1. The qualitative data collection method we chose to do as a group was the interview method with a heavy focus on survey use. With that being said, organizing the data to be analyzed will have to be by school and then by student, parent and teacher groups. We want to be able to compare and contrast between the different areas we decided upon for our study. Reviewing the answers to the survey by school and borough will give us a thorough understanding of what the overall mindset of the students, parents, and teachers feel about culturally relevant pedagogy in their school.
2. Frequency seems to be the most applicable method to uncover patterns within our analysis. If we notice that multiple kids are saying, “My school respects all races and cultures” or “Most of my teachers don’t understand what my life is like outside of school” then we can begin to get a clear understanding of the environment of which these children are learning.
3. The themes we are interested in are : the importance of culturally relevant teaching in low income neighborhoods and diversity within the school curriculum
4. The codes we will use to identify our themes will be as such: culturally, diversity, pedagogy, low-income.
5. The data will be represented by thematic descriptions and maybe a few figures that will show the differential in numbers as opposed to just saying what they are.
6. The basis for interpreting the data will be for us to correlate our findings with what we studied from the existing literature. Gloria Ladson-Billings shows that culturally relevant teaching is not a matter of race, gender, or teaching style. What matters most are a teacher’s efforts to work with the unique strengths a child brings to the classroom. We want to compare such findings from the literature with our qualitative data findings.
7. Our multiple strategies for validating the findings will be to compare and contrast with what we originally had in our literature review. Then we want to take any discrepancies within our findings and analyze them further. Once that is done, we can come to an overall conclusion on how to make sure that culturally relevant teaching is prominent in the classrooms and a success for our students, teachers and parents.