Exploring Facilitators and Barriers of Culturally Responsive Teaching in Early Childhood Classrooms: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

Multiculturalism, driven by increasing global mobility, is reflected in early childhood classrooms. During these formative years, implementing a culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) that meets the needs of all children in multicultural classrooms is crucial for their development in all areas. However, challenges in culturally responsive practices persist. To address these issues, it is essential to gain a holistic perspective on the barriers and facilitators of CRP. It is undeniable that early childhood teachers who are the primary subjects of multicultural classrooms directly experience these barriers and facilitators. With the purpose of enlightening barriers and facilitators of CRP, 32 qualitative studies that collected data from early childhood teachers in multicultural classrooms were investigated in the scope of this meta-synthesis study. The findings revealed that addressing diverse children's needs, creating opportunities to learn about diverse cultures, implementing culturally relevant classroom activities, teachers' knowledge and sensitivity toward children's culture, and parent partnerships are prominent facilitators of CRP. On the other hand, teachers' inadequacy in handling cultural diversity, communication issues between children, teachers, and parents, and contradiction of the host country's values with diverse cultures are significant barriers to CRP. Conclusions and recommendations for teacher educators and researchers addressing these findings are presented in the current study. [This paper was published in: "EJER Congress 2024 International Eurasian Educational Research Congress Conference Proceedings," edited by Senel Poyrazli, Ani Publishing, 2024, pp. 54-60.]