Expanding Culturally Responsive Teaching in Online Classrooms: The Cultural Responsivity Online Model

Benjamin Boison^1, and Anne Burke²

¹Centre for Learning and Teaching Innovation, Aurora College, Canada

²Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Cite this paper:
Benjamin Boison and Anne Burke. Expanding Culturally Responsive Teaching in Online Classrooms: The Cultural Responsivity Online Model. American Journal of Educational Research. 2025; 13(3):126-138. doi: 10.12691/education-13-3-4

Abstract

This paper introduces the Cultural Responsivity Online Model (CROM), a framework for fostering Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) in online education by integrating third-generation Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and CRT. Using a qualitative case study, we conducted thematic analyses of semi-structured interviews with K-12 teachers and administrators in St. John’s, NL, examining how they fostered cultural responsivity in online classrooms during COVID-19 lockdowns. This sub-study is part of the ADVOST project, which promotes young children's inclusion and agency through culturally relevant arts and digital media. In this study, we analyzed how ‘education collaborators’—including teachers, administrators, families, and community members—worked together, engaging in ‘boundary crossing’ (interactions among diverse groups), to implement cultural responsivity in online environments. Using CHAT’s expansive learning framework (where participants collectively resolve tensions, leading to pedagogical innovation), we examined how contradictions (emergent challenges) within the educational activity system led to transformative agency and new pedagogical adaptations. Findings highlight that boundary crossing, expansive learning, and knotworking (flexible, collaborative problem-solving) were essential mechanisms for developing cultural responsiveness. Additionally, professional development emerged as a key factor in supporting educators’ ability to adapt CRT to digital learning. By developing CROM, this study offers theoretical and practical insights into how expansive learning fosters culturally inclusive online classrooms. The model advances CHAT by demonstrating how contradictions in online education drive pedagogical transformation and extends CRT by illustrating the role of digital boundary-crossing in culturally responsive teaching.

Keywords:
Culturally responsive teaching Cultural-Historical Activity Theory online education expansive learning boundary crossing K-12 education

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