Cultural Literacy Development of 10th, 11th, and 12th Graders in a Lithuanian Multicultural School

Abstract

The study analyses the development of students' cultural literacy in a multicultural environment. The aim of this study was to uncover the cultural literacy development of students in grades 10, 11 and 12, the specificities of the educational process, and to test their validity in a school setting with students from 43 countries in one school. The objectives of the study were: 1) to investigate the cultural literacy skills of pupils in grades 10, 11 and 12 by means of a questionnaire. 2) To find out how subject teachers (Lithuanian language and literature, history, religion, ethics, English) develop these students' cultural literacy development. 75 pupils and 5 teachers took part in the study. A mixed-methods approach: qualitative and quantitative. The study validated a questionnaire to measure pupils' cultural literacy. Quantitative data were processed using SPSS version 20 software. Teachers answered semi-structured interview questions. Interview data were processed using a qualitative thematic content analysis strategy. Students were able to be open-minded and eager to learn about other cultures when learning with students from different cultures. Teachers take into account students' cultural backgrounds, adapting the content of the education to relate to learning about other cultures in specific situations.