Abstract
This study’s objective was to explore teachers' perceptions of integrating digital technologies in the design of innovative and culturally responsive assessments, focusing on how these technologies address the diverse learning needs, preferences, and challenges of students in multicultural secondary classroom settings. This study was underpinned by a constructivist interpretive approach, which enabled the researcher to take a qualitative approach to explore the insights that arose from participants' perceptions. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 14 teachers from a multicultural international school in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where the perception and experiences of these teachers was qualitatively collected using a qualitative open-ended questionnaire. The collected data were analysed using the Saldaña method of qualitative coding, where the data analysis involved standard codes from the qualitative questionnaire in a two-cycle data analysis, followed by the analysis of themes that emerged from the codes. The study’s findings revealed that teachers perceive digital assessment platforms as effective in promoting higher levels of student engagement, offering timely feedback and supporting differentiated learning in multicultural schools to a certain extent. However, their responses revealed a set of challenges, including inaccurate linguistic translation features in these digital assessment platforms, varying levels of digital literacy among multicultural students, and inadequate professional development for teachers on how to design and interpret cultural and linguistic inclusivity. The teachers identified the need for more targeted professional development to help them better accommodate the needs of multicultural students when conducting digital assessments. The findings emphasise the importance of ongoing professional development in addressing inclusivity and cultural responsiveness as technology evolves. This study recommended that there is an urgent need for digital assessment platform designers and developers to collaborate with academic leaders in a multicultural context and co-design platforms that address the diverse needs of multicultural students.