Early Development of MALP® 1990-2007
The Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (MALP®) was first conceptualized by Dr. Helaine W. Marshall in the early 1990s when she began working with the Hmong in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Drawing on research on oral cultures like the Hmong from Laos, as well as classroom observations and discussions with community liaisons, Dr. Marshall developed MALP®. Noting that traditional ESL pedagogy, developed for literate and educated English Learners (ELs), was unsuitable and ineffectual for students like the Hmong, she analyzed their learning paradigm and contrasted it with the paradigm underlying mainstream U.S. classroom instruction. Combining selected elements of each resulted in a culturally responsive, mutually adaptive learning paradigm, hence the acronym for the model: MALP®.
Learn more about the Early Development of MALP®.
Expansion of MALP® 2008-2012
Since that time, Dr. Marshall and her colleague and co-author, Dr. Andrea DeCapua, have refined the MALP® instructional approach. and expanded its applications to all students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) and other struggling culturally and linguistically diverse students unaccustomed to and/or uncomfortable with the expectations of Western-style formal education settings. The unifying concept that holds true for all such learners, regardless of their individual linguistic and cultural backgrounds, is cultural dissonance.
Culturally Responsive Teaching and MALP® 2013-2020
MALP® has taken its place among the highly regarded applications of culturally responsive teaching. By applying culturally responsive to all struggling language learners, Dr. DeCapua and Dr. Marshall have created a bridge that connects all students whose language and/or culture do not match that of the mainstream.
Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education and MALP® 2021-present
MALP® includes elements of the learning paradigm of SLIFE and other learners from primarily oral backgrounds and collectivistic cultures, who have limited exposure to formal education as it exists in the U.S. and other Westernized educational systems. These elements include: immediate relevance, interconnectedness, shared responsibility and oral transmission. By being mutually adaptive, MALP® is not only culturally responsive but also culturally sustaining.
Learn more about MALP® and addressing the needs of SLIFE and other struggling culturally and linguistically diverse through Dr. DeCapua & Dr. Marshall’s books and articles.
