure the construct of teacher culturally responsive practice among teachers
in secondary schools in South Korea. In addition, initial evidence of reliability and validity of
the CRP was examined by exploring internal consistency of the scale as well as confirmatory
analysis. A need for teachers committed to culturally responsive practice ability has been
strongly communicated in the last decade of scholarly literature (Banks, 2001; Delpit, 1995;
Gay, 2000).
Although there are some multicultural efficacy related scales in the fields of
multicultural education and educational psychology, there was few measures for measuring
CRP for current teachers, nor is much empirical literature present on the actual practice of
culturally responsive practice in Korea. This gap in the literature, paired with the limited

35

empirical examination of the competencies being used in education was sought to be
addressed by the development of the CRP. Items for the CRP were developed based on a
multidimensional definition of culturally responsive practice that was a result of synthesized
literature in various fields (Groulx & Silva, 2010; Guyton & Wesche, 2010; Siwatu, 2007,
2011).
This study used a quantitative nonexperimental descriptive design to address the
psychometric properties of the CRP including: (a) initial factor structure; (b) scale reliability;
(c) construct validity; more evidence of other aspects of validity for the CRP will be
examined in the next chapters of this dissertation. A summary and discussion of the findings
is presented in this chapter. Limitations of the current research study and implications for
future research and training are also provided.
Goal 1 pursued that the newly developed Culturally Responsive Practice Scale
(CRPS) would yield face and content validity. Support for this hypothesis was found by
synthesizing literature and professionals’ reviews.
Goal 2 sought that adequate evidence for the reliability of the CRPS would be
supported via internal consistency using Cronbach values of .70 or above. The results provide
support for this goal, with internal consistency values ranging from .93-.95 for the four CRP
subscales. A strong Cronbach value provides useful information about a scale’s internal
structure by demonstrating that items within a scale are sufficiently correlated with one
another (Cronbach, 1951; Worthington & Whittaker, 2006). Reliability evidence is
particularly important in scale development research insofar as it increases confidence that
the items on a scale are yielding consistent scores. The ability to replicate adequate internal
consistency in the study strengthens support for the argument that the CRPS subscales are
consistently measuring culturally responsive attitudes and behaviors across samples of
secondary teachers in South Korea.

36

Goal 3 stated that the newly developed Culturally Responsive Practice Scale (CRPS)
would yield a multidimensional factor structure, representing a multidimensional definition
of the construct. Support for this goal was found in the exploratory factor analysis and the
confirmatory analysis. Results from the exploratory factor analysis suggested a four-factor
structure in the data. The study results in the revision of 16 items, including the 3 items reallocated in different dimensions from the initial design. Revising these items and names was
justified empirically given their poor inter-correlations with other items and the entire scale.
Based on these results, each dimension of the CRP was renamed; these changes were also
justified theoretically given the literature emphasizing the importance of family background
in student learning (Ladson- Billings, 1994, 2001). The final factor structure of the CRPS
suggests that there is a conceptually meaningful construct of teacher’s culturally responsive
practice that is comprised of four distinct subcomponents: (a) Recognizing student diversity;
(b) Acknowledging family background; (c) Teacher efficacy; and (d) Teaching application.

Limitations
Several limitations to this study should be noted. The limitations to this investigation
fell into two categories: (a) sampling methodology and generalizability; and (b) threats to
construct validity.
Sampling methodology. Since a sample was recruited in convenience for this study,
it is quite possible that participants who chose to take part in a study with this description
may have greater commitment or adherence to culturally responsive attitudes than those who
chose not to participate. Other selection bias information in the literature suggests that those
who participate in social science research tend to be more educated, altruistic, extroverted,
intelligent, and of higher social class than those who do not participate (Kalnins, 2007).
These limits to the sampling procedures limits the overall generalizability of the
findings of this scale to a more highly educated and possibly more culture-oriented

37

population of teachers, as opposed to all teachers (thus limiting external validity). While the
sample was recruited from teachers currently in the nation in terms of regions where the high
percentages of multicultural populations, the majority of the sample had high level of
experience teaching and was likely to have more understanding of multicultural education. It
is possible that these findings are not generalizable to beginner teachers or teachers with less
understanding or training. Finally, the target population for this study was all secondary
teachers in South Korea. However, no data was collected regarding participants’ specific
teaching subject. It is possible that given the items of the CRPS, very different endorsements
could have existed for social studies teachers versus music teachers, for example.
Selection bias may have also been an issue insofar as all participants were recruited
via convenience sampling through an online internet survey, with no paper-pencil formats
used in this study. It is possible that teachers who are not familiar with computers, internet
access, or interest in belonging to online social networking groups were missed in this study’s
recruitment procedures.
Threats to construct validity. The data in this study revealed relatively high levels
of each component of culturally responsive practice. While these findings could be indicating
authentic high levels of these constructs, it is also possible that the high endorsements on
items could be a result of participants feeling internally pressured to report higher levels of
culturally responsive practice than are necessarily characteristic of their attitudes. This
phenomenon is otherwise referred to as social desirability response bias (Nederhof, 1985).
This bias refers to a participant’s inclination to misrepresent his or her responses in a socially
favorable manner by denying “socially undesirable traits and to claim socially desirable
ones,” (Nederhof, 1985, p. 269). Such desirability demands could have influenced
participants’ responses, as participants may have felt compelled to over-identify with social
advocacy-related questions regarding their teacher skills and behaviors. Additionally, this

38

study utilized only retrospective, self-report measures to assess CRP. This limitation of
mono-method bias of measurement may limit the ability to accurately measure the construct
in a just world as they exist in the reality. Thus, further research need to measure CRP from
diverse perspectives such as principals and students. It can be possible to look at the
differences between teachers’ and the other school members’ perceptions of CRP.

Implication
Although this investigation was exploratory in nature, there are several important possible
implications from the findings in this study. The CRP instrument suggested a four-factor
structure of the construct of teacher’s culturally responsive practice. These factors included
emphasis on awareness and knowledge of multicultural education, as well as behaviors related
to collaboration, self-efficacy, participating in multiculturalism related programs, providing
support for parents, and working within the school as well as community context.
While this study focused on teachers already in the field, the findings related to the
CRPS instrument provide implications for training programs in education. Proponents of
culturally responsive practice have argued for a stronger emphasis on multicultural education
training as a necessary component to the values already placed on other teaching outcomes (i.e.,
students’ achievement test scores) in education training (Cochran-Smith, 2004a, 2004b).
The specific dimensions of the CRP scale also have several implications for training of
teachers entering the workforce. Training may seek to increase emphasis on student’s cultural
diversity awareness and knowledge of multiculturalism in society as well as include behavioral
markers in the community. Additionally, the forth factor, teacher efficacy, was conceptualized
as a more developed or advanced skill of teaching. Schools may seek to identify their teachers
who are engaging in the efforts to try new and better instructional strategies and consult with

39

these teachers for brainstorming ways to increase this behavior among other novice advocates
or beginning teachers.
In conclusion, this scale development research study introduced the Culturally
Responsive Practice Scale (CRPS) and sought to address the gap in the teacher field and
research regarding culturally responsive practice orientation South Korea. Scale development
procedures continue to increase within the field of psychology (Clark & Watson, 1995) and
psychological principals were considered when developing the CRPS as well as considering
validity relationships. It is the hope that the growing emphasis on the construct of culturally
responsiveness in teaching and learning process continues to be a focus in research, training
programs for fields such as school counseling and professional development programs, as well
as real practice.

40

CHAPTER 2.
STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIPS AMONG LEADERSHIP, ORGANIZATIONAL
LEARNING, AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE

Introduction
Researchers have urged attention to what makes it possible for schools to develop
culturally responsive practice (CRP), looking for answers beyond the input of quality
teachers or resources. This study aims to show how the CRP can be supported or facilitated
by school resources. Several authors (e.g., Johnson, 2007; Larson & Murtadha, 2005; Young,
2010) have focused their attention on analyzing whether specific leaders’ characteristics
influence the development of CRP, while others (e.g. Johnson, Møller, Pashiardis, Vedøy, &
Savvides, 2011; Ylimaki & Jacobson, 2013) have focused on the analysis of organizational
factors. This study highlights the simultaneous influence of both kinds of factors.
First, principals’ leadership has been emphasized as one of the most important
individual influences on school reforms, including improvements in teaching practice
(Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008b; Supovitz, Sirinides, & May, 2010), because leaders take
responsibility for all jobs within schools, and they can impact organizational culture, climate,
and conditions to improve schooling. It is well documented in the literature that effective
leadership by school principals is a crucial factor for teachers’ attitude and for improving
schools’ organizational capacity, regardless of national setting (Casavant & Cherkowski,
2001; Hallinger & Heck, 2010). Therefore, the investigation on school leadership is a vital
part of understanding school improvement. Over the decades various styles of principal
leadership have emerged. Among them, transformational and instructional leaderships have
consistently gotten attention from scholars (Hallinger, 2005). In particular, transformational
leadership is regarded as a prominent form of leadership. The ability to be a transformational
leader is undoubtedly important to being an effective administrator; however, without
considering teaching and learning practice in the classroom, it is not enough to create the

41

condition for sustained successful schools (Marks & Printy, 2003; Printy, Marks, & Bowers,
2009). In other words, while transformational leadership primarily focuses on developing
productive organizational cultures, instructional leadership usually deals with the teaching
profession of teachers, called the “core of schooling.” There is a sense that schools that
implement successful reform exhibit an “academic press” due to the instructional leadership
in the building or in the district (Hallinger, 2005). Compared to conventional instructional
leadership viewed as a top-down model, current instructional leadership is called shared
instructional leadership (Marks & Printy, 2003), which relates to instructional support for
teachers and teachers’ participation in the process of leadership.
Attention to the organizational influences on CRP is also important. Although several
organizational factors have been analyzed, scholars are paying growing attention to the
possibility that the collective capability of organizational learning plays a key role in
determining school reforms (Bui & Baruch, 2010; Schechter & Qadach, 2012).
Organizational learning regards teachers as active participants in the system, and it gives the
meaning of positive problem solver to each school. Having a strong organizational capacity (
Marks & Louis, 1999), a school can develop its shared framework for school reform under
rapid changes in population such as what Korea faces. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss
how teachers deal with diversity in their classrooms. In that way, organization learning may
have a potential to cope with the uncertainties occurring in schools. As shown above, in the
context of Korea, organizational learning might be treated as a crucial factor to deal with
challenges within schools. Specifically, Korean public schools implement teacher rotation,
which requires teachers to transfer to another school after working for a limited period of
time in one school. Every three to five years, teachers should move to a different school
within the city or province. In this regard, one school hardly develops and keeps its own

42

culture. Therefore, organizational learning that has a system to gather, store, and diffuse
information within one organization can be a useful concept in this setting (Schechter, 2007).
In this chapter, the purpose is to clarify the structural relationship needed to facilitate
the culturally responsive teaching of teachers. In order to test the mediating relationship, this
study will utilize structural equation modeling (described more in the methodology section).
Examining the mediated effect in structural equation modeling should be on the basis of
theoretical or practical evidence between conceptions to connect the relationship (Kline,
2005). Thus, in this section, I examine the connections between the constructs at the center of
this study: organizational learning, leadership, and CRP. Moreover, throughout the process
of examining relationship among variables, criterion-related validity might be tested as the
part of validating CRP developed in Chapter 1 (Han, 2017a).

Literature Review
The review of selected literature represents research from many authoritative sources
as it pertains to the relationship among organizational learning, principal leadership, and
culturally responsive practice (CRP). The review includes the historical background of these
three conceptions and a discussion of their philosophies and approaches. Specifically, the
need for organizational learning, its benefits and challenges, and the role that teachers and
administrators play in the learning process are presented. Then, the potential impact of
transformational and shared instructional leadership is examined. Moreover, in order to
develop validate? the scale of CRP, the concept of culturally responsive practice is reviewed
by focusing on its definition and features in a critical way. The review of the research is
focused on leadership influences on organizational learning that might, then, influence a
certain type of quality teaching practice.

43

In what follows in this chapter, I first discuss the meaning and application of each of
the three conceptions. Next, I examine the conceptual connections among concepts and
suggest the conceptual framework for understanding supportive school structure for
culturally responsive teaching. It should be noted that exceptions and complexities abound in
each conception. Despite this limitation, it will be helpful to identify the main defining
qualities of these varying conceptions and their underlying assumptions, so that the structural
model among them can be developed and then empirically tested and further explored.

Organizational Learning: Meaning and Application
Attention to the organizational influences on teaching practices is important.
Although several organizational factors have been analyzed, scholars are paying growing
attention to the possibility that the collective capability of organizational learning plays a key
role in determining school reforms (Bui & Baruch, 2010; Schechter & Qadach, 2012).
Organizational learning regards teachers as active participants in the system, and it gives the
meaning of positive problem solver to each school. Having strong organizational capacity
(Marks & Louis, 1999), schools can develop their shared framework for school reform under
rapid changes in the population. For example, in South Korea, once considered largely
homogeneous, the children of new immigrants – due primarily to migrant workers,
international marriages, and North Korean refugees – have entered Korean classrooms. Their
presence has presented teachers and administrators unaccustomed to diversity with new
challenges and uncertainties (Cho, 2010b). It is not surprising that their dropout rate is also
large because of not adjusting to their school and to poverty, which is growing, as reflected in
the trend over the past several years. Thus, it is necessary to discuss how teachers deal with
diversity in their classrooms. In that, organization learning may have a potential to cope with
the uncertainty occurring in schools.

44

As shown above, in the context of Korea, organizational learning might be treated as
a crucial factor to deal with challenges within schools. Specifically, Korean public schools
implement teacher rotation, which requires teachers to transfer to another school after
working for three to five years in one school within the city or province. In this regard, one
school hardly develops and keeps its own culture. Therefore, organizational learning that has
a system to gather, store, and diffuse information within one organization can be a useful
concept in this setting (Schechter, 2008).
Also, although schools have a principal with strong leadership to adjust to the
changeable environment, one may plausibly believe that this strong leader may not be very
effective; this is because several research studies have shown that schools are loosely coupled
organizations where formal structure and internal activities are often not closely connected
(Elmore, 2000; Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Weick, 1976). In other words, teachers working in
the isolated classroom may not be influenced by principals’ leadership behaviors. Thus, one
may reasonably expect the relationship between principals’ leadership and teaching practices
to be mediated by other factors; thus, I propose the importance of organizational learning.
In this section, I first describe how the organizational learning (OL) has been
conceptualized in educational field. Thereafter, I examine the potential of OL to help teachers
adjust to rapid change in school context.
Diverse approaches to organizational learning. The concept of organizational
learning has emerged within education to facilitate teachers’ and students’ learning in
schools. In this regard, in order for teachers to teach students adequately, they might be
involved in a continuous learning process focused on new and expansive patterns of thinking.
As Stoll (2009) pointed out, learning processes involve dialogue, allowing members of the
organization to connect, discuss, and debate. In essence, organizational learning is
“embedded in the deeply held beliefs and shared conceptualizations that develop among

45

members of the organization over time as particular understandings and practices evolve
through unconscious and regular interactions” (Supovitz, 2010). Organizational learning,
thus, involves social interaction and the social processing of knowledge (Marks & Louis,
1999), as individuals within the organization develop and share new knowledge and tools that
result in commonly held ideas or practices or collective learning.
A variety of research within school settings supports the concept of organizational
learning with diverse approaches: socio-cultural (Peck, Gallucci, Sloan, & Lippincott, 2009;
Silins & Mulford, 2002), school capacity (Marks & Louis, 1999; Silins, Mulford, & Zarins,
2002), single-double loop learning approach (Argyris & Schön, 1978), and organizational
mechanism (Elmore, 2000; Schechter, 2007).
Socio-cultural approach to organizational learning. With the socio-cultural view of
organizational learning, (Peck et al., 2009) examined how new knowledge and change occur
within communities of practice where learning is not separate from work. They indicated the
need to institutionalize structures that support adult learning, document what is learned, share
the learning across the system, and reallocate resources to support communities of practice.
Under the pressure to transform schools dealing with diversity, schools need to have a
capacity to engage in continuous learning as organizations (Hallinger & Heck, 1999). The
key factor of organizational learning is how to leverage and motivate the learning process and
practice at all levels in the organization. More intensively, the concept of organizational
learning is specifically related to the organizational climate, learning opportunities, and
collaborative work process (Senge, 2012; Watkins & Marsick, 1993).
Many scholars believe that organizational learning is more than just the sum of
individual learning that results in institutional memory at the organizational level (Supovitz,
2010). Organizational learning in schools has grown out of the desire to build school
environments in which participants learn how to learn together (Silins & Mulford, 2002). In

46

addition, organizational learning exploits what members have already learned as they work
together to innovate, and it allows members to become proactively engaged in problem
solving in the long term (Collinson, Cook, & Conley, 2006). In other words, organizational
learning is a system that creates new values and culture, which foster a sense of learning
among faculty members.
Organizational learning as school learning capacity. School learning capacity refers
to a set of conditions that enable teachers’ professional learning and that support teaching and
learning (Mulford & Silins, 2003). In other words, organizational learning in schools is a
collective competence to promote the teaching profession. Also, Silins et al. (2002) found
that organizational learning is evident in schools where teachers are open to feedback, discuss
their practice with colleagues, and are active in all levels of the school. Moreover, Watkins &
Marsick (1993) viewed organizational learning as one who has the capacity for integrating
people and structure to move an organization in the direction of continuous learning and
change. Thus, having collective learning relationships within schools has been identified as a
critical aspect of culture that supports improvement to cope with any risky situation, and it
enables teachers to be involved in the process of policy implementation.
In Marks and Louis (1999), school capacity for organizational learning has five
dimensions as components: structure, shared commitment and collaborative activity,
knowledge and skills, leadership, and feedback and accountability. Shared commitment and
collaborative activity especially emphasize the importance to develop school-wideknowledge processing that engages teachers as active members. In the same manner, (Louis,
Marks, & Kruse, 1996) argued that schools’ capacity for innovation and reform relies on their
ability to collectively process, understand, and apply knowledge about teaching and learning.
Therefore, schools need to establish their own capacity for teachers to think, share, and treat
information collectively in a consistent way (Kruse, 2003; Silins & Mulford, 2002).

47

Organizational learning as single and double loop learning. Debates on
organizational learning have also focused on the concepts of single and double-loop learning.
Argyris and Schon (1996) developed a theoretical model of organization learning that
distinguishes between single-loop learning and double-loop learning. Single-loop learning
refers to a lower level of learning (Fiol & Lyles, 1985) wherein individuals engage routinely
in adaptive problem-solving in which existing heuristics are applied to familiar contexts
(Morgan, 1998). Single-loop learning is relatively superficial and relies deeply on existing
organizational routines. The organization carries on its present policies without questioning
underlying values, norms, and policies (Argyris & Schön, 1978).
On the other hand, double-loop learning reflects a deeper exploration into the
underlying assumptions and beliefs in the organization (Argyris & Schön, 1978); Cousins,
1998). Double-loop learning refers to a higher-level of learning (Fiol & Lyles, 1985), in
which there is creative problem-finding, and in which existing heuristics are questioned or
modified as individuals face discontinuous change or deliberately engage in experimentation
(Morgan, 2006). Double-loop learning involves detecting and correcting errors within an
organization’s underlying norms, policies, and rules. Within the school context, double-loop
learning entails having both teachers and administrators examine values that guide their
behaviors on a day-to-day basis (Vooght, Lagerweij, & Louis, 1998).
As March (1991) distinguished exploitative and exploratory learning, a key
distinction is that single loop learning refers to incremental or routine changes, while double
loop learning refers to transformational or more radical change and innovation (EasterbySmith, Crossan, & Nicolini, 2000).
Organizational learning as mechanism. Organizational learning provides steady
opportunities to learn, work, and grow strategically to improve how the organization itself
responds to challenges. As a result, individuals, teams, and entire organizations can learn,

48

construct meaning, and transform on a continuous basis (Giles & Hargreaves, 2006;
Schechter, 2007). Furthermore, Elmore (2004) stated that in order for schools to keep up,
there needs to be a mechanism implemented through which new knowledge about teaching
and learning can enter schools, and structures or processes wherein teachers and
administrators can assimilate, adapt, and polish new ideas and practices.
In the same manner as Huber (1991), Schechter (2008), in developing the term of
organizational learning mechanism (OLM), suggested that enabling teachers to discuss
collectively avenues to improve teaching and learning requires a shift in how the whole
organization learns. Schechter’s OLM is an instrument designed for elementary schools to
assess where they are in their organizational learning cycles and to gauge their readiness for
becoming a learning organization. OLM measures school-level knowledge, as faculty
respond to items about indicators of organizational learning rather than about their own
individual learning (Schechter, 2008). Four subscales comprise the measure: (1) analyzing
information; (2) storing, retrieving, and putting information to use; (3) receiving and
disseminating information; and (4) seeking information. Schechter’s approach to designing
an organizational level measure is applicable to a culture of evidence measure. His study
suggested that the shift from top-down learning to organizational learning promotes the
concept of professional community. This in turn triggers more extensive and shared efficacy,
and internal motivation for teachers and the school as an organization (Schechter, 2008;
Schechter & Qadach, 2012). In sum, a mechanical approach to organizational learning refers
to the systemic process of collective learning within the organization.
The potential of OL to overcome the challenges in schools. In both U.S. and South
Korea, students are becoming more diverse in terms of their races and cultures. Once one
group is characterized as a multi-cultural group, it implies that it is not easy to be schooled in
one certain way or perspective, and it is necessary to discuss how teachers deal with diversity

49

in their classrooms. That is, current change in student population within classrooms can be
viewed as an uncertainty in the school organization. In this perspective, we need to discuss
how to deal with or reduce this uncertainty in schools.
In order to adjust to the changing environment and to make appropriate strategic
choices, organizations must not only become aware of on-going environmental changes (Hall
& Saias, 1980; Schechter & Qadach, 2012) but also make sense of the environment (Weick,
2000). Therefore, intensive activities helping the organization to learn from their experience
and to know their environment better can lead to more successful decisions regarding
operational practice. Specifically, in the case of classroom diversity, school members need to
recognize the change in their student population and the need to communicate at the
collective level; in turn, this discourse ultimately influences teaching practice. Also,
organizational renewal requires organizational knowledge to keep pace with changes in the
environment (Levinthal & March, 1993). Existing knowledge that can no longer
accommodate or explain events in the environment must be altered, and new understandings
of the environment must be developed for effective organizational adaptation (Daft & Weick,
1984).
In this study, organizational learning is defined as the process through which
organization members develop shared knowledge based on the analysis of the data gathered
from or provided by multiple sources, including the organizational members themselves.
Successful organizational learning depends on the acquisition and assimilation of new diverse
bases of knowledge for subsequent actions (Ghoshal, 1987).
Organizational members must invest efforts in developing their organizational
learning mechanism (OLM) aiming to revise and develop their knowledge by facilitating
collecting information, by analyzing information, by intensifying processes of information
storage and retrieval, and by receiving and disseminating information (Schechter, 2008;

50

Schechter & Qadach, 2012). According to Ghoshal (1987), in order to maximize its potential,
“the organization must consider learning as an explicit objective, and must create
mechanisms and systems for such learning to take place. In the absence of explicit intention
and appropriate mechanisms, the learning potential may be lost” (p. 432).
In sum, if the organizational learning mechanism provides organizations with the
relevant knowledge about their environment, a decrease in organization members’ sense of
uncertainty is to be expected. In other words, I believe that the higher the intensity of use of
organizational learning mechanism, the lower organization members’ sense of uncertainty
will be, including that teachers will actively make changes in students’ learning situations.

Principal Leadership: Leaders’ Role in a Shared Way
Principals’ leadership has been emphasized as one of the most important individual
influences on school reforms, including improvements in teaching practice(Leithwood,
Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004; Supovitz et al., 2010), because leaders take
responsibility for all jobs within schools, and they can impact organizational culture, climate,
and conditions to improve schooling. It is well documented in the literature that effective
leadership by school principals is a crucial factor for teachers’ attitudes and for improving
schools’ organizational capacity, regardless of national setting (Casavant & Cherkowski,
2001). Therefore, the investigation of school leadership is a vital part of understanding school
improvement.
Over the decades, various styles of principal leadership have emerged. Among them,
transformational leadership and instructional leadership have gotten consistent attention from
scholars (Philip Hallinger, 2005). In particular, transformational leadership is regarded as a
prominent form of leadership. The ability to be a transformational leader is undoubtedly
important to being an effective administrator; however, without considering teaching and

51

learning practice in the classroom it is not enough to create the condition for sustained
successful schools (Marks & Printy, 2003; Printy et al., 2009). There is a sense that schools
that implement successful reforms exhibit an “academic press” by performing instructional
supports in the building (Hallinger, 2005). Compared to conventional instructional leadership
viewed as a top-down model, current instructional leadership is called shared instructional
leadership (Marks & Printy, 2003), which relates to instructional supports for teachers and
teachers’ participation in the process of leadership.
In the following section, I would visit two distinct types of leadership, and I state the
nature of each type of leadership. Subsequently, I examine how two different types of
principal leadership influence organizational learning.
Transformational leadership. Extensive research on and literature in school
organization have suggested that the extent to which organizational learning and the teaching
profession are fostered and sustained in a school depends on principal leadership.
Some studies have examined the relationship between principal leadership and school
performance, including student outcomes (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2008; Leithwood et al.,
2004). As expected, these studies have confirmed that principal leadership contributes
positively to student achievement, not directly but through school organizational conditions
(e.g. organizational commitment, collective efficacy). A principal’s leadership has many
impacts on organizational factors including organizational learning in schools. Several
research projects on principal leadership have been studied from different perspectives, but
typical forms are transformational leadership and instructional leadership. Recently, there has
emerged additional approaches to leadership, such as shared leadership, integrated leadership,
and distributed leadership.
This study pursues the leadership that integrates the most significant role of the
managerial and instructional behavior of principals, considering their interactions with

52

teachers. In order to do this, I look at the most representative types of principal leadership,
which are transformational leadership and shared instructional leadership. James Burns was
the first scholar to employ the term transformational leadership. Bass extended Burns’ initial
introduction of transformational leadership. Burns and Bass studied political leaders, army
officers, and business executives (Bass, 1997). Leithwood and his colleagues extended the
study of transformational leadership into the field of education.
Leithwood and his colleagues have created the most fully developed model of
transformational leadership in schools. They have identified three categories of
transformational leadership. The first category is setting direction, which is evident in a
leader’s ability to build a vision, develop specific goals and priorities, and convey high
performance expectations (Leithwood & Jantzi, 1999b, 2006). The second category is
developing people, which includes providing intellectual stimulation, offering individualized
support, and modeling desirable professional practices and values. The final category is
redesigning the organization, which includes developing a collaborative school culture,
creating structures that foster participation in school decisions, and creating productive
community relationships.
Also, recent research consistently supports the positive effect of transformational
leadership on the diverse aspects of organizational outcomes in schools. Leithwood and
Jantzi (2006) showed the effect of transformational leadership on teachers, their classroom
practices, and student gains in literacy and numeracy in English elementary schools. They
found that the degree of transformational leadership explained the extent to which teachers
changed, but the extent of teacher change bore no relationship to students’ achievement gains
in either literacy or numeracy. This result means that transformational leadership is not
enough to improve students’ performance; so, mediating variables are needed to make better
models.

53

In conclusion, transformational leadership has shown several impacts on schools,
teachers, and even student achievement. However, transformational leadership shows a lack
of direct linkage with instruction, or with teaching and learning practices in each classroom
(Hallinger & Leithwood, 1998; Marks & Printy, 2003; Printy et al., 2009). Thus, recent
research suggests that sustained school improvement necessitates leadership that combines
transformational behaviors with instructional support (Hallinger, 2005; Marks & Printy,
2003).
Shared instructional leadership. Conventionally, instructional leadership has been
known to be a top-down approach to school leadership, through which the principal more
firmly direct teachers instructionally for the sake of continuity (Hallinger, 2005). According
to Hallinger (2005) instructional leadership has three dimensions for administrators to follow;
“defining the school’s or district’s mission, managing the instructional programs, and
promoting a positive learning climate.” However, characterized as a rational model of
leadership, the traditional view of instructional leadership may make reform difficult to
implement over time, given the complex nature of schools and school districts (Halliger,
2005).
Recent studies have also confirmed the importance of an academic focus that is
supportive rather than controlling. Instructional leaders may enhance the academic excellence
of their students by improving the quality and quantity of academic-oriented interactions
between teachers and students, but not by controlling and specifically directing the classroom
instruction of teachers (Alig-Mielcarek & Hoy, 2005). For instance, (Lee, Walker, & Chui,
2012) identified the distinction between supportive and controlling types of instructional
leadership behaviors. They indicated that where principals have adopted more instructional
management techniques, the relationship between student attachment and student learning is
stronger. On the other hand, in schools where principals have adopted greater levels of direct

54

supervision, the positive relationship between student attachment and student learning was
diminished. Thus, principals who encourage teachers to embrace new ideas and innovative
practices influence student learning by enhancing the positive school-related experiences of
teachers and students.
According to Marks and Printy (2003), instructional leadership emphasizes the
technical core of instruction, curriculum, and assessment, and it provides direction and affects
the routine activities of teachers and students in schools. They conceptualized a new version
of instructional leadership, called shared instructional leadership, in which the demands
placed on administrators as instructional leaders are shared or distributed across stakeholders.
Shared instructional leadership moves school members forward to accomplish school
goals and enact the vision. Shared instructional leadership, then, appears to be the model of
instructional leadership most useful to school reform. The common feature of debates on
instructional leadership that appears in the literature is its essential prioritization of student
learning by emphasizing and facilitating the classroom practices of teachers (Leithwood et
al., 2004).

Conceptual Framework: How They Work Together
The primary purpose of this study is to clarify the structural relationship needed to
facilitate the culturally responsive teaching of teachers. In order to test the mediating
relationship, this study will utilize structural equation modeling (described more in the
methodology chapter). Examining the mediated effect in structural equation modeling should
be on the basis of theoretical or practical evidence between conceptions to connect the
relationship. Thus, in this section, I examine the connections between the conceptions that
this study is mainly dealing with.

55

How leadership influence organizational learning. The literature on school
effectiveness and improvement has stressed the role of school principals as the most
important factor to enhance the quality of schooling (Copland, 2003; Hallinger & Heck,
1996). However, it also notes that sustainable school reform cannot be accomplished by a
single leader (Harris, 2003; Leithwood et al., 2007; Muijs & Harris, 2003); Spillane, 2006).
In this regard, the discourse of a shared form of leadership research has gained popularity
with practitioners, educators, scholars, and policy makers (Harris, 2003; Leithwood et al.,
2007) to achieve school goals, to build organizational capacity, and to improve teaching and
learning through the participation and empowerment of teachers (Hatcher, 2005).
Several scholars have revealed a relationship between principal leadership and
organizational learning (Collinson et al., 2006; Marks & Louis, 1999). Leadership that is
democratic (also referred to as distributed or shared) has been found to be an important
condition for learning to occur (Collinson, et al 2006). Also, Leithwood and his colleagues
(1998) found that transformational leadership is closely linked to organizational learning, as
school leaders clearly communicate their vision and expectations, helping to strengthen the
culture and providing structures to support learning throughout the school organization.
In addition, Silins and Mulford (2002) found significant contributions of
transformational leadership to both student and organizational learning in schools. To be
specific, this research showed that student outcomes are more likely to improve where
leadership sources are distributed throughout the school community, and where teachers are
empowered in areas of importance to them. The best leadership for organizational learning is
a principal skilled in transformational leadership, and administrators and teachers who are
actively involved in the core work of the school (Silins & Mulford, 2002).
All these studies above establish a link between principal transformational and
instructional leadership behaviors, and organizational learning. Additionally, some studies

56

conducted by Leithwood, Spillane, and their colleagues (2007) highlight the importance of
the shared form of leadership in fostering organizational learning for improving school
performance. As reviewed above, even though some research has revealed the effect of
certain leadership on organizational learning, there is less research that links these two types
of leadership of school principals comprehensively with organizational learning.
Principal leadership to improve teaching quality. Although related studies usually
have focused on the general terms of teaching quality or teaching practice, but not on the
specific type of instructional practice, defining and measuring teachers’ instruction has no
consensus among scholars: it is definitely difficult and complicated. Considering this
limitation, this study regards culturally responsive teaching as a type of quality teaching
practice.
Many scholars have reported that principals’ strong leadership influences instructional
performance (Camburn & Han, 2009; P. Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Marzano, Waters, &
McNulty, 2005; Stoll & Louis, 2007). In order to lead school improvement, the principal
needs to be an instructional leader and a transformational leader at the same time (Marks &
Printy 2003). Transformational leadership is necessary to facilitate instructional leadership.
The need to be transformational is especially critical in turning around low performing
schools. Many urban schools are under-performing and are in need of leadership that is
innovative and capable of reforming schools. However, transformational leadership itself is
not enough to influence teaching practice significantly. For example, in (Thoonen, Sleegers,
Oort, & Peetsma, 2012) study on the relationship between transformational leadership and
classroom teaching practices among elementary school teachers, they found that overall the
principal’s transformational leadership behaviors directly affect the degree to which teachers
engage in certain professional learning behaviors. However, while the principal’s intellectual
stimulation of creativity and innovation improve teachers to keep up-to-date with changes in

57

their practice, the principal’s vision building behaviors associated with setting collective
goals and directions has had negative effects on keeping up-to-date. Similarly, the principal’s
individualized support of teachers has negative effects on those teachers’ desires to
experiment and reflect on their practice. These findings imply that transformational
leadership has a limitation in enhancing the teaching profession. We know that in order to
turn around low performing schools, strong leadership focused on instructional improvement
is essential (Resnick & Glennan, 2002). This indicates the needs to the call for instructional
leadership to influence teaching practice of individual teachers. Moreover, the process for
impacting teaching practice through principal leadership is not simple but complicated. In
other words, although the impact of principal leadership has been supported by literatures,
recent studies have indicated that more dynamic interaction happens in these influences.
More specifically, in the Hallinger and Heck’s (2005) meta-analysis of the principal’s
role in enhancing student achievement, they employed Pitner’s (1988) models to describe
how the principal plays a role in student performance: direct-effects, antecedent-effects,
mediated-effects, reciprocal-effects, and moderated-effects models. Among Pitner’s models,
the one which best characterizes the direction of this research is referred to as the mediatedeffects with reciprocal-effects. Although there are some research studies of the direct impact
of principal leadership on student achievement, recent studies (Heck & Hallinger, 1996;
Marzano, et al., 2005) have contended that their impact is more indirect and more complex.
In other words, as examined above, there are organizational factors to mediate the impact of
leadership on student achievement; also there might be individual factors to transfer this
influence to student performance. For example, Marzano et al., (2005) stated that an effective
leader builds a culture that positively influences teachers, who in turn positively influence
students. Therefore, this study assumes that although principal leadership has a positive

58

impact on student work, it is not a sole impact but needs to have a mediator such as
organizational learning and the teaching practice of teachers.
Improving teaching quality throughout teacher learning process. At its core, the
concept of organizational learning rests on the premise of improving student learning by
developing teachers’ competence. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the connections between
organizational learning and teachers’ instructional practices. (Darling-Hammond &
McLaughlin, 1995) suggested that in order to help teachers rethink their teaching practice,
professional development is needed that involves teachers in both capacities of teaching and
learning, and that creates new visions of what, when, and how teacher have to learn. Of
course, throughout professional development as a formal type of training teachers can
develop their capacity to learn in terms of teaching practices. However, whenever certain
kinds of skills or competences are needed by either of policy, the school environment, or
social pressure, it is not easy to find appropriate professional development for them. Rather,
if there is a mechanism or capacity to learn within a school, teachers are more likely to learn
new demanded skills and to think reflectively on their teaching. As teachers work together,
they develop shared understandings of the level of effort, commitment, and professionalism
that they expect of each other. According to (Kruse, Louis, & Bryk, 1994), a strong collective
focus on student learning is not enforced by rule but by mutually felt obligations to standards
of instruction and learning. In other words, teachers act according to their professional rules
and duties, which organizational learning emphasizes.
In terms of managing uncertainty in classrooms, organizational learning also supports
culturally responsive teaching. In the process of teaching practice, teachers face a variety of
uncertainties in their classrooms. Instructional practice, originally, is context-specific and
situated-complexities, so that it cannot be explained in one certain way (Lampert, 2001;

59

Munthe, 2003). Under current changes in student population especially, teachers are more
likely to be confronted with unexpected realities.
Such uncertainties tend to lead teachers to think in ways to avoid them instead of
overcoming or challenging them. More specifically, teachers surrounded by uncertainties or
unexpected circumstance are less likely to try an effort to adapt new strategies, and they are
more likely to devalue diversity in students, so that they are more likely to stay away from
uncertainties. In that, starting from the negative image of the term of uncertainty, combined
with actual difficulties in classroom realities, there is an increasing tendency for teachers to
avoid uncertainties. In this regard, organizational learning as a sense-making process allows
teachers to recognize that uncertainties in teaching practices inherently and inevitably occur,
and to understand that they are able to control and treat the unexpected with colleagues in
schools. In particular, sense-making by organizational learning can reduce the distance
between the phenomenon and teachers’ belief (Weick, 1995).
In sum, the central logic in the organizational learning literature is useful for
understanding how it improves teaching practices. However, the literature on organizational
learning rarely points to the possibility of the effect of organizational learning on culturally
responsive teaching explicitly. Nevertheless, throughout the above literature, the benefits of
organizational learning to support culturally responsive teaching can be drawn. In other
words, culturally responsive teaching necessitates having an open-mind to changes in the
context in which students have a variety of cultural background; the open-mind set allows
teachers to share their practice with other teachers. Moreover, in order to deal with challenges
confronted by individual teachers who are supposed to use culturally responsive teaching, it
is crucial to have a collective endeavor that embraces all related stakeholders in instructional
practices: Well-functioning organizational learning enhances the individual and the collective

60

responsibility that teachers accept for student learning. Hence, organizational learning may
have a positive and stable effect on facilitating culturally responsive teaching.
As shown above, previous research studies have consistently emphasized the positive
impact of principal leadership and organizational learning on teaching profession.
However, these studies usually have focused on general terms of teaching quality or teaching
practice, but not on certain types of instructional practice. In other words, defining and
measuring teachers’ instruction has no consensus among scholars: it is difficult and
complicated. Considering this limitation, this study regards culturally responsive teaching as
a type of quality teaching practice.
This study, while pointing out teachers’ multicultural competence as the crucial factor
in the teaching process, follows the assumption that educators’ understanding and application
of culturally responsive practice have positively influenced student achievement and
performance. Most of recent research on the effects of leadership have been guided by
complex causal models including mediators (Leithwood & Mascall, 2008). This study also
aimed to explain the indirect impact of leadership on teachers’ culturally responsive practice
by using organizational learning as a mediator. Thus, based on the literature review, this
study suggests the conceptual model for stating the relationship among transformational
leadership, shared instructional leadership, organizational learning, and culturally responsive
practice, as shown in Figure 2-1.

61

Figure 2-1. Conceptual Model for the Study
The present study aims to examine the structural relationships among
transformational leadership, shared instructional leadership, organizational learning, and
culturally responsive practice. In addition, this study intends to verify the mediating role of
organizational learning between principal leadership and culturally responsive practice.
Therefore, the focus of this study is presented by the following set of hypotheses.

Hypothesis 1. The hypothesized structural model explaining the causal relationships
among transformational leadership, shared instructional leadership, organizational learning
and culturally responsive practice will be valid.
Hypothesis 2-1. Transformational leadership will have a positive effect on culturally
responsive practice.
Hypothesis 2-2. Transformational leadership will have a positive effect on
organizational learning.
Hypothesis 2-3. Shared instructional leadership will have a positive effect on
culturally responsive practice.

62

Hypothesis 2-4. Shared instructional leadership will have a positive effect on
organizational learning.
Hypothesis 2-5. Organizational learning will have a positive effect on culturally
responsive practice.
Hypothesis 3. Organizational learning will mediate the relationship between principal
leadership and culturally responsive practice.

Methodology

Sample
The sample in this study was selected from a population of teachers in South Korea.
Specifically, the convenience sample for this study consisted of 425 secondary school
teachers from 24 secondary schools in Seoul, Gyeonggi province, Incheon, and Gyungsang
province. The reason why these areas are selected is that the population of multicultural
students in these four regions is listed on the highest proposition among all over the regions
in South Korea. Of the respondents, 67.53% were women, and 32.47% were men. Also,
15.6% of respondents were in twenties, 41.6% in thirties, 25.6% in forties, 16.1% in fifties,
and only 1.4% were in sixties. As for the years of experience, 13.3% had less than 6 years,
46.5% had more than 6 but less than 10 years, 20.1% had more than 11 but less than 15 years,
9.5% had more than 16 but less than 20 years, 7.8% had more than 21 but less than 25 years,
2.8% had more than 26 years of experience of teaching.

Measures: Latent Factors and Indicators
Prior to conducting the factor analysis, items for the survey were selected to represent the
constructs based on previous theory and empirical evidence (See Han, 2017a). Each question

63

was scored by a 5-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree). The proposed measurement models for the latent factors follow below.
Table 2-1. Demographic Characteristics of Samples
Category

Frequency

Percentage (%)

Gender

Female
Male

284
138

67.53
32.47

Age

20 – 29 years
30 – 39 years
40 – 49 years
50 – 59 years
60 + years

66
174
108
68
6

15.6
41.2
25.6
16.1
1.4

Experience

1 -5 years
6 – 10 years
11 – 15 years
16 – 20 years
21 – 25 years
26 + years

56
196
85
40
33
12

13.3
46.5
20.1
9.5
7.8
2.8

Education Degree

Undergraduate
Graduate

305
117

74.2
25.8

Determinants of organizational learning mechanism. Organizational learning
mechanism is defined as the degree to which teachers have a learning cycle within their
schools. In this study, this construct is treated as a latent factor with effect indicators, that is,
the latent factor explains variance in the measured indicator variables. As depicted in the
proposed measurement model (see Figure 1 below), the determinants of the organizational
learning mechanism are analyzing information, storing-retrieving-putting to information to
use, receiving-disseminating information, and seeking information (Schechter 2008, 2012).

64

Figure 2-2. Proposed Measurement Model of Organizational Learning Mechanism

Determinants of leadership. In this study, there are two constructs leadership:
transformational leadership and shared instructional leadership. Transformational leadership
refers to a process that brings substantial changes in the attitudes and faith of school
members, and fundamentally contributes to high levels of participants’ commitment to the
organizational goals (Leithwood, Jantzi, & Steinbach, 1999; Ro, 1994). The determinants of
transformational leadership are leading change, developing a shared vision, and respecting
individual teachers. In addition, shared instructional leadership is defined as the degree to
which “principals and teachers mutually influence curriculum, instruction, and assessment
(Printy et al., 2009).” The determinants of shared instructional leadership are principal
instructional leadership, teacher instructional leadership, and principal and teacher’s mutual
influence on matters of instruction, curriculum, and assessment.

65

Figure 2-3. Proposed Measurement Model of Leadership

Determinants of culturally responsive practice. Culturally responsive practice is a
construct that represents the degree to which teachers are aware of students’ diversity and are
ready to use teaching methods in a culturally responsive way. In the analysis, this construct is
treated as a latent factor with multiple effect indicators, implying that the latent factor
explains variance in the measured indicators. As depicted in the proposed measurement
model, the determinants of culturally responsive practice are acknowledging family
background, recognizing student diversity, teachers’ teaching efficacy, and application.

Figure 2-4. Proposed Measurement Model of Culturally Responsive Practice

66

Validation of Scales
This study conducted two factor analyses to test the reliability and validity of the scales:
First, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was run to extract a set of factors, test stability of
the factor structure of the scales, and check that all items loaded on the appropriate factor. In
this phase, common factors were extracted by Principal Component Analysis and Varimax
Orthogonal Rotation. The number of factors was fixed as originally suggested in scale
development studies, and in order to assess internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha coefficient
was used.
Second, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed using structural
equation modeling (SEM). The purpose of CFA is to check whether the proposed factor
structure and scale appropriately represents the reality. In this phase, the goodness of fit
indices such as

/df, RMSEA, NFI, TLI, CFI were used to assess factor structure model fit

and determine the availability of the scales.
Validity is also an important factor in establishing the psychometric properties of a
measurement. Validity examines whether a test measures what it purports to measure (Salvia
& Yessldyke, 2007). Especially, the study in this part extends the research reported in
Chapter 1 by providing further evidence of the Culturally responsive practice scale’s validity.
Specifically, this study seeks to provide evidence of criterion-related validity; criterionrelated validity pertains to the relationship between a measure and another independent
measure. There is evidence of criterion-related validity when a measure (or independent
variable) is associated with an outcome variable (or dependent variable) in logical way. This
study reported in this chapter tests criterion-related validity by determining if self-reports of
CRP is associated with other school organizational variables such as organizational learning
and principal leadership.

67

Explanatory Factor Analysis
Organizational learning. Four factors were extracted for organizational learning as
expected except OL4_1: 4 items for OL1, 3 items for OL2, 3 items for OL3, and 2 items for
OL4. Factor loadings of items were high ranging between .57 and .81, and the communalities
of all factors were above .5, which were considered somehow high. All of four factors
explained 70.3% of the variance and the result of EFA for organizational learning are shown
in Table 2-2 in detail.
Table 2-2 Organizational Learning Factor Matrix
Item Number

Factor1

Factor2

Factor3

Factor4

OL3_2

.805

.124

.231

.132

OL3_1

.751

.096

.248

.238

OL3_3

.727

.181

.059

.363

OL4_1

.570

.188

.113

.489

OL1_1

.206

.808

.098

-.063

OL1_2

.086

.780

.207

.240

OL1_3

.089

.700

.230

.287

OL2_3

.079

.024

.790

.346

OL2_1

.257

.320

.737

.051

OL2_2

.281

.385

.690

.040

OL4_2

.310

.184

.145

.789

OL4_3

.339

.118

.200

.726

Eigenvalue
Explained Variance

5.27
20.72

1.48
17.86

1.05
16.17

.936
15.52

Accumulated
variance

20.72

38.58

54.75

70.27

After removing OL4_1 extracted in different factor from the original design, four
factors for organizational learning were extracted again. Overall factor loadings of the scale
ranged between .70 and .81. The communalities of all factors above .5, and alpha coefficient
was .91. The four factors explained 71.9% of the variance, and Table 2-3 shows the result of
EFA for organizational learning in detail.

68

Table 2-3 Revised Organizational Learning Factor Matrix
Item Number

Factor1

Factor2

Factor3

Factor4

OL3_2

.810

.130

.229

.142

OL3_1

.766

.103

.232

.261

OL3_3

.730

.191

.061

.362

OL1_1

.206

.808

.103

-.065

OL1_2

.081

.782

.211

.235

OL1_3

.084

.701

.237

.280

OL2_3

.086

.021

.769

.375

OL2_1

.236

.311

.759

.039

OL2_2

.267

.377

.704

.037

OL4_2

.315

.197

.134

.794

OL4_3

.344

.130

.188

.733

Eigenvalue

4.83

1.41

1.04

1.01

Explained Variance

19.86

17.86

16.17

15.52

Accumulated
variance

19.86

39.09

56.70

71.88

Transformational leadership. Three factors were extracted for transformational
leadership: Factor 1 included 4 items for leading change; factor 2 included 3 items for
Developing shared vision,; factor 3 included 3 items for respecting for individual teacher.
This resultant factor structure was consistent with what was originally identified in earlier
work (Ro, 1998), in which all items tapping three facets of transformational leadership loaded high on one factor. Overall factor loadings of transformation leadership scale ranged
between .71 and .84. The communalities of all factors above .5, and alpha coefficient was
.91. The three factors explained 73.8% of the variance, and Table 2-4 shows the result of
EFA for transformational leadership in detail.

69

Table 2-4. Transformational Leadership Factor Matrix
Item Number

Factor 1

Factor 2

Factor 3

TL1

.839

.140

.197

TL2

.835

.221

.044

TL3

.825

.227

.223

TL4

.810

.246

.139

TL5

.228

.753

.170

TL6

.058

.727

.318

TL7

.313

.814

.040

TL8

.171

.288

.796

TL9

.452

-.005

.753

TL10

.088

.523

.713

Eigenvalue

4.17

1.81

1.40

Explained Variance

41.72

18.05

14.00

Accumulated Variance

41.72

59.77

73.77

Shared instructional leadership. Three factors were extracted for shared
instructional leadership: Factor 1 included 7 items for principal instructional leadership;
factor 2 included 7 items for teacher instructional leadership; and factor 3 included 4 items
for mutual influence on instructional work. This resultant factor structure was inconsistent
with what was originally identified in earlier work; however, some items showed low factor
loadings, which need to be removed from the scale.
Table 2-5. Shared Instructional Leadership Factor Matrix (Initial)
Item Number
Factor 1
Factor 2
SIL3
.787
.047
SIL6
.776
.146
SIL1
.758
.166
SIL9
.683
.361
SIL8
.582
.556
.545
.236
SIL5
SIL2
.467
.040
SIL14
.177
.765
SIL15
.083
.735
SIL13
.227
.665
SIL7
.409
.606
SIL11
.447
.602
SIL12
.539
.558
70

Factor 3
.108
.147
.211
-.084
.023
.279
.165
.174
.257
.189
.058
.071
.012

Table 2-5. (cont’d)
SIL4
SIL16
SIL17
SIL18
SIL10
Eigenvalue
Explained Variance
Accumulated Variance

-.047
.088
.338
.216
.003
6.60
22.42
22.42

.301
.273
.086
.088
.308
1.66
19.07
41.49

.202
.767
.756
.753
.376
1.44
12.42
53.91

After removing items with low factor loadings, three factors for shared instructional
leadership were extracted again. Overall factor loadings of the scale ranged between .59 and
.80. The communalities of all factors above .5, and alpha coefficient was .89. The three
factors explained 60.1% of the variance, and Table 2-6 shows the result of EFA for shared
instructional leadership in detail.
Table 2-6. Shared Instructional Leadership Factor Matrix (Revised)
Item Number
Factor 1
Factor 2
SIL14
.800
.086
SIL15
.765
.012
.712
.217
SIL13
SIL11
.634
.435
SIL7
.630
.328
SIL12
.589
.464
SIL3
SIL6
SIL1
SIL5
SIL2
SIL17
SIL18
SIL16
Eigenvalue
Explained Variance
Accumulated Variance

.117
.222
.235
.299
.077
.114
.110
.279
5.53
22.80
22.80

.802
.781
.768
.569
.485
.298
.180
.060
1.48
22.11
44.91

Factor 3
.203
.258
.128
.035
.096
.044
.076
.116
.176
.224
.142
.797
.792
.779
.140
15.19
60.10

Culturally responsive practice. Four factors were extracted for culturally responsive
practice: Factor 1 included 4 items for acknowledging family background; factor 2 included 4
items for recognizing student diversity; factor 3 included 4 items for teaching efficacy; and

71

factor 4 included 4 items for teaching application. This resultant factor structure was
consistent with what was originally designed in this study.

Table 2-7. Culturally Responsive Practice Factor Matrix
Item Number

Factor1

Factor2

Factor3

Factor4

CRP1_1

.776

.227

-.044

.126

CRP1_3

.710

-.025

.223

.158

CRP1_4

.547

-.007

.064

.103

CRP1_2

.532

.363

.082

.175

CRP4_3

.242

.752

. 022

-.087

CRP4_2

.292

.578

.427

-.076

CRP4_1

.488

.563

.350

-.094

CRP4_4

.225

.548

.074

-.220

CRP3_4

.032

-.019

.804

.170

CRP3_2

-.002

.069

.745

.265

CRP3_3

.013

.079

.743

.258

CRP3_1

.012

.111

.672

.254

CRP2_3

.306

-.032

.157

.678

CRP2_2

.041

-.017

.337

.646

CRP2_4

.260

.424

-.020

.624

CRP2_1

.476

.333

-.045

.516

Eigenvalue
Explained Variance

4.78
16.45

1.70
16.07

1.43
13.04

1.26
11.72

Accumulated variance

16.45

32.52

45.56

57.28

Confirmatory Factor Analysis
In order to explore the answers to research questions and test the hypotheses, the collected
data was analyzed in different ways depending on each hypothesis. The statistical analyses
were conducted in two steps as follows:

72

First, correlation analysis was employed to see the relations among the three latent
variables by SPSS 21.0 Statistics.
Second, in order to examine the comprehensive relationships among the three
constructs, SEM (structural equation modeling) was employed by AMOS 20.0. SEM
incorporates the psychometric notion of unobserved variables and measurement error in the
estimation procedure, so that it is possible to estimate multiple and interrelated dependence
relationships as well as achieve more reliable and heuristic analysis (Fornell & Larcker,
1981). In this process, the goodness of model fit indices for hypothesized model were
computed, which determined whether the hypothesized model grounded on the previous
studies was acceptable. Then, direct, indirect and total effects among the four variables were
analyzed to identify the mediating effect of organizational learning between leadership of
principal and teacher CRP.
Third, to verify the significance of these direct, indirect, and total effects,
bootstrapping was employed. Additionally, to test whether the mediation of organizational
learning was full or only partial, an alternative model was proposed; then,
was performed.

73

difference test

Analysis and Results

Correlations of the Variables
Correlation analysis was run to test the relationships among all dimensions subsumed
in four latent variables. In this process, Pearson correlation coefficients and p-value were
computed. The results are described in Table 2-8. By and large, significant and positive
correlations were found between almost all dimensions. There were significant and positive
correlations between two dimensions of transformational leadership and culturally responsive
practice (r = .268 ~ .352), but correlations between one dimension of transformational
leadership (TL2; developing shared vision) and culturally responsive practice were relatively
low (r = .082 ~ .200).
There were significant and positive correlations between three dimensions of shared
instructional leadership and four dimensions of CRP (r = .195 ~ .362). In particular, ‘mutual
influence on instructional work’ of shared instructional leadership and ‘recognizing student
diversity’ of CRP showed relatively strong correlation (r = .362, p <. 01). Meanwhile,
‘principal instructional leadership’ of shared instructional leadership had a relatively lower
level of correlation with ‘recognizing student diversity’ of CRP (r = .195, p < .01).
The correlations between transformational leadership and shared instructional
leadership were statistically positive and significant (r = .322 ~ .461). Especially the
relationship between TL1 of transformational leadership which consisted of items on leading
change and SIL1 of shared instructional leadership was strong (r = .461, p < .01). On the
other hand, TL2 of transformational leadership which included items on developing shared
vision had relatively lower relationship with SIL3 of SIL (r = .322, p < .01), but overall
higher coefficient loadings were shown that other correlations.

74

Table 2-8. Correlations among Variables
CRP1
CRP2 CRP3 CRP4
1
CRP1

TL1

TL2

TL3

SIL1

SIL2

SIL3

OL1

OL2

OL3

CRP2

.500**

1

CRP3

.360**

.441**

1

CRP4

.464**

.365**

.493**

1

TL1

.303**

.352**

.287**

.238**

1

TL2

.082

.200**

.209**

.087

.759**

TL3

.268**

.286**

.281**

.284**

.551** .599**

SIL1

.195**

.202**

.224**

.254**

.461**

.374**

.344**

1

SIL2
SIL3

.253**
.348**
.341**

.204**
.280**
.220**

.288**
.293**
.235**

.446** .324**
.421** .322**
.409** .288**

.398**
.345**
.279**

.622**
.424**
.347**

.447**

1

OL1

.300**
.362**
.360**

.372**

.322**

1

OL2

.356**

.368**

.256**

.285**

.444**

.307**

.327**

.221**

.294**

.381**

.529**

OL3

.347**

.403**

.219**

.230**

.403** .253**

.235**

.277**

.334**

.282**

.407** .501**

OL4

.322**

.341**

.216**

.190**

.422**

.279**

.248**

.283**

.292**

.425**

OL4

1

.276**

1

CRP: Culturally responsive practice
CRP1: Recognizing student diversity
CRP3: Teacher efficacy
CRP2: Acknowledging family background CRP4: Teaching application
OL: Organizational learning
OL1: Analyzing information OL3: Receiving-Disseminating information
OL2: Storing-Retrieving-Putting information OL4: Seeking information
*p < .05, **p < .01

75

1

1
.496**

1
.689**

1

TL: Transformational leadership
TL1: Leading change TL3: Respecting for individual teacher
TL2: Developing shared vision
SIL: Shared instructional leadership
SIL1: Principal instructional leadership SIL3: Mutual influence
on instructional work
SIL2: Teacher instructional leadership

There were significant and positive correlations between organizational learning and
culturally responsive practice (r = .190 ~ .403). Especially the relationship between OL3 of
organizational learning which consisted of items on receiving-disseminating information and
CRP2 of culturally responsive practice was strong (r = .403, p < .01). On the other hand, OL4
of OL which included items on teaching application had relatively lower relationship with
CRP4 of CRP (r = .261, p < .01).
The correlations between shared instructional leadership and organizational learning
were statistically positive and significant (r = .221 ~ .381). Especially the relationship
between OL2 of OL which consisted of items on storing-retrieving-putting information and
SIL3 of shared instructional leadership was strong (r = .381, p < .01). On the other hand, OL2
of OL which included items on storing-retrieving-putting information had relatively lower
relationship with SIL1 of shared instructional leadership (r = .221, p < .01).
In conclusion, almost all of observable variables of four latent variables,
transformational leadership, shared instructional leadership, organizational learning and
culturally responsive practice showed significant and positive correlations, which is
consistent with the direction of the hypotheses of this study.

Testing Validity for CRP: Criterion-Related Validity
As a part of the process for verifying validity of the new scale, this chapter provides
evidence for criterion-related validity. To explore evidence for criterion validity and to test
hypothesis 4, the results of correlations among variables were examined All four of the
relevant correlations were significant (see Table 2-8). Participants’ reports of their CRP were
positively associated with shared instructional leadership, r = .195 ~ .362, p < .001. Also,
CRP were positively associated with transformational leadership, r = .082 ~ .352, p < .001.
Finally, CRP was positively correlated to organizational learning, r = .190 ~ .403, p < .001.

76

As a result, it has been found that CRP also has a similar relationship with the school
organizational variables that have been proven to have a positive relationship with teaching
quality (Camburn & Han, 2009; Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Hallinger & Heck,
1996; Kruse et al., 1994; Marzano et al., 2005; Stoll & Louis, 2007) in the previous studies.
In that, the result of testing the relationship between CRP as teaching quality and school
organizational variables is consistent with the prior research. Thus, hypothesis 4 is fully
supported and evidence for criterion-related validation is obtained.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis
In order to confirm the reliability of the hypothesized factor structure, the goodness of
model fit indices were evaluated. For the factor structure to be determined as a good model,
comparative fit index (CFI), normed fit index (NFI), and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) ought to
be greater than .90; the value of the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) to be
lower than .08 (Kline, 2005). The acceptable ratio of

/df, which is commonly used as an

alternative fit index, ranges from 2 to 3. Transformational leadership and shared instructional
leadership, having three observed variables respectively, became saturated models2; thus, the
goodness of model fit indices could not be yielded.
The hypothesized measurement model in which all of four latent variables were
entered was performed. The result showed the following goodness of fit:

/df = 2.43, CFI =

.977, NFI = .962, TLI = .965, RMSEA = .067. Overall model fit, meeting the standard of
good fit, indicated that the measurement model was reasonably acceptable. The revised
measurement model is illustrated in Figure 2-5 and the results of CFA for the revised
measurement model are summarized in Table 2-9.

2

Saturated model is the trivial but fully explanatory model in which there are as many parameter estimates as degrees of freedom. The
model constructed less than 4 observed variables becomes saturated model. Most goodness of fit measures will be 1.0 for a saturated model,
but since saturated models are the most un-parsimonious models possible, parsimony-based goodness of fit measures will be 0. Some
measures, like GFI, NFI, RMR, TLI, RMSEA, cannot be computed for the saturated model. Thus, to yield goodness of model fit indices at
least more than 4 observed variables are needed (Lee, 1990).

77

Table 2-9. Measurement Model Fit Indices
p
CFI
Model
/df
Standard of
3>
.90<
Good Fit
Hypothesized 2.45
.000
.977
Model

NFI
.90<

TLI
.90<

RMSEA
.80>

.962

.965

.067

Structural Model Fit Assessment
To test the hypothesized model which builds on previous research, the model fit
indices were computed. The hypothesized model proposed that principal leadership would
have a relationship with organizational learning and that organizational learning would have
a relationship with culturally responsive practice. This full structural model in this study
consisted of four latent variables, 14 observed variables and 16 error terms. The fit indices
calculated in this model were fairly acceptable:

/df = 2.19, NFI = .976, TLI=.954, CFI =

.972, RMSEA = .057, p < .001. Overall, the hypothesized model showed a good fit to the
data itself meeting the standard.

Figure 2-5. Measurement Model for the Study
78

This result indicated that the hypothesized structural model was a good model, which
resultantly supported hypothesis 1 that structural equational model explaining the causal
relationship among transformational leadership, shared instructional leadership,
organizational learning, and culturally responsive practice will be valid. The model fit indices
for the hypothesized model are presented in Table 2-10.

Table 2-10. Structural Model Fit Indices
Model
Standard of
Good Fit
Hypothesized
Model

/df
3>

p

2.193

.000

CFI

NFI

TLI

RMSEA

.90<

.90<

.90<

.80>

.972

.976

.954

.057

The Relationships among Variables
To examine the relationships among transformational leadership, shared instructional
leadership, organizational learning and culturally responsive practice and test the related
hypotheses, the path coefficients (standardized estimates) with standard error and critical
ratio were calculated.
The results showed that four out of five initially hypothesized paths were statistically
significant at p < .001. One path (Transformational leadership → Culturally responsive
practice) was not validated due to the nonsignificant path coefficient of -.03 at p = .396.
More specifically, transformational leadership was found to have significant positive
effects on organizational learning with a standardized path coefficients of .35, which
supported hypothesis 2-1. In addition, organizational learning had a significant and positive
standardized path coefficient of .45 at p < .001, which also supported Hypothesis 3. However,
the relationship between transformational leadership and culturally responsive practice was
found to be nonsignificant with the standardized path coefficient of .03, which failed to
support hypothesis 2-1. The results of SEM are presented in Table 2-11 and Figure 2-6.

79

Table 2-11. Hypothesized Paths for the Model
The Hypothesized Paths

Standardized
Estimates

S. E.

C. R.

P

Culturally Responsive Practice
Transformational Leadership

-.03

.060

-.849

.396

Organizational Learning
Transformational Leadership

.35**

.030

4.955

***

Organizational Learning
Shared Instructional Leadership

.34**

.065

3.738

***

Culturally Responsive Practice
Shared Instructional Leadership

.33**

.136

3.333

***

Culturally Responsive Practice
Organizational Learning

.45**

.164

5.703

***

Figure 2-6. Standardized Path Coefficients of the Structural Model

Mediating Effects of OL
Mediating effect in a structural model can be identified by decomposing total effects
among the variables into direct and indirect effects. A direct effect is the effect of the
independent variable on a dependent variable without any mediator. On the other hand,
indirect effect is the effect of the independent variable on dependent variable through one or

80

more mediators; in this regard, the indirect effect is also termed the mediation or mediating
effect (Kline, 2005). Total effects are the aggregation of direct and indirect effects of an
independent variable on a dependent variable.
In this study, to test the mediating role of organizational learning between leadership
and culturally responsive practice, the total effects of transformational leadership, shared
instructional leadership and organizational learning on culturally responsive practice were
decomposed as direct and indirect effects. Moreover, to test the significance of the indirect
effects--mediating effects--bootstrapping was performed, through which a p-value of indirect
effect resulted. Table 2-12 shows the decomposition of effects of transformational leadership,
shared instructional leadership and organizational learning on culturally responsive practice.
Table 2-12. Direct and Indirect Effects of Two Leaderships on CRP
Paths
Culturally Responsive Practice
Organizational Learning
Transformational Leadership
Culturally Responsive Practice
Organizational Learning
Shared Instructional Leadership

Direct
Effect
-.030

Indirect
Effect
.158**

Total
Effect
.128

P
**

.340**

.112**

.442

***

More specifically, the results showed that although transformational leadership of
principal had a nonsignificant direct effect on culturally responsive practice with path
coefficient of -.03, as was suggested earlier in this chapter, it had a significant indirect effect
on culturally responsive practice through organizational learning (indirect effect = .158, p
< .01). As a result, the mediating role of organizational learning between transformational
leadership and culturally responsive practice was verified, which therefore supported
hypothesis 3. Shared instructional leadership had direct effect, but also an indirect effect
through mediation of OL.

81

Discussion

Summary
The aim of this part was to examine the structural relationships among leadership,
organizational learning, and culturally responsive practice and test the mediating effect of
organizational learning between leadership and culturally responsive practice. Additionally,
this part of the study sought to evidence of validity for CRP scale. After a body of related
literature was reviewed, based on which hypothesized structural model explaining the
relationships among the latent variables was constructed. The sample of this study using a
questionnaire method consisted of 424 secondary school teachers from 24 secondary schools.
The collected data was analyzed in different ways depending on each hypothesis.
Before hypotheses testing, scales employed in this study were validated. Exploratory
factor analysis was performed to extract a set of factors and test the reliability of the scales by
SPSS 21.0 Statistics. Then, confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling
was run to test whether the proposed factor structure and the scales represent the reality. With
model fit indices such as

/df, RMSEA, NFI, TLI, CFI computed, the availability of the

scales was finally confirmed.
After scale screening, the hypotheses were tested. The hypothesized model fit was
assessed by using SEM, and then causal relationships among the four latent variables,
transformational leadership, shared instructional leadership, organizational learning, and
culturally responsive practice were examined. Finally, the mediating role of organizational
learning between two forms of leadership and culturally responsive practice was tested by
decomposing the effects among the four variables.

82

Findings and Discussion
The key findings in relation to hypotheses are as follows: First, hypothesis 1 is related
to the model fit assessment. Overall, the initially hypothesized model that depicts the
structural relationships among transformational leadership, shared instructional leadership,
organizational learning, and culturally responsive practice show a good model fit (

/df =

2.19, NFI = .976, TLI = .954, CFI = .972, RMSEA = .057, p < .001). Accordingly, the
hypothesized model is determined to be a good model, which supports hypothesis 1 that
structural equation model explaining the causal relationship among organizational learning,
principal leadership, and culturally responsive practice would be valid.
Second, hypotheses 2-1~2-5 are related to structural relationships among the four
latent variables. Except hypothesis 2-1, the rest of four hypotheses are supported by the
significant standardized path coefficients. More specifically, transformational leadership is
hypothesized to have direct influence culturally responsive practice, but it is not supported by
the data. This result is consistent with the previous studies that suggested the weak direct
relationship between transformational leadership and teaching practice (Heck & Hallinger,
1996; Thoonen, Sleegers, Oort, & Peetsma, 2012).
Hypothesis 2-2 predict that transformational leadership would have a significant
positive effect on organizational learning, and the results supported this. This finding
suggests that if a principal exerts transformational leadership, the teachers are more likely to
develop organizational learning within their schools. This result backs up the previous studies
(Collinson et al., 2006; Marks & Louis, 1999) that have consistently proved the significant
relationship between transformational leadership and organizational learning relations. This
finding also provides important evidence for the notion that leadership has a wide influence
not only on direct or dyadic relation in which a leader is included, but also on all of social
relations across the organization even when they don't include the leader (Leithwood &

83

Mascall, 2008), showing that transformational leadership explicitly had impacts on
organizational learning.
Hypothesis 2-3 predicts that shared instructional leadership would have a significant
positive effect on organizational learning, and the results supported this. This finding
suggests that if a principal and teachers collaboratively work in the way of shared
instructional leadership, the teachers are more likely to develop organizational learning
within their schools.
Hypothesis 2-4 predicts that shared instructional leadership would have a significant
positive effect on organizational learning, and the results support this. This finding suggests
that if a principal exerts shared instructional leadership, the teachers are more likely to
develop organizational learning within their schools.
In hypothesis 2-5, organizational learning is predicted to have a significant positive
effect on culturally responsive practice, which is supported by the data. This result is in line
with the extant literature in that they all have dealt with the impact of organizational learning
on teaching profession (Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin, 1995; Kruse, Louis, & Bryk,
1994). But, as was the case in the aforementioned relationship between transformational
leadership and CRP, these studies haven't reflected the culturally responsive practice; instead,
they also have mainly focused on teacher’s instructional practice in relation to teacher
quality. To date, scholars examined the relation between organizational learning and teaching
profession; however, this study explores the effects of organizational learning on CRP. In this
regard, the present study is the first to explore the impact of organizational learning on CRP,
reflecting various aspects of teaching quality other than instructional practice itself.
Hypothesis 3 is related to the mediating role of organizational learning between
principal leadership and culturally responsive practice. Specifically, the result demonstrates
that organizational learning mediates not only the effects of transformational leadership of

84

principal on culturally responsive practice but also the effects of shared instructional
leadership on culturally responsive practice; thus, hypothesis 3 is supported. This finding
suggests that principal leadership enhances the level of organizational learning, which in turn
leads to the increased level of culturally responsive practice. In addition, without
organizational learning, the effects of transformational leadership of principal on culturally
responsive practice are unlikely to be realized.
Finally, hypothesis 4 predicts that CRP have a significant positive relationship with
organizational learning, transformational leadership, and shared instructional leadership,
which is associated with evidence of criterion-related validity for CRP scale, and the results
supported this.

Conclusion
Recent schools, faced with growing diversity in student population, need teachers
who understand how these changes impact their teaching, that is to say, who are able to deal
with multicultural students in the manner of culturally responsiveness. In this context, the
current study is significant in that it identified the antecedents of teacher CRP and the
complex structural mechanism that works in reality. More specifically, the current study
revealed that two forms leadership of principal had significant effects on teacher CRP
through organizational learning; this means that leadership of principal enhances the level of
organizational learning, which in turn leads to the increased level of teacher CRP.
These key findings ultimately advance theoretical discussion on teacher CRP in
school organization as well as increase our understanding of teacher as a learner in the
organization. Finally, from a practical standpoint, this study suggests that principals exert
both leadership styles and play a key role in facilitating organizational learning and teacher
CRP in school organization.

85

Implication
This finding is in line with the previous studies (Harris, 2003; Leithwood et al., 2007;
Resnick & Glennan, 2002; Johnson, 2007; Larson & Murtadha, 2005; Young, 2010), which
addressed the relations among organizational learning, principal leadership, and culturally
responsive practice; however, these studies have limitations in that there is no research
focused on all conceptions simultaneously. In this regard, it seems that the present study,
addressing organizational learning as a primary mediator between principal leadership and
CRP, not only is differentiated from the previous studies, but also sets the stage for in-depth
research associated with the structural relations within school organization.
Although this study did not directly visit integrated leadership, the results asserted the
importance of integrated leadership, which include attributes of two main leadership styles.
Each leadership type has its own role in school reform, specifically in the study, influencing
teachers’ culturally responsive practice and organizational learning positively. Based on its
nature and assumptions, I anticipate that a principal exerting integrated leadership, we can
anticipate, effectively may cause effective organizational learning and effect teachers’
practice in a culturally responsive way. Therefore, the analytic results of this study offer
tentative evidence that integrated leadership ultimately has a positive effect on organizational
learning and culturally responsive practice of teachers.
Furthermore, this finding carries significant importance in that it stirs up attention to
organizational learning. Especially, organizational learning in school organization has
recently been noted in an increasing number of educational studies. Yet, because of the
complex and multi-dimensional nature, the relevant research has been descriptive level.
Therefore, given the significance of organizational learning in organizations, more efforts
seem to be required to examine the potential of organizational learning in school in more in
depth.

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Finally, overall findings of this study provide practical implications for principals: In
order to cultivate higher level of CRP, a principal is required to exercise integrated leadership
as a critical strategy, because integrated leadership precedes before other variables, i.e.
organizational learning and CRP in this study model. That is, to activate organizational
learning and CRP in school organization, most importantly, principals should exert integrated
leadership themselves. Principals, cognizant of the potent role of organizational learning,
which mediates the effects of integrated leadership on CRP, should serve to provide the
conditions or institutional support in which teachers can enjoy high levels of organizational
learning. Then, it is possible that teachers who are actively involved in learning mechanisms
in their schools can exhibit more increased the level of CRP.

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CHAPTER 3.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE AND
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Introduction
The impact of the ethnic demographic shifts will result in greater emphasis placed on
the academic achievement gaps reflected in minority students enrolled in public schools.
Educational leaders will need to push for reform efforts that include new instructional
methods and pedagogical strategies to address the distinct cultural and academic needs of
diverse student populations.
Related to this, (Ladson-billings, 1994) noted the phrase, “culturally relevant
pedagogy,” which “not only addresses student achievement but also helps students to accept
and affirm their cultural identity while developing critical perspectives that challenge
inequities that schools (and other institutions) perpetuate” (p. 469). This means that to make
pedagogical practice effective, educators should think about student achievement and the
culture that each student has. More specifically, researchers in the US (Banks, 2002; Delpit,
1995; Gay, 2000) have found that White teachers from middle class backgrounds are
challenged to assist students as they negotiate the gap between the school culture and the
norms of their family and community, develop culturally sensitive and responsive curriculum
and instruction, and avoid perceiving diversity as a deficit. These differences negatively
impact the quality of students’ learning opportunities.
Culturally responsive practice (CRP) is a way of teaching implemented to enable
students to be involved in learning process by the use of their cultural references that convey
knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Ladson-Billings, 1994). Specifically, CRP recognizes,
respects, and uses students’ own cultures, identities, and family backgrounds to create
optimal learning environment. Thus, the achievement of all students is a common expectation

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where effective culturally responsive pedagogy is in place. To that end all students’ views
and strengths are represented and capitalized upon within the context of culturally responsive
practice. This approach in turn promotes not only the achievement of all students but the
belief that all students are capable of academic rigor and excellence (Ladson-Billings, 2009;
Rogers, 2008).
The current challenge in school is to face diversity in student population; it has been
argued that school community members need to value each students’ background in the
manner of the culturally responsiveness. Moreover, it is critical to examine CRP’s potential
to improve student academic performance, which is the core value in schools. Thus, this
study follows the assumption that educators’ understanding and application of culturally
responsive practice have positively influenced student achievement and performance.
Focused on creating understanding about the academic achievement of multicultural students,
this quantitative study explores the relationship of CRP to student achievement and describes
other aspects of school influence on student performance. Specifically, this study seeks to
determine whether there is a significant difference in the academic achievement of students in
secondary schools that have high implementations of CRP, transformational leadership,
shared instructional leadership and organizational learning and students in schools that do not
highly implement those things. An additional intent of this study is to verify the predictive
validity of CRP.

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Literature Review

Importance of Culture in Academic Achievement
Culturally responsive teachers should “believe that all students can succeed” (LadsonBillings, 1994, p. 44). This is rooted in a constructivist pedagogy that maintains “an
overriding belief that students come to school with knowledge and that that knowledge must
be explored and utilized in order for students to become achievers” (p. 52). Specifically,
teachers with higher culturally responsive practice regard students as “the primary source and
center, subjects and outcomes, consumers and producers of knowledge” (Gay, 2000, p. 33).
Moreover, a culturally responsive teacher begins with what the students already know which
empowers them and allows them to feel a sense of ownership of their learning (LadsonBillings, 2009). In other words, culturally responsive teachers did not view their students’
cultures as something that limits their learning, but instead they view their students’ cultures
as the foundation on which to build students’ deeper understanding in contents being taught.
It is well documented that there is a gap in the achievement levels of students of color
as compared to their White peers (Ogbu, 2003; Talbert-Johnson, 2004; Walton & Cohen,
2007). Especially, African American students are three years behind by eighth grade and trail
their White counterparts by four years at the end of high school (Columbia College, 2005).
These gaps were mainly caused by the differences of culture between students and schools
(Irvine &Armento, 2001; 1990; Delpit, 1995). The mismatch between school culture and the
culture of the students creates the potential for misunderstanding of actions and
misinterpretation of communication between teacher and student. This misunderstanding and
miscommunication, or lack of cultural synchronization, (Irvine & Armento, 2001) increase
the possibility of failure for students who lack the cultural capital (Delpit, 1995) to navigate
the unstated culture and norms of the school.

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Also, included in the literature of focusing on students’ cultures in the process of
teaching and learning are many studies stating that cultural differences between mainstream
and minorities have an effect on the achievement gap. Delpit (1995) argued there is a culture
clash that exists between students' homes and school cultures in the classroom. These
differences allow teachers to “easily misread students' attitudes, intent, or abilities as a result
of the differences in styles of language use and interaction patterns" (Delpit, 1995, p. 167).
Consequently, when teachers’ and students’ expectations of one another are culturally
inaccurate or insensitive, learning is apt to be impacted, and such impacts are unlikely to be
equal throughout the classroom. In that, teachers’ knowledge of and attitudes toward cultural
diversity are crucial determinants of learning opportunities and outcomes for multicultural
students (Gay, 2002). Similarly, teachers’ beliefs about how students learn and the
expectations that they have for different racial groups may influence the way they conduct
their lessons. Therefore, it is important for educators to develop understanding of classroom
diversity and to foster learning environment inclusive students’ home culture and
backgrounds.
Just as teachers demonstrate their cultural experience in educational settings and
behaviors, culturally and racially diverse students also reveal their cultural backgrounds in
their learning attitudes and behaviors. This can be possible only if students’ experience at the
school reflects the specific life experiences and perspectives of culturally diverse students.
Teachers need to recognize the fact that students are learning in different ways in different
conditions, and many of them are influenced by their cultural socialization. Discrepancies in
cultural structures, procedural rules, values, practices, and performance styles may cause
school failures for culturally diverse students. Teachers should therefore acknowledge that
maximizing student success at school requires social competence, academic capacity, and
cultural cohesion by implementing CRP.

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Effect of CRP on Student Achievement
CRP has been useful to support academic achievement for students of color (Smith &
Ayers, 2006; Ware, 2006). Specifically, it places learning in familiar context, which is
important for the academic performance of multicultural students (Hefflin, 2002; Lee, 2005).
Additionally, it enables teachers to utilize meaningful learning materials, include cultures,
customs, and traditions that are different from their own, and bridge between students’
personal lives and school activities (Hefflin, 2002). According to Wortham and Contreras
(2002), culturally responsive practice enables minority students to both manage academic
success and strengthen their identities (Cummins, 2003; Duarte, 1998). Further, it ensures
sensitivity to and responsibility for all students as prominent learners (Huber, 1996). High
expectations for all students permeate the classrooms of teachers who practice culturally
responsive practice.
Teachers need to understand their students’ interests and backgrounds; this may mean
implementing innovative strategies to build rapport, such as interviewing students, discussing
their interests, and taking time to get to know them better (Ladson-Billings, 1997). In the
same manner, Berry (2003) concluded that minority students and financially disadvantaged
youth typically experience lowered expectations from teachers and school staff even when
students demonstrated capability of high achievement. To combat these lowered
expectations, Berry asserted that if teachers, administrators, and school districts are serious
about understanding the needs of all students, they should critically assess possible systemic
beliefs that impede students of color to challenging courses and require more of them
behaviorally (Berry, 2003).
The discourse of a cultural context of teaching and learning demonstrates the
inclusion of the students’ culture as essential in improving student academic performance
(Nieto, 2004). Those students who tend to be successful in school bring to school those

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values the school deem appropriate. However, those students who fail to assimilate, code
switch, or culture switch to the dominant culture of the school are at a greater risk for failing
in academic success. Therefore, one possible solution discussed in many studies to the
achievement gap disparity rests in the ability of teachers as they work to develop skills that
they can use to help increase academic attainment in diverse student populations. Current
trends suggest that teachers will need to be significantly improved to address the increasing
need for teachers to practice culturally responsive methods and strategies in the classroom
setting (Zeichner, 2009).
In this perspective, teachers can leverage students’ cultural capital to create equitable
learning environments, but teachers need to first embrace cultural diversity and learn who
their students are individually, culturally, socially, and emotionally (Carter, 2003; DiMaggio,
1982; Gay, 2013; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Villegas & Lucas, 2007). U.S. classrooms typically
consist of a demographically diverse student population coupled with a predominately White,
female teaching force (Goldenberg, 2014; National Center for Education Statistics, 2013).
Consequently, teachers and students coming from different backgrounds may have different
frames of reference about teaching and learning (Carter, 2011; Maylor, 2014). Teachers tend
to connect more easily with students whose backgrounds are similar to their backgrounds and
students who have more cultural capital than that of economically disadvantaged students
(DiMaggio, 1982).
If teachers fail to understand the cultural characteristics of culturally, racially, and
linguistically diverse students, they might be at risk of misrepresenting educational activities,
which could cause ineffective in student performance. Therefore, teachers should place
students and their life history and experience at the core of the teaching and learning process,
develop teaching activities in a familiar context to students, and support and encourage
cultural diversity and diverse ways of thinking.

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Impact of Transformational Leadership on Student Achievement
Several studies have shown that traditional types of leadership theories have positive
relationships with various theories related to school organization. However, research does not
generally support that leadership has a direct impact on student achievement (Hallinger &
Heck 1998,). Rather, researchers claim an indirect effect: such leadership affects many
variables in the school and this has a positive effect on student achievement (Hoy et al. 2006,
Leithwood et al. 2004). Especially in cases of transformational leadership study, unlike its
consistent and significant effects on either teacher or organizational variables, its effects on
student achievement showed mixed results (Witziers, Bosker, & Krüger, 2003).
For instance, there are controversial results regarding transformational leadership’s
effect of student achievement. For instance, Barnes (2011) illustrated the impact of the
principal’s transformational leadership on the academic achievement of students. This
comparison indicates that principals from high performing schools made use of the
transformational leadership practices more than their counterparts. The study revealed
significantly positive correlations between principal transformational leadership and the
scores of their students on mathematics and science standardized tests. In contrast, Hill
(2011) compared the transformational leadership practices of principals from two high
performing schools (met AYP), as well as the practices of principals from two
underperforming schools (did not meet AYP). The results showed that despite the heavy
emphasis that literature has placed on the importance of principals’ leadership practices on
the academic performance, transformational leadership did not significantly affect the
performance of schools or of their students, neither for high performing nor underperforming
schools. Although there are contradictory results in the effect of transformational leadership
on student achievement, as shown above, principals’ transformational leadership ultimately
yields positive impacts on school performance.

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Impact of Shared Instructional Leadership on Student Achievement
Facing challenges such as demographic diversity, nation-wide reform initiatives, and
accountability standards, the role of the principal has become increasingly complicated
(Fullan, 2001). As leaders, effective principals adapt to these changes by developing greater
capacity among school members (Lambert, 2005; Lashway, 2003; Spillane & Sherer, 2004)
and creating conditions for organizational learning that focus on student achievement (Hord,
1997). Consequently, successful principals share important issues and develop relationships
in their efforts to improve student performance. This type of leadership such as shared
instructional leadership challenges traditional types of one hero leader (Schmoker, 2006) and
requires both administrators and teachers to take responsibility for leading, decision making,
and student learning.
While traditional instructional leadership is assumed to provide a clear instructional
vision, high standards for student learning, utilization of data-based decision making, an
emphasis on professional development and collaborative communities, and active
participation in classroom instruction (Lashway, 2003), shared instructional leadership
“involves the active collaboration of principals and teachers on curriculum, instruction, and
assessment” (Mark & Printy, 2003, p. 371). Within this setting, the principal solicits ideas,
insights, and the expertise of teachers who share responsibility for staff development,
curricular development, and supervision of instructional duties.
According to Leithwood, Jantzi, and Steinbach (1999), shared instructional leadership
overlaps with transformational leadership because it involves intentional change, aspires to
increase teachers’ efforts within the organization, and emphasizes the improvement of
teaching and learning. However, they are distinct in terms of what a principal focuses on and
how a principal and teachers interact within a school. Shared instructional leadership, which
represents cooperative characteristics of educators, can be an initial driver in school

95

improvement. Such collaborative leadership has been shown to have a direct impact on
school achievement (Heck & Hallinger, 2010). Shared instructional leadership can be a
crucial role in improving student achievement.
In the context of Korea, the most research on the effectiveness of principal leadership
have been conducted in terms of its effects on the school organizational variables. A few
studies focusing on its effect on student performance indicated that principal’s instructional
leadership worked directly (e.g. Bae, 2004; Lee, 2002; Joo, 2006). The literature analyzing
the relationship between principal leadership and organizational variables had consistent
results with the studies located in other countries.
Since the primary goal of schooling is student achievement, effective principals
incorporate a blend of shared instructional leadership and transformational leadership
behaviors. Marks and Printy (2003) believed that when transformational and shared
instructional leadership is combined, an integrated form of leadership results. They
determined that “where integrated leadership was normative, teachers provided evidence of
high-quality pedagogy and students performed at high levels on authentic measures of
achievement (p. 392).” They also found that in schools where transformational leadership
was absent, instructional leadership was not shared, but confined to the principal.

Organizational Learning and Student Achievement
The more principals work routinely with teachers on instructional improvement, the
more likely are principals to encourage new or best practices and keep teachers connected to
the core of their work. An effective way to connect teachers is to create structures that
encourage organizational learning.
Organizational learning plays an important role in helping teachers to collectively
focus on their teaching practice. When organizational learning is absent and teachers work in
isolation, little professional growth occurs (Pounder, 1999). Successful organizational

96

learning requires allocated time and specified goals or outcomes (Friend & Cook, 2009).
While teachers may have some control over such factors, school leaders can play a key role
in providing the support and structures necessary for effective organizational learning.
Therefore, organizational learning should positively predict the degree to which teachers
work together to improve outcomes for their students. Teachers in a school culture of
organizational learning may rely on each other by sharing instructional experience;
consequently, higher levels of organizational learning may lead to improved student
achievement.
In Korea, research on the organizational learning (or learning organization) have
primarily used it as a dependent or a mediating variable. Thus, organizational learning is a
school level outcome or mediator to influencing school-level effects such as school climate
(e.g. K. Kim & Y. Kim, 2006) and leadership (e.g. Lee, 2007; Park, 2008). Notably, most
research on organizational learning has focused on improved outcomes for teachers, with
little attention given to its impact on student achievement (Goddard, Goddard & TschannenMoran, 2007). Recent studies have begun to examine this link, but much more research is
required to establish the connections between organizational learning and student
achievement.

Impact of SES on Student Achievement
Students from different family background have different experience and access
different resources. Especially, in terms of socio-economic status (SES), children from
disadvantaged background and environment may find it difficult to acquire basic skills and
achieve academic success (Egeland & Abery, 1991; Egeland & Kreutzer, 1991). A poor
family cannot provide enough educational resources for children and offer necessary
assistance for children’s cognitive development. Children living in poor families with income
below the threshold have substantially lower test scores than those of children living in

97

families with income above poverty threshold (Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Students in
high SES family have richer material resources, high quality housing, health care, high SES
neighborhood, and can go to a better school (Magnuson & Duncan, 2005).
Specifically, a higher SES family can provide children with affluent resources,
including more books for children, more opportunities to access libraries and museums, and
participating in extracurricular activities (Duncan & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Students who have
more chances to access to books have a better developmental progress on vocabulary and
listening comprehension skills (Senechal & LeFevre, 2002). Whereas, a low SES family has
limited educational resources, even for healthy food and medical care. Children with limited
resources are less likely to develop their cognitive skills, which are necessary for successful
academic performance (Heckman, 2008).
Furthermore, family SES is also related to the availability of one’s social networks.
The social networks influence on children’s development directly through interaction with
other children; in addition to indirectly influencing children’s academic achievement via
influencing parents’ beliefs, attitude, and behaviors (Cochran & Niego, 2002). With wider
social networks, children have more available social resources, and as a result, are more
likely to achieve higher academic performance than those without it.
In this study, I focus on the relationship between school wide variables and student
achievement. As examined above, SES is one of the crucial factors to determine how students
succeed in their learning. Therefore, as a small part of the analysis, SES is tested in a
relationship with student achievement; but, is not dealt with as a control variable, which
allows to estimate the net effect size of each school variables. A student’s SES is composed
of various aspects such as parents’ job, education, and income. However, in this study, SES is
measured by the ratio of students receiving free lunches due to limitations of available data.

98

Hypotheses
H01. There is no statistically significant correlation between transformational
leadership and student achievement.
H11-1. There is statistically significant correlation between transformational
leadership and student achievement in mathematics.
H11-2. There is statistically significant correlation between transformational
leadership and student achievement in English as foreign language.
H02. There is no statistically significant correlation between shared instructional
leadership and student achievement.
H12-1. There is statistically significant correlation between shared instructional
leadership and student achievement in mathematics.
H12-2. There is statistically significant correlation between shared instructional
leadership and student achievement in English as foreign language.
H03. There is no statistically significant correlation between the level of
organizational learning within a school and student achievement.
H13-1. There is statistically significant correlation between the level of organizational
learning within a school and student achievement in mathematics.
H13-2. There is statistically significant correlation between the level of organizational
learning within a school and student achievement in English as foreign language.
H04. There is no statistically significant correlation between the level of culturally
responsive practice within a school and student achievement.
H14-1. There is statistically significant correlation between the level of culturally
responsive practice within a school and student achievement in mathematics.
H14-2. There is statistically significant correlation between the level of culturally
responsive practice within a school and student achievement in English as foreign language.

99

Methodology
A quantitative non-experimental research design using correlation analysis is applied in this
study. Creswell (2009) explained a non-experimental approach is effective when statistically
answering research questions that a) identify variables that are of significant relationship to
outcome or b) predict an outcome. Variables in this study were measured to explain the
correlations between student achievement (dependent variable) and the school-wide
variables.

Research Design
This study is a part of the dissertation for developing a CRP scale. The study in this chapter
took the intent of demonstrating predictive validity of a CRP scale. The data used in this
chapter was the same as used in previous chapters. However, for the purpose of the study, is
it different in its unit of analysis. Specifically, to examine the effectiveness of school-level
related variables on student achievement, all measures in this chapter were converted into
school-averaged scores.
Sample. Data for this study is derived from 422 teacher responses from 24 secondary
schools in which 13 or more teachers in each school complete surveys. Twenty-four schools
within the four South Korean states were selected to ensure variation in geography,
demographics, and rate of the number of multicultural student population (see Han, 2007b).
In table 3-1 shows the number of secondary schools in Sample regions. Although the number
of sample schools was small, the number of samples was adjusted in each region considering
the number of schools by region.
Table 3-1. The Number of Secondary Schools in Sample (National and Public Schools)
Seoul
Gyeonggi
Incheon Gyeongnam Total in Total in S.
Sample
Korea
High school
74
261
59
78
472
897
Middle
275
526
123
190
1,114
2,563
school
100

Table 3-1. (cont’d)
Sample
6
school

8

4

6

24

Selected teachers in each school were asked to complete the surveys providing some
of the evidence for this study. Table 3-2 presents a summary of the characteristics of our
sample.
Table 3-2. Demographic Characteristics
Characteristic

M

SD

Teacher Age

39.63

3.49

Teacher Gender

67.53% (female)

Student-Teacher Ratio

16.8

Student eligible for free lunch (%)

18.6%

9.41

Achievement at proficiency or above
on Mathematic (%)

68.65%

13.84

Achievement at proficiency or above
on English as foreign language (%)

72.43%

14.30

Sources of student achievement. The dataset including student achievement and
school demographic information were collected from national school information web site
(School Info, 2016). The records do not include teacher and student identifiers. Therefore, the
study could include only student achievement information at the between-school level,
comparing the performance of one school to another. These data were schoolwide results on
nation-mandated test of mathematics and English as foreign language in 2015 (School Info,
2016). The data is represented by the percentage of students who met or exceeded the
proficiency level on mathematics and English as foreign language tests. These percentages
are averaged across grade, thereby resulting in a single achievement score for each subject for
each school.

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Sources of lunch support. For representing student SES, the rate of students who are
eligible for free lunch within a school was used. The information of the rate for each school
was collected from national school information web site as well (School Info, 2016). The
data is presenting the percentage of the number of students who received lunch support from
government fund for each school.

Measures of Principal Leadership, Organizational Leaning, and Culturally Responsive
Practice
Prior to conducting the regression analysis as primary statistical technique for the
study, the dataset, collected from self-reported survey from secondary teachers in Korea (see
Han, 2017a), was transformed from multidimensional into unidimensional; and from a
teacher level into a school level. Specifically, although the measurements for all conceptions
have several subcomponents to measure certain aspects of each construct, I aggregated all
scores of dimensions of each construct, and then created average scores for individual school.
Details of each variable follow.
Organizational learning mechanism. Organizational learning mechanism is defined
as the degree to which teachers have a learning cycle within their schools. In this study, the
questionnaire for measuring the organizational learning mechanism consisted of four
dimensions: a) analyzing information, b) storing-retrieving-putting to information to use, c)
receiving-disseminating information, and d) seeking information (Schechter, 2007; Schechter
& Qadach, 2012). In order to examine the causal effects at the school level, the scores from
each dimension were aggregated into the one value for organizational learning mechanism.
Although the original scores from the survey results were connected to individual teachers,
for the purpose of the study, these scores have been averaged at the school level.

102

Transformational leadership. Transformational leadership refers to a process that
brings substantial changes in the attitudes and faith of school members, and fundamentally
contributes to high levels of participants’ commitment to the organizational goals (Leithwood
& Jantzi, 1999; RO, 1994). The questionnaire for assessing transformational leadership was
designated with three dimensions: a) leading change, b) developing a shared vision, and c)
respecting individual teachers. The scores from the survey for composite measures were
calculated into single value representing transformational leadership; and averaged in a
school-level score.
Shared instructional leadership is defined as the degree to which “principals and
teachers mutually influence curriculum, instruction, and assessment (Printy et al., 2009).”
The dimensions of shared instructional leadership are principal instructional leadership,
teacher instructional leadership, and principal and teacher’s mutual influence on matters of
instruction, curriculum, and assessment. The scores of shared instructional leadership are
calculated into one composite measure representing shared instructional leadership and this is
averaged for a school-level score.
Culturally responsive practice. Culturally responsive practice is a construct that
represents the degree to which teachers are aware of students’ diversity and are ready to use
instructional methods in a culturally responsive way (Gay, 2002; Siwatu, 2007). The original
measurement of culturally responsive practice consisted of four subscales: a) acknowledging
family background, b) recognizing student diversity, c) teachers’ teaching efficacy, and d)
teaching application (Han, 2017a). In the same manner with other variables, CRP scores were
calculated as a composite school level measure.

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Analysis and Results
Individual responses to the teacher survey, aggregated to the school level, were merged with
school-level of student achievement results. SPSS was used to calculate means, standard
deviations, and reliabilities for scales measuring the four variables for this study. Data were
analyzed to examine the correlation of CRP with student achievement in mathematics and
English as foreign language by looking at the correlation coefficients among variables.

Correlations between School-level Factors and Student Achievement
The assessment of reliability was conducted for all four school-wide variables. By
using Cronbach’s Alpha (Price & Mueller, 1986), the alpha coefficients of each variable
ranged between .838 and .895. Table 3 shows four variables’ alpha coefficients for their
reliabilities.
Table 3-3. Reliability of Four Variables
Variable

Cronbach’s Alpha

Organizational learning

.870

Transformational Leadership

.895

Shared Instructional Leadership

.868

Culturally Responsive Practice

.838

Pearson correlations among four school-related scales and student achievement in
mathematics and English as foreign language are shown in Table 3-2.
Table 3-4. Correlations among Variables
OL

TL

OL

1

TL

.41*

1

SIL

.60**

.67***

SIL

1

104

CRP

MATH

ENG

Table 3-4. (cont’d)
CRP

.74***

.51*

.63**

1

MATH

.62***

.23

.54**

.75***

1

ENG

.60***

.22

.50*

.74***

.96***

1

*p< 0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<.001
NOTE: OL- Organizational Learning; TL- Transformational Leadership; SIL- Shared
Instructional Leadership; CRP- Culturally responsive practice; MATH-Mathematics;
ENG-English as Foreign Language

Mostly, significant and positive correlations were found between almost all school
variables with the exception of correlations between transformational leadership and student
achievements. Specifically, the correlations among school variables and student
achievements range from r =.22 for the correlation between transformational leadership and
English as foreign language to r = .96 (p < .001) for the correlation between mathematics and
English as foreign language. All four school-level scales but transformational leadership are
significantly correlated with student achievement in both mathematics and English as foreign
language: CRP has the strongest relationship (r = .75, r =.74, p <.001), followed by OL (r =
.62, r =.60, p <.001) and SIL (r = .54 (p < .01), r =.50 (p <.05)).
In conclusion, the four school variables are significantly correlated with each other,
which is consistent in previous results (see Han, 2017b) supporting the structural
relationships among these variables. In addition, all school variables expect transformational
leadership showed significant and positive correlations with student achievement in both
mathematics and English as foreign language, which is consistent with the direction of the
hypotheses of this study. Also, the results of correlations can be supported by the empirical
evidence as well as theoretical bases.

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Hypotheses Results
There were four hypotheses with two sub-hypotheses that were tested for significance. The
statistical tests measured for significant correlations amongst the school-level variables of
culturally responsive practice, organizational learning, transformational leadership, and
shared instructional leadership, and achievement in mathematics and English as foreign
language with consideration of gender and the percentage of lunch support. In order to reject
the null hypotheses, the significance level had to be calculated at a level of .05 or less. The
results testing hypotheses are listed below.

H01. There is no statistically significant correlation between transformational
leadership and student achievement.
H11-1. There is statistically significant correlation between transformational
leadership and student achievement in mathematics.
H11-2. There is statistically significant correlation between transformational
leadership and student achievement in English as foreign language.
The scores for the transformational leadership are not significant (Math r = .23, p =
.062; English r = .22, p = .061). Therefore, the null hypothesis is not rejected. This indicates
the variable does not have statistically significant correlations with student achievement.

H02. There is no statistically significant correlation between shared instructional
leadership and student achievement.
H12-1. There is statistically significant correlation between shared instructional
leadership and student achievement in mathematics.
H12-2. There is statistically significant correlation between shared instructional
leadership and student achievement in English as foreign language.

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The scores for the shared instructional leadership are significant (Math r = .54, p <
.01; English r = .50, p < .05). Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected. This indicates the
shared instructional leadership has statistically significant correlations with student
achievement in both mathematics and English as foreign language in this model.

H03. There is no statistically significant correlation between the level of
organizational learning within a school and student achievement.
H13-1. There is statistically significant correlation between the level of organizational
learning within a school and student achievement in mathematics.
H13-2. There is statistically significant correlation between the level of organizational
learning within a school and student achievement in English as foreign language.
The scores for the organizational learning are significant (Math r = .62, p < .001;
English r = .60, p < .001). Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected. This indicates the
organizational learning has statistically significant correlations with student achievement in
both mathematics and English as foreign language in this model.

H04. There is no statistically significant correlation between the level of culturally
responsive practice within a school and student achievement.
H14-1. There is statistically significant correlation between the level of culturally
responsive practice within a school and student achievement in mathematics.
H14-2. There is statistically significant correlation between the level of culturally
responsive practice within a school and student achievement in English as foreign language.
The scores for the culturally responsive practice are significant (Math r = .75, p<
.001; English r = .74, p < .001). Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected. This indicates the

107

culturally responsive practice has statistically significant correlations with student
achievement in both mathematics and English as foreign language in this model.
In addition, these hypotheses of the CRP refer to the possible evidence for predictive
validity of CRP scale. In other words, statistically significant and positive relationship
between CRP and mathematics and English as foreign language achievement might offer a
tentative evidence that CRP scale is validated in its predictive power in student achievement.

Discussion
Summary
This study examined how each school level variable related to student achievement,
especially focusing on whether culturally responsive practice (CRP) has a positive correlation
with student performance; this finding offers initial evidence for predictive validity of CRP.
For the purpose of the study, a correlational research design investigated the relationship
between school related variables and the percentage of students proficient in mathematics and
English as foreign language. The current challenge in school is to face diversity in student
population; it has been argued that school community members need to value each students’
background in the manner of the culturally responsiveness. Moreover, it is critical to examine
CRP’s potential to improve student academic performance, which is the core value in
schools.
The study offer support for several new findings. First, for the schools in this sample,
four school variables show positive correlations with student achievements, even though
there are differences in the magnitude of the coefficient values. Two types of leadership show
different results for the relationship to student achievements in both mathematics and English
as foreign language; transformational leadership does not have statistically significant
relationship with student achievement while the shared instructional leadership has a
significant relationship with student achievement. In other words, schools that show higher

108

levels of shared instructional leadership might have a higher level of mathematics (r = .54)
and English as foreign language (r = .50) achievement. Mathematics (r = .62) and English (r
= .60) achievement are significantly correlated to organizational learning. In other words,
schools with a higher level of organizational learning are likely to show a higher level of
mathematics and English as foreign language.
Finally, mathematics (r = .75) and English as foreign language (r = .74) achievement
are significantly regressed on culturally responsive practice. In that, schools reported higher
percentage of students who scored at or above the proficiency level in mathematics and
English as foreign language assessment when teachers report that they use high levels of
culturally responsive practice. Furthermore, the results in this chapter provides predictive at
least tentative validation for the Culturally Responsive Practice scale by showing that CRP
and student achievement are correlated at the school organizational level.

Implication
Findings in this study suggest that in schools where the teachers work in the manner
of cultural responsiveness, students show higher levels of academic achievements. Further,
the more organizational learning mechanism, the greater their students’ learning. Finally, the
shared instructional leadership, had small, but statistically significant impact on student
achievement.
Statistical fit for the model that positioned transformational leadership correlating to
student achievement was weak. However, shared instructional leadership and culturally
responsive practice showed statistically significant correlations with student achievement.
Evidence in the correlation table, however, showed transformational leadership to be
correlated with both SIL and CRP. These relationships concur with earlier studies of
integrated leadership, consisting of both transformational leadership and shared instructional

109

leadership. It appears that transformational leadership might be important to the
establishment of shared instructional leadership. Where both forms of leadership operate
together, there is greater potential to have high relationship with student achievement. These
findings are consistent with the work of (Mark & Printy, 2003; Hoy et al., 2006; Leithwood
et al., 2004) who position school leadership as the key driver of school improvement
processes, particularly when such leadership is shared with teachers.
The results reveal that the student’ SES (lunch support rate) is not statistically
significant relationship with student achievement. This result is inconsistent with previous
literature stating the crucial effects of SES on the student performance (e.g. Sirin, 2005;
White, 1982). The result may be provided by the fact the lunch support rate did not represent
students’ SES appropriately. In other words, lunch support in Korean schools applies to
relatively large number of students, and different school districts have different guidelines
and qualifications of the recipients. Therefore, future study with multi-dimensional
measurement of students’ SES might have results different from this study.
One methodological limitation of this study arises from the small number of school
samples, which makes causal inference difficult. Since the analysis in this study used
variables at the school level, the sampling should be randomized to represent the nature of
each school (Agresti & Finlay, 2009). Also, the number of respondents for each school makes
representation of each school population uncertain. Thus, the availability of reliable largescale datasets that can possibly be used to carry out cross-sectional studies of CRP needs to
be pursued. In this perspective, while the significant correlation efficient may shed light on
our knowledge of the relationships among the variables, the lack of controlling the
interactions between other variables than the variables in question, a correlation may be easy
to detect and the effect of a variable may be over-assessed.

110

Conclusion
Culturally Responsive practice provides students with the opportunity to learn and understand
the principles and values of students from different cultures (Gay, 2002).
In recent decades both Korean and American classrooms have become more diverse, making
it more challenging for schools to provide a quality education for all students. Still, it is
justified to say that a quality education should be the norm. However, there are inequalities in
education that possibly contribute to the achievement gap.
CRP can help improve student achievement by allowing students and teachers the
opportunity to develop an understanding of other students' cultures, views, and beliefs. In
order for CRP to be beneficial, there must be a collaborative effort by teachers,
administrators, policymakers, parents, students, and communities to develop and implement
effective strategies and policies that promote academic success for all students.
Educators will be challenged to evaluate their own personal viewpoints and the
assumptions of other cultures to effectively teach in a diverse classroom. Students will also
be challenged to understand all students' viewpoints and beliefs so that they can creatively
and productively express themselves in a diverse classroom setting. By fostering solutions to
these challenges, CRP can create a positive learning environment in which all students from
different backgrounds and cultures are able to learn from other students and to achieve
academic success. Furthermore, reducing bias in schools will create a more productive school
environment.

111

CONCLUSION
Summary of Each Chapter
The primary aim of this dissertation was to develop a scale for culturally responsive
practice (CRP) and find evidences for its validity and reliability. Throughout the process for
seeking the evidence for validity of the CRP scale, this study had an opportunity not only to
examine the structural relationship among principal leadership and CRP, with mediation of
organizational learning, but how the higher level of CRP was associated to the student
achievement. Although many scholars have pointed out that culturally responsive practice is
crucial to educate all students, little empirical study has been done to measure CRP and to
investigate the organizational circumstances that are likely related to higher levels of CRP.
This dissertation research offers concrete ideas about facilitating CRP for all students in
Korea - culturally and racially diverse students as well as homogenous group of students
regarded as mainstream of culture. This study provided empirical evidence for the CRP
scale’s validity and the structural relationships of CRP with organizational learning and
principal leadership. Summaries of the findings for each phase of the overall study follow.

In chapter 1, the study sought to develop the initial instrument to measure the
construct of culturally responsive practice among teachers in secondary schools in South
Korea. Based on the results of analyzing the literatures about culture-oriented pedagogy and
of review of the initial items by professionals, the face and content validity has been
demonstrated. In addition, the statistical analysis results provided evidence of reliability of
the scale of CRP with strong Cronbach values ranging from .93 to .95. The multidimensional
factor structure of the CRP scale received support from the results of EFA and CFA, which
yielded the construct validity for the measurement. Finally, the study suggested that the
multidimensional construct of CRP has four distinct components: (a) Recognizing student
diversity; (b) Acknowledging family background; (c) Teacher efficacy; and (d) Teaching

112

application. Throughout the process of developing the scale, CRP has evidence supporting its
validity, especially in face and content validity and construct validity.
Next, in the chapter 2, the study aimed to examine the structural relationships among
leadership, organizational learning, and culturally responsive practice and to test the
mediating effect of organizational learning between leadership and culturally responsive
practice. This process sought evidence for criterion-related validity of the CRP scale. By
using structural equation modeling (SEM), confirmatory factor analysis was run to test
whether the proposed factor structure and the scales represent the reality. With the good value
of model fit indices such as

/df, RMSEA, NFI, TLI, CFI, the appropriateness of the scales

was finally confirmed. After confirming the measurement model, the causal relationship
among organizational learning, transformational leadership, shared instructional leadership,
and culturally responsive practice were tested by using SEM, and confirmed by good values
of model fit indices (

/df = 2.19, NFI = .976 , TLI = .954, CFI = .972, RMSEA = .057, p

< .001). Finally, the mediating role of organizational learning between principal leadership
and culturally responsive practice was tested by decomposing the effects among the four
latent variables. The results from the relationship of CRP with school variables offer
evidences for criterion-related validity of the CRP scale.
Finally, the chapter 3 examined not only how the constructs of organizational
learning, principal leadership, and culturally responsive practice are related to student
achievement in schools, but explored the evidence of predictive validity for CRP. The results
show that all school level variables except transformational leadership have statistically and
significantly correlated to student achievement. In addition, the result that mathematics and
English as foreign language are correlated to CRP offer tentative evidence for predictive
validity of the CRP scale.

113

The empirical evidence presented here leads to the conclusion that principal
leadership features, in turn, shapes organizational learning mechanism in schools that
positively affect better teaching practice of teachers, especially culturally responsive practice.
These findings are more interesting as they are in line with research findings from other
countries, e.g. the USA, where school systems are considerably different from those of
Korea. Findings in this research have cross-cultural significance, because this logical path
from leadership to teaching practice has support in the research literature from diverse
countries.

Implication for Each Chapter
The strength of diagnosis tool is that it can be a starting point for transforming the organization.
Throughout the process of measuring the current situation, we might recognize where we stand
on and where we should go to. Also, based on the diagnosis, the problem that we face might
be revealed and the solution can be raised. In cases of using the CRP scale in a school, for
instance, if teachers are diagnosed with insufficient understanding of the family background
(CRP dimension 1), it is necessary to enhance the understanding of the socioeconomic and
cultural background of the student by strengthening opportunities of interview and counseling
for these students. In particular, it is crucial to form a comprehensive understanding of students
based on academic research on the impact of socioeconomic and cultural contexts on learning
process.
In spite of the fact that Korea has a relatively centralized educational administrative
climate, it is important to set up a vision that fits the reality of the unit school and to practice it
in order to respond to the demand for strengthening the accountability of the school unit that is
currently being spoken around the world. It is necessary to use the CRP scale to diagnose the
situation of the school and to set the appropriate school vision based on this. If the result of the

114

CRP scale shows at a low level despite a significant demographic change in the school
environment, it is necessary to increase the understanding of the current changes of the
members and to make changes in teaching and learning according to these changes.
Each dimension of the CRP scale might give an insight for training of teachers entering
the school. Teacher training may pursue to emphasize student’s cultural diversity awareness
and knowledge of multicultural society as well as include behavioral markers in the
community. By using the CRP scale, schools could seek to identify their teachers who are
engaging in the efforts to try new and better instructional strategies and consult with these
teachers for brainstorming ways to increase this behavior among other novice advocates or
beginning teachers.
Moreover, this scale development research study introduced the CRP scale and pursue
to address the gap in the teacher field and research regarding culturally responsive practice
orientation in South Korea. It is the hope that the growing emphasis on the construct of
culturally responsiveness in teaching and learning process continues to be a focus in research,
training programs for fields such as school counseling and professional development programs,
as well as real practice. Even though this study did not use the causal analysis such as regression
due to the limitation of sampling, it is necessary to figure out the causal relationships between
school-level variable, especially CPR, and student performance. Based on the result of the
correlation analysis in this study, the possible link between CRP and student achievement has
been revealed. Thus, the current study might enable researchers to explore the causal
relationship between CRP and student achievement with consideration of control variables.

Implication for Whole Dissertation: Toward Culturally Responsive School in
Multicultural Society
The role of school education is very important for overcoming cultural prejudices and
discrimination and for multicultural education to be successful. It is because we should

115

develop the capacity of Korean society by preventing educational alienation and
understanding and embracing various races and cultures. To do this, the school principal,
teachers, parents, and local communities should cooperate with each other within the school
community to expand the scope of culturally responsive practice.
Since the quality of education relies on the quality of teachers (Barber & Mourshed,
2007), education for culturally and racially diverse students should be preceded by changes in
teachers’ knowledge and awareness in the culturally responsive way in Korea. In this regard,
training of culturally responsive practice for in-service teachers as well as prospective
teachers is urgently needed because the society rapidly become multicultural society; in turn,
multicultural circumstance will continuously affect school education and educational needs.
Culturally responsive practice is not something for a specific subject or a particular teacher,
but it should be employed in all subjects and all activities of the school activity by all
teachers. Thus, teachers with CRP should establish stronger identities of both mainstream
students and multicultural students throughout understanding and respecting of mutual
cultures.
Multicultural society and multicultural schools provide students with good learning
resources and funds of knowledge (Banks, 2008). In the same manner, the efforts to
understand the historical perspectives of diverse cultures and develop cultural consciousness
(Bennett, 2007) make learning experiences fruitful. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to
acknowledge diversity and difference of culture by participating in professional
developmental activities for CRP and to be able to communicate actively with multicultural
students and their families. These prepared teachers show human affection as a potential
curriculum, and offer fair educational opportunity to students regardless of cultural
background. Moreover, it needs to develop a framework for CRP research and develop

116

programs and materials. It focuses on helping students and school members understand and
appreciate the mutual cultural values and encourage them to participate in school lives.
The role of culturally responsive teacher is needed, such as recognizing and
respecting individuality, uniqueness, and diversity of students. However, it is not sufficient.
The findings of this study further support the premise that if teachers are to integrate and
implement culturally responsive practice, schools need to be transformed in the same way.
Specifically, simply through exposure to culturally responsive training, it is difficult for
teachers to apply their new knowledge into teaching. In that, school organizational factors
such as integrated leadership and organizational learning can be a facilitator or a supporter
for culturally responsive teachers. This research further can be developed to design a school
as a culturally responsive community, which includes a principal with strong culturally
responsive leadership (Johnson, 2007), establishes a tight relationship with students’ families
and local communities, and cultivates learning environment for all students regardless of
cultural background. Throughout conducting CRP, the culturally responsive community
could promote students’ intellectual, social and personal development so that all students can
realize their full potential without discrimination.

117

APPENDICES

118

APPENDIX A
RESULTS OF PILOT TEST

Table 4-1. Gender in Pilot Test
Frequency
1
Valid
2
Total
Missing System
Total

Percent

Valid Percent

44

37.6

39.3

39.3

68
112
5

58.1
95.7
4.3

60.7
100.0

100.0

117

100.0

Valid
Percent
13.4
45.5
24.1
16.1
.9
100.0

Cumulative
Percent
13.4
58.9
83.0
99.1
100.0

Table 4-2. Age in Pilot Test
Frequency Percent

Valid

1
2
3
4
5
Total

Missing System
Total

Cumulative
Percent

15
51
27
18
1
112
5

12.8
43.6
23.1
15.4
.9
95.7
4.3

117

100.0

Table 4-3. Statistics of Pilot Test

Valid
N

Missi
ng

Std. Error of
Mean

CRP
1

CRP
2

CRP
3

CRP
4

CRP
5

CRP
6

CRP
7

CRP
8

CRP
9

CRP
10

CRP
11

CRP
12

CRP
13

CRP
14

CRP
15

CRP
16

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

112

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

5

.057

.092

.074

.134

.069

.079

.093

.093

.073

.075

.078

.079

.077

.096

.092

.082

.604

.970

.785

1.41
4

.732

.831

.981

.986

.775

.789

.826

.833

.818

1.01
3

.974

.864

.365

.941

.616

1.99
9

.535

.691

.961

.972

.601

.623

.682

.694

.669

1.02
7

.948

.746

Std. Deviation
Variance

119

APPENDIX B
ITEMS FOR CRP
Table 4-4. Items for CRP
Items
1. I think students have diverse cultural backgrounds.
2. As a teacher, I need to learn about my student cultural backgrounds.
3. I believe students’ diversity must be considered in the classroom
management.

M
3.86
3.60
3.76

SD
1.16
1.12
1.05

4. I believe students’ self-esteem is increased when their social and
cultural backgrounds is respected.

3.12

1.29

5. I have participated in the professional development for multicultural
education.

3.85

1.11

6. I acknowledge students’ family environment.
7. I consider students’ social and family backgrounds in the class plan.
8. I teach students respecting on student’s personal backgrounds.
9. I am able to obtain information about my students’ academic strengths.

3.46
3.72
3.33
3.79

.92
.99
1.18
.90

10. I am able to determine whether my students like to work alone or in a
group.

3.57

1.05

11. I am able to use my students’ cultural background to help make
learning meaningful.

3.69

1.02

12. I am able to critically examine the curriculum to determine whether it
reinforces negative cultural stereotypes.

3.76

1.14

13. I think students can understand differently what I teach.
14. I structure the class content based on the difference among students’
background.

3.68
3.32

1.27
1.21

15. I am able to facilitate students to work in a group.
3.68
16. I encourage students to think differently and have different perspective 3.54
on class contents.

1.04
1.12

120

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121

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