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Multicultural
Education References
Avery, P. G., & Walker, C. (1993). Prospective teachers' perceptions of Banks, J. A. (1991). Teaching multicultural literacy to teachers. Teaching Boyer, J. B., & Baptiste, H. P., Jr. (1996). The crisis in teacher education
in Cannella, G. S., & Reiff, J. C. (1995). Teacher preparation for diversity. Colville-Hall, S., McDonald, S., & Smolen, L. (1995). Preparing preservice Darling-Hammond, L. (1996). What matters most: A competent teacher Deering, T. E., & Stanutz, A. (1995). Preservice field experience as a Gay, G. (1995). Bridging multicultural theory and practice. Multicultural Gomez, M. L. (1993). Prospective teachers' perspectives on teaching Goodlad, J. I. (1996). Sustaining and extending educational renewal. Goodwin, A. L. (1994). Making the transition from self to others: What do Greenman, N. P., & Kimmel, E. B. (1995). The road to multicultural Guillaume, A. M., Zuniga-Hill, C., & Yee, I. (1995). Prospective teachers' Jennings, T. E. (1995). Developmental psychology and the preparation Jordan, M. L. R. (1995). Reflections on the challenges, possibilities, and Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Multicultural teacher education: Research, McCall, A. L. (1995). Constructing conceptions of multicultural teaching: Minami, M., & Ovando, C. J. (1995). Language issues in multicultural Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge Moran, C. E., & Hakuta, K. (1995). Bilingual education: Broadening Nieto, S. (1992). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of Ogbu, J. U. (1996). Variability in minority student population: A problem Tharp, R. G. (1989). Psychocultural variables and constants. American Tran, M. T., Young, R. L., & DiLella, J. D. (1994). Multicultural education Zeichner, K. M., & Hoeft, K. (1996). Teacher socialization for cultural MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION ANNOTATIONS
Avery, P. G., & Walker, C. (1993). Prospective teachers' perceptions
of ethnic and gender differences in academic achievement. Journal of Teacher
Education, 44(1), 27-37. This article attempts to assess how preservice teachers perceive gender and
ethnic disparity in student achievement. In particular, a survey was conducted
to determine how preservice teachers account for differences in academic achievement.
Most of the subjects attributed gender disparities to society and school. Society
and school were mentioned by over half as factors contributing to ethnic disparities.
The majority of explanations were simplistic in nature. The statistically significant
differences in content and quality of responses between elementary and secondary
preservice teachers show that secondary teachers tended to display a more complex
understanding of the issues. The limitations of this study include that the
respondents are primarily white, middle class students and that the responses
were elicited upon entry into the education program. Therefore, the study does
not examine how the teacher education program affects the students’ attitudes
and beliefs. Banks, J. A. (1991). teaching multicultural literacy to teachers. Teaching
Education, 4(1), 135-144. The demographic changes occurring in the nation’s schools, as characterized
by the increasing numbers of students of color and the declining numbers of
teachers of color, have important implications for teacher. One implication
is the need to recruit more students of color into teacher education programs
to work towards a more diverse teaching force in the schools. This means that
more attention is needed for recruiting students of color who enter and complete
college. Another implication of the demographic shifts is the need to assist
all teachers, especially White teachers, “to acquire the attitudes, skills,
and knowledge needed to work effectively with students of color” (p.135).
A program that addresses these important implications should include both preservice
and inservice components. An inservice component is critical for helping teachers,
who are already in the classroom, to overcome or to resist developing negative
attitudes and lower expectations as student characteristics change in their
classrooms. According to Banks, “(m)ulticultural education courses and
experiences are one essential component of teacher education programs designed
to prepare teachers for the next century” (p.136). In this article, Banks
describes an ethnic studies course taught at the University of Washington and
some of the major goals and strategies used in the course to prepare teachers
through multicultural educational experiences. In the education of teachers, the dominant trend “is to teach the products
of knowledge, devoting scant attention to the assumptions and values that undergird
that knowledge. We seldom engage students in a process that involves formulating
and gaining knowledge” (p.137). Without engaging in the construction of
knowledge through regular analyses of assumptions and values, many leave teacher
education programs with misconceptions about cultural diversity and history.
As a result, teachers’ knowledge perpetuates “perpetuates inequality
and victimization instead of contributing to justice and liberation” (p.137).
Therefore, teacher education must be radically changed to demystify social,
historical, and political realities. Some techniques which Banks uses to help students understand knowledge as social
construction include films, videotapes, and documents that describe events from
different perspectives. One example is the showing of the film, How the West
Was Won…and Honor Lost, Part 1. After the film, students discuss questions
on the removal of the Indians from a view different from the institutionalized
view within the popular culture. Students also respond to the question of “How
did the film make you feel?” to which they frequently answer with “angry,”
“ashamed,” and “sad.” The concept of paradigms, or systems
of explanations is introduced in the course, while ten common paradigms in the
multicultural education literature is discussed. Banks believes that teacher
education students need to understand how different concepts, paradigms, and
theories lead to different educational policies and practices” and that
“the low academic achievement of low-income students and students of color
can largely be explained by structural inequality, class stratification, and
institutionalized racism” (p.139). Teachers serve as mediators of the messages and symbols communicated to the
students through the curriculum. Therefore, it is important for teachers to
understand their own personal identities and cultural values. Banks believes
that “(s)elf-clarification is a prerequisite to dealing effectively with
and relating positively to outside ethnic and cultural groups” (p.140).
Some ways in which student teachers can begin and continue to formulate their
sense of identity include writing a family history, conducting case studies,
and participating in role-playing. Finally, a strong background in social science knowledge, a clarified cultural
identification, and a positive attitude towards ethnic and cultural diversity
is not enough for a teacher to be successful in the multicultural classroom.
According to the author, teachers must have: knowledge about the unique cultural characteristics and learning styles of
students from diverse cultural groups and the skills to teach these students
directly; 2) knowledge about the nature of prejudice and strategies that can
reduce prejudice among students; and 3) general knowledge and skills about teaching
that teachers can adapt to meet the specific needs of students from diverse
racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. (p.143) The faculty in the teacher education program at the University of Washington
work to infuse issues of ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity into the courses
and believe that content related to diversity issues are necessary in teacher
education programs in order to prepare teachers to function effectively in diverse
classrooms. Boyer, J. B., & Baptiste, H. P., Jr. (1996). The crisis in teacher education
in America: Issues of recruitment and retention of culturally different (minority)
teachers. In J. Siluka, T. J. Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook of
research on teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 779-794). New York: MacMillan. Serving America's diverse student population has become a priority in teacher
education. Most students will be from minority groups, many will come from families
whose primary language is not English, and more students will live in poverty.
Cultural sensitivity, multicultural courses, and field experiences with culturally
diverse groups are not enough training in teacher education programs. Recruitment
of teachers of color will remain a major issue to consider until teacher education
addresses the social, racial, gender, economic, and power issues in education. It has traditionally been assumed that “any teacher can teach anything
to a student.” Instead, teachers need an understanding of how individual
identity, in terms of racial, gender, language, and economic status, is a part
of the learning setting. The teaching population has become increasingly monocultural
and monolingual and predominantly middle to upper-middle class Caucasian female
students. Teacher education must account for the dimension of teacher-learner
similarity in learning style and instructional communication and the significance
of teacher and learner profiles in the educative process. The field of education
needs people with cross-racial and cross-ethnic skills. Also, authentic research
that involves investigators representing the profile of subjects in the research
design brings an authentic perspective that is essential in research. New teachers
enter public education with little or no historical, sociological, or psychological
competency regarding the culturally different. The expectation that students
will conform to the same style of learning, behaving, and perceiving as the
white female teacher is damaging. Problematic issues in the recruitment and
retention of educators of color include curriculum bias, instructional discrimination,
and academic racism. The experience of prospective teachers should include recognizing
the racial experiences of educators, embracing options for all people in academic
pursuits, studying culturally influenced learning styles, and developing cross-racial,
cross-ethnic skills. Priorities of recruitment should include: written policy
on recruiting for cultural diversity; creative classroom staffing (i.e., seeking
males from other roles to serve as teacher assistants or aides); the development
of minority male academies to prepare minority males as educators; recruitment
for job sharing, part-time roles, and collaborative teaching; and economic incentives
for minority and male recruitment. The challenges which remain in teacher education
make the following necessary skills and studies for future educators: culturally
influenced learning styles; academic and institutional racism; human sexuality
and its expressions; history, literature, and music of different cultures; nonviolent
conflict resolution; biracial learners; academic and institutional sexism; impact
of poverty; visual literacy and impact of images; cross-racial, cross-ethnic
teaching and learning; and psychological accommodation. (See figures 34.1, 34.2,
and 34.3). Cannella, G. S., & Reiff, J. C. (1995). Teacher preparation for diversity.
Equity and Excellence in Education, 27(3), 28-33. The results of a case study of one preservice teacher and how a particular
teacher education program influenced her are provided. The study was an attempt
to look at the experiences and beliefs regarding diversity an individual brings
to a teacher education program, how the individual interacts with program content,
and whether there are experiences in the program that conflict with the individual’s
belief on diversity. Within a predominantly White middle-class university, an
ethnographic methodology was used to participate in a White female student’s
everyday teacher education experiences. Her story is given through interviews,
collections of documents such as lesson plans and her reflective journal, and
observations of her in course work and field experiences. Her story reveals
the importance of values and past experiences of teacher education students
and the type of experiences for students that are needed in the programs which
open their hearts and minds to those who are different from themselves. The
authors found within the teacher education program that lesson planning and
discipline to be more important than examining and addressing equity issues
in school. Moreover, students’ constructions of cultural diversity emerge
from an individual, social, political, and geographical circumstance (e.g.,
referring to Blacks when discussing diversity). Finally, there are few avenues
within the teacher education program to contribute to special ideas and perspectives
concerning teaching diverse students. Colville-Hall, S., McDonald, S., & Smolen, L. (1995). Preparing preservice
teachers for diversity in learners. Journal of Teacher Education, 46(4),
295-303. An in-depth, college-wide self-study and literature review preceded a new teacher
education program at the University of Akron. The focus of the study was to
determine what beginning teachers must know, believe, and be able to do. Opinions
from teachers, administrators, and community members in nearby school districts
were solicited. Specific recommendations included the following: teaching behaviors
that support the realization of multiculturalism in the classroom; advising
and counseling students as they reflect on their perceptions; and using pedagogical
techniques that lead to value shifts. As a result, the program includes course
work that addresses the following areas relating to diverse ethnic students:
lifestyles, values, and communication patterns; attitudes, learning styles,
and cognitive processing styles; interaction between students; self-attitudes
and perceptions; and the commitment to equal educational opportunity for all
students. Teaching strategies focus on discussion, group interaction, problem-solving
and investigation, and applications through hands-on approaches. Clinical activities
and field experiences were also carefully defined as components of the program.
Research continues in assessing the effectiveness of this type of new teacher
education program, particularly in how teacher attitudes and behaviors toward
minority students can be shaped. Darling-Hammond, L. (1996). What maters most: A competent teacher for every
child. Phi Delta Kappan, 78(3), 193-200. The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future recently produced
a report based on an intensive two year study funded by the Rockefeller Foundation
and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The report represents a “blueprint”
for the recruitment, preparation, and support for competent and caring teachers.
A reconstruction of the teaching profession, deemed as necessary by the commission
for educational reform, requires an increase of teachers’ knowledge to
meet the demands they face and a redesigning of schools to support high-quality
teaching and learning. Currently, most schools and teachers do not know how
to produce the kind of learning demanded by new reforms. In addition, the systems
in which they work do not support their efforts in doing so. The challenges for teaching include: helping diverse learners master more challenging
content; creating standards that provide greater clarity about what students
need to learn and what teachers need to know in order to help students learn;
raise the minimum required standards for teaching. However, several different
barriers to meeting or exceeding these challenges exist. First, teacher education
is inadequate and varies widely in quality since accreditation is not required
of programs. Second, very few incentives remain for academically able young
teachers to work in some parts of the country and in critical subjects like
math and science. Third, inefficient hiring practices, barriers to teacher mobility,
and inattention to teacher qualifications result from haphazard hiring and induction.
Fourth, very little is invested in the continuing professional development for
experienced teachers and allowing for opportunities to collaborate and learn
about new teaching strategies. Fifth, the organization of schools do not support
student or teacher learning. In light of these challenges and barriers, the commission has identified the
following as goals for the year 2006: all children will be taught by teachers
who have the knowledge, skills, and commitment to teach well; all teacher education
programs will meet professional standards; all teachers will have access to
high-quality professional development, including regularly scheduled time for
collegial work and planning; hiring and retention will be based on professional
standards of practice; teachers’ salaries will be based on their knowledge
and skills; and high-quality teaching will be the central investment of educational
dollars. The recommendations set forth by the commission as a map for achieving the
nation’s educational goals are based on a call for a new infrastructure
for professional learning and an accountability system of standards for educators
and students. Agreement on teaching standards has recently been completed by
the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the Interstate
New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), and the National Board
for Professional Teaching Standards. Effective teaching defined by these standards
include subject-matter expertise and an understanding of how children learn
and develop; skill in using various teaching strategies and technologies; sensitivity
in working with diverse students; ability to work well with parents and other
teachers; and expertise in assessing the learning of children. The commission
advocates the advancement of these standards by proposing that states: establish
their own professional standards boards; require professional accreditation
for all teacher education programs; close inadequate schools of education; license
teachers based on demonstrated subject-matter knowledge, teaching knowledge
and teaching skill; and use National Board standards as a benchmark for quality
teaching. The commission recommends that states, colleges, and schools work together
to redesign teacher education by: organizing programs and professional development
around standards for students and teachers; develop graduate-level programs
offering internships in a professional development school; create and support
mentoring programs for beginning teachers and evaluation of teaching skills;
establish and maintain stable, high-quality professional development sources;
organize new sources of professional development like teacher academies and
partnerships or networks that transcend school boundaries; and make professional
development and ongoing component of teaching. To aggressively pursue policies that place qualified teachers in every classroom,
the commission recommends providing financial incentives to overcome shortages,
streamlining hiring procedures, and reducing barriers to teacher mobility. This
can be accomplished by: assisting financially disadvantaged districts to better
afford qualified teachers; redesigning the hiring process at the district level;
providing scholarships, premium pay, and other incentives to recruit teachers
for high-need subjects and geographic areas; and developing high-quality teaching
careers for recent graduates, mid-career changers, classroom paraprofessionals,
and government retirees. The commission recommends the encouragement of and reward for knowledge and
skill by developing a career continuum linked to assessments and compensation
systems, and removing incompetent teachers through peer review programs consisting
of the necessary assistance and due process. Some districts have enacted career
pathways that link rigorous evaluations to salary increments as teachers move
from their initial license to resident teacher to professional teacher to tenured
teacher. Finally, the commission recommends that schools be organized for student and
teacher success. This would require flattened hierarchies and a reallocation
of resources in teachers and technology; venture capital to promote learning
linked to school improvement and rewarded team efforts; and principals who understand
teaching and learning and who can lead high-performing schools. The implementation of these recommendations calls for pursuing these ideas
jointly with all participants of education, building upon previous educational
reform efforts, and preparing for the new costs of implementation in addition
to the reallocation of existing resources. Deering, T. E., & Stanutz, A. (1995). Preservice field experience as
a multicultural component of a teacher education program. Journal of Teacher
Education, 46(5), 390-394. The results of an investigation are provided and address the following questions:
How culturally sensitive are preservice teachers? What effect does a preservice
teaching field experience in a multicultural setting have on their cultural
sensitivity? All subjects took the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (Henry,
1991) before and after a 10-week field experience. The results of other similar
studies reveal the difficulty for teacher education programs in changing attitude
and belief structures of students with roughly 20 or more years of life experiences.
Since attitudes shaped through experience tend to be more thoughtfully developed
and stable than those arrived at in other ways, field work experience can be
a way to enhance cultural sensitivity. Significant changes occurred in some
areas, but the field experience seemed to have no effect in other areas and
a negative impact in a few. Seventy-seven percent on the pretest and eight-two
percent on the posttest thought teachers should at times accept nonstandard
English usage. This could be a sign of respect for a student’s first language
or of lower teacher expectations for these students. Much more research is needed
in this area. The authors conclude that raising cultural sensitivity of preservice
teachers is more difficult than originally thought. Gay, G. (1995). Bridging multicultural theory and practice. Multicultural
Education, 3(1), 4-9. Within multicultural education, the development of theory and practice is becoming
increasingly divergent. Theoretical development is surpassing the development
of practice. Theorists are in constant search of new conceptual ideas and understandings
while educational theory evolves through a self-renewing, regenerative process.
The maturation of educational theory results in more complex and abstract ideas
that are further removed from the translation to application. Complex theories
oftentimes confuse, overwhelm, and intimidate practitioners rather than inform
and stimulate them. Educational theorists tend to engage in more highly specialized
issues than school practitioners. Although infusion is proposed by theorists
in multicultural education through the integration of cultural diversity in
all aspects of education, little is done to explain how to implement the mandates.
Moreover, the functional contextualization of multicultural activities is necessary
to minimize teachers’ perceptions of multicultural education as an intrusive,
overburdening addition to their work. As an attempt to bridge the gap between
theory and practice, developmental progression moves people’s understanding
of multicultural education through different conceptual and practical stages.
Deconstruction approaches to multicultural education enables students to critique,
interrogate, and reconstruct knowledge. Transformative approaches focus on constructing
new realities and possibilities as active responses to deconstruction. The author
advocates generating a whole new body of research and scholarship in multicultural
education which operationally demonstrates how theoretical ideas can be translated
into actual practices in schools. Gomez, M. L. (1993). Prospective teachers' perspectives on teaching diverse
children. Journal of Negro Education, 62(4), 459-474. This article investigates who the prospective teachers are in the U.S. and
what their views are on teaching diverse students. In addition, the author explores
how teacher educators and programs focus on diversity issues. Currently, there
is an undisputed mismatch in the race, social class, and language backgrounds
between teachers and students in the U.S. As the number of students of color
increases, the number of teachers of color decreases. Moreover, language and
social class differences are increasing between teachers and students. Many
teachers identify student problems of learning and achievement as consequences
of issues outside of school and not as outcomes of teacher attitudes and behaviors.
Although prospective teachers are concerned about equity and justice, many are
uncertain about how to operationalize their concerns in teaching. In addition,
many approach their teaching in a way that potentially reproduces inequality
and reflects larger social dilemmas. It is reported that prospective teachers
have images of the accomplishments, needs, and goals of culturally different
students that are grounded in ignorance, fear, and indifference. Some field
experiences are designed to challenge the perspectives of teacher education
students. Among the most promising experiences which challenge and change these
perspectives are those that create dissonance in which the teachers find themselves
as the “other.” If prospective teachers are to successfully educate
diverse learners, critical self-inquiry is necessary. Also, partnerships among
universities, public schools, and communities need to be part of the reform
of teacher education for diversity. Goodlad, J. I. (1996). Sustaining and extending educational renewal. Phi
Delta Kappan, 78(3), 228-234. This article discusses the origins, development, and current stance of the
National Network of Educational Renewal (NNER) as shaped by a series of modifications
to the group’s mission and agenda. The organization’s growth reflects
a continual alignment with improved specifications of the state of education
and the need for reform in teacher education. NNER has identified the necessary
dual agenda of renewing schools and teacher education simultaneously by creating,
sustaining, inspiring symbiotic partnerships between schools and universities.
Initial resistance of institutional representatives evolved from questions regarding
“whose agenda is this?” The challenge of achieving such an agenda
translated into frustration for others. Moreover, equality in the renewal and
partnerships of schools and teacher education was either a vague or unaccepted
concept. The educational turbulence of the 80s drew attention solely to school reform.
Increasing recognition of the need for professional development led to NNER’s
research efforts that highlighted the critical problems in teacher education
and the need for viewing teacher education as a domain for attention. The organization
devised 19 postulates containing necessary conditions for robust teacher education
programs. Over the years these conditions have been revised and validated to
adapt to a full array of community services. To overcome previous vagueness of the higher education side of educational
renewal, NNER emphasized the need to simultaneously include the teacher education
component in the renewal formula. The lack of guiding philosophies in higher
education encouraged the organization’s commitment to defining a four-part
mission of teaching: 1) enculturation of the young into a social and political
democracy; 2) disciplined, comprehensive introduction to human conversation;
3) hands-on acquisition and understanding of pedagogy; and 4) viewing teachers
as stewards of entire schools and communities. Out of this emphasis came the
planning for organized conversation between representatives from education,
industry, and government. NNER has consistently dealt with the dilemma of selective inclusion of partnership
members weighed against opportunities for expanded conversation. The concern
for accountability in the face of resource limitations has surfaced in discussions
on the expansion issue. As a result, the Center for Educational Renewal (CER)
and the Institute for Educational Inquiry (IEI) were established to continue
the extended interests of NNER settings to simultaneously renew schools and
teacher education. CER disseminates the relevant data and stories among the
group as well as with larger audiences. IEI works to extend conversation with
a leadership program paid for by interested participants and technical assistance
to prospects striving for the organization of a school/university partnership. In conclusion, the fundamental principles underlying NNER has been the source
of success and longevity of the organization’s initiative and growing appeal. Goodwin, A. L. (1994). Making the transition from self to others: What do
preservice teachers really think about multicultural education? Journal of
Teacher Education, 45(2), 119-131. The findings of a study on preservice teachers’ definitions and conceptions
of multicultural education are provided. Through an open-ended questionnaire,
teacher education students were asked to articulate the goals of multicultural
education, identify multicultural practices they had witnessed or used in their
field placements, and list questions about and hindrances to multicultural practices.
The wide range and variability of responses reflects little consensus about
the aims of multicultural education. More unfortunate, the state of multicultural
education practices suggests that teacher education programs are likely not
to provide further clarifications to uncertainties. Most respondents considered
multicultural education as education of the exceptional and culturally different,
as a human relations approach, or as single group studies. These considerations
fail to deal with structural inequities inherent in society. These preservice
students also perceive multicultural education as a way to individualize instruction
and meet the needs of single students. This perception ignores the systemic
and structural changes necessary to undergo significant social changes. This
implies that students’ ideas of multicultural education are based on naive
assumptions about the power of cultural content or individual attitudinal adjustment.
Respondents’ questions revealed their tendency to define multicultural
education as primarily procedural or technical. This approach is termed the
“ethical additive” approach since multicultural education becomes
simply a strategy for adding on culturally relevant content to regular curriculum.
The findings also reveal that few meaningful multicultural educational experiences
are occurring in field placements, including those located in a culturally diverse
major city. The author concludes that teacher educators must be fully aware
of their students’ perceptions, have powerful activities and experiences
to offer students, and be willing to dialogue with students on an in-depth level
over a sustained period to affect their perceptions. Greenman, N. P., & Kimmel, E. B. (1995). The road to multicultural education:
Potholes of resistance. Journal of Teacher Education, 46(5), 360-368. The policy and programs driving multicultural education generally reflect the
worldview of dominant culture. As a result, resistance to diversity becomes
embedded in institutional structures. Educators must question their assumptions
about themselves and others to be open to change and differences and to respond
in ways fostering student development. Status quo results from opposing dynamic
forces, equal in strength, which drive toward change and resist against it.
There is evidence that children establish stereotypes in memory before they
develop the cognitive capability to question them. Hence, automatic responses
become independent of conscious thought. To overcome resistance to change, people
must decide to stop the cognitive habit, remember their resolution to do so,
and decide repeatedly to reduce their rigid thinking. However, although preservice
teachers become saturated with information from their multicultural preparation,
they tend to ignore it when they enter their field settings. Change occurs when
education students engage in powerful experiences which involve them fully,
demand mental and emotional attention, and provoke disequilibrium. Subjects
responded to open-ended questions eliciting immediate thoughts on similarities
and differences and definitions of cultural diversity, and reflected on training
experiences. Resistance to multicultural education training experiences were
based on ethnocentricity and respondents’ own cultural constructions. The
authors suggest that reflective analysis is essential and that discomfort or
disequilibrium are needed for change. Resistance must be addressed and mediated
as part of teacher education programs. Guillaume, A. M., Zuniga-Hill, C., & Yee, I. (1995). Prospective teachers'
use of diversity issues in a case study analysis. Journal of Research and
Development in Education, 28(2), 69-79. This article examines the responses of education students to a case study in
diversity. Three cohorts of students with different experiences wrote their
responses to the teaching case. Results indicate that constructs from multicultural
education were infrequently used by students in all groups. Four key areas are
identified as crucial in preparing teachers to work in diverse settings: teachers
of diverse students should 1) develop a knowledge base about diverse ethnic
groups and have multiple opportunities to examine personal attitudes towards
students of color; 2) develop culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies
and approaches that make learning equitable for all students; 3) have sufficient
exposure to diverse students and to teachers who model appropriate instructional
approaches; and 4) should commit to professional growth regarding issues of
diversity. Jennings, T. E. (1995). Developmental psychology and the preparation of
teachers who affirm diversity: Strategies promoting critical social consciousness
in teacher preparation programs. Journal of Teacher Education, 46(4),
243-250. This article advocates the use of developmental and child psychology to assist
preservice education students to reflect upon the nature of structural oppression
as it affects cultural diversity. Critical social consciousness is the underlying
rationale in which an individual connects individual experience with social
issues, social problems with the larger social system. The author proposes two
strategies for using developmental theory to promote critical social consciousness:
1) deconstruct the sociohistorical contexts out of which developmental theories
emerge so preservice teachers can recognize that theories are constructed in
unique social contexts to serve particular interests; and 2) treat developmental
theories as prescriptive to identify contexts as either encouraging or discouraging
healthy development, to identify differential treatment that culturally diverse
students receive in school, and to reflect upon alternative schooling structures
that promote healthy development for all children. Jordan, M. L. R. (1995). Reflections on the challenges, possibilities, and
perplexities of preparing preservice teachers for culturally diverse classrooms.
Journal of Teacher Education, 46(5), 369-374. Teacher educators must confront the entry attitudes and beliefs of preservice
teachers, seek better understanding of what they must know, and develop strategies
to reshape their attitudes and beliefs. The author describes the struggle and
growth she experienced in initiating and teaching multicultural concepts to
preservice teachers in the beginning of their program. She begins preparing
preservice teachers by assessing their backgrounds, schooling history, and entry
beliefs through a survey. In her monitoring of student progress, she uses data
from reflective journals, course evaluations, and her visits to the field sites.
She has observed cultural responsiveness from her students. She sees the need
for teacher educators to have clear understanding of the individual development
of students and how they construct knowledge. In addition, program objectives
must closely match course content and expectations of students should be realistic
and based on their individual development levels. Questions which still remain
for research include: 1) Given the short period of time in a teacher education
program, to what degree is it possible to overcome students’ prejudicial,
stereotypical, and racist attitudes? 2) Is this an impossible goal for colleges,
schools, and departments of education to achieve? 3) What are the minimum requirements
that teacher educators should establish for students in their multicultural
education programs? Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Multicultural teacher education: Research, practice,
and policy. In J. A. Banks & C. A. McGee Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research
in multicultural education (pp. 747-762). New York: MacMillan. An effective teacher education reform policy must focus on the education of
all teachers to help them gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary
to work effectively with students from diverse racial, ethnic, and social class
groups. In light of the need for fundamental shifts in the frameworks through
which teachers view themselves and others, this chapter discusses the state
of teacher education, issues of quantity versus quality in the multicultural
teacher education literature, issues and trends in the most recent literature,
and assessments about the current “wisdom of practice.” It is important to situate multicultural teacher education in the understandings
about teacher education. According to Goodlad (1990), teacher education suffers
from program incoherence among other problems including low prestige and status,
an unclear mission and identity, faculty disquietude, and an ill-defined body
of study. As a result, “the intellectual base for multicultural teacher
education is eroded and left to an occasional course on “human relations”
or ethnic studies” (pp. 748-9). The term multicultural education began to appear in the literature in the early
1970s. In 1977, the Commission on Multicultural Education produced a directory
of teacher education programs for the American Association of Colleges for Teacher
Education (AACTE). The directory was based on a survey as an attempt to see
whether the institutions had some component of multicultural or bilingual education.
This AACTE directory was useful in demonstrating the broad range of multicultural
teacher education, but it failed to reveal any sense of quality in these programs. In 1979, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)
began requiring institutions applying for accreditation to “show evidence
of planning for multicultural education in their curricula” (p.750, as
quoted in Gollnick, 1991). By 1981, these institutions were expected to provide
these planned-for components of multicultural education. In 1990, NCATE revised
the accreditation standards by dropping the separate multicultural standard
and infusing multicultural components into the standards of professional studies,
field experiences, student admission, and faculty qualifications and assignments.
In 1991, Gollnick (1991) reported that only 13.6 percent of the institutions
seeking NCATE accreditation were in full compliance with the multicultural education
requirements. In a study by Grant and Secada (1990), over 500 journal articles and 700 ERIC
citations were uncovered from 1964 to 1988, of which only 23 books, articles,
and papers could be legitimately called empirical. Concluding from this review,
the authors urged “more and different research in multicultural teacher
education that (a) moves “beyond behaviorist conceptions of knowledge”;
(b) is empirically validated; (c) tracks the dissemination of knowledge about
teaching diverse students within schools; (d) helps us understand how and when
teacher multicultural content knowledge is transmitted in the classroom; and
(e) deals with teacher expectations, particularly as they are shaped by difficult
initial teaching situations with diverse student populations” (p.751). In examining how multicultural teacher education has been constructed in recent
years, the author poses the following questions: “Have we moved beyond
the designation of separate courses (e.g., “the ethnic studies requirement,”
“the human relations workshop,” “the multicultural course”)
to symbolize our commitment to multicultural ideas? Have we begun to think of
multicultural teacher education in scholarly ways that challenge the intellect
of prospective and in-service teachers? How close are we to having multicultural
ideals shape and drive the professional education of teachers, no matter where
they are or where they receive that professional preparation?” (p.752). Zeichner (1992) defined the elements of effective multicultural teacher education
based on a comprehensive review of the literature on preparing teachers for
diversity. These elements include: (a) admission procedures that screen students
based on their cultural sensitivity and commitment to the education of all students;
(b) development of a clearer sense of the ethnic and cultural identities of
prospective teachers; (c) examination of prospective teachers’ attitudes
toward other ethnocultural groups; (d) teaching about the dynamics of prejudice
and racism and how to confront them in the classroom; (e) curriculum that addresses
the histories and contributions of various ethnocultural groups; (f) teaching
about various procedures by which prospective teachers can gain information
about communities represented in the classroom; (g) teaching about the relationship
between the methods teachers use in the classroom and the preferred learning
and interaction styles in their students’ homes and communities; (h) teaching
about various instructional strategies and assessment procedures sensitive to
cultural and linguistic variations and how to adapt classroom instruction and
assessment to accommodate the cultural resources that students bring to school;
(i) exposure to models of successful teaching of ethnic- and language-minority
students; (j) opportunities for complete community field experiences with adults
and/or children of other ethnocultural groups with guided reflections; (k) opportunities
for practicum and/or student teaching experiences in schools serving ethnic-
and language-minority students; (l) opportunities to live and teach in a minority
community; and (m) instruction that is embedded in a group setting that provides
both intellectual challenge and social support. Several trends are beginning to emerge from a new scholarship in teacher education
that balances “the experimental and quasi-experimental research” with
“a more qualitative case literature that uncovers the wisdom of practice”
(p.753). In particular, increased use of autobiography, restructured field experiences,
examination of situated pedagogies, and the return of the researcher to the
classroom expert are beginning to emerge. The construction of personal and cultural
autobiographies is a strategy to resocialize pre-service teachers “in ways
to help them view themselves within a culturally diverse society” (p.754)
and to “help students consciously re-experience their own subjectivity
when they recognize similar or different outlooks and experiences” (p.754).
Increasingly, state teacher preparation regulations are requiring teacher candidates
to have field experiences in diverse classroom settings. Moreover, “immersion”
experiences in diverse communities, “without the pressure of applying newly
acquired pedagogical skills” (p.754), can be more powerful than diverse
student teaching experiences, particularly if students participate in planned
debriefings and guided reflections based on their observations. Although attempts
to make the school and home cultures of students more congruent are more prevalent
in the literature, most of this literature focuses on small-scale, isolated
communities. Finally, examination of successful teachers in diverse classrooms
is a step towards bonding theory and practice “that allows for a critical
(and perhaps emancipatory) literature and practice to develop” (p.755).
This type of dialectical relationship may lead to more credibility to teacher
preparation as a professional training informed by the best practices. Critics suggest that multicultural education is an accommodationist strategy
that fails to address and produce real change in the structural inequality of
society. The belief in the implementation of multicultural education programs
without fundamental changes in the classrooms and schools “contributes
to the superficial and trivial treatment of issues of race, class, and gender
in the elementary and secondary school classrooms” (p.755). What is needed
is “a clear articulation of multicultural education that embodies both
meaning and intent” (p.755) and rigorous intellectual dialogue involving
multicultural educators with scholars and policy makers from a variety of fields.
Multicultural teacher education must be viewed as a critical area between multicultural
theory and practice as well as “the logical translator of theoretical and
conceptual notions of diversity into real-world applications in the nation’s
classrooms” (p.756). McCall, A. L. (1995). Constructing conceptions of multicultural teaching:
Preservice teachers' life experiences and teacher education. Journal of Teacher
Education, 46(5), 340-350. The author addresses the need to understand the complex, contradictory nature
of preservice teachers’ life experiences as they interact with a multicultural,
social reconstructionist teacher education course. Contradictory forces which
affect teacher preparation for diverse schools include the following: 1) schools
identify norms and successful ways of thinking, acting, speaking, and behaving
as congruent with those of Euro-American middle class males; 2) teachers are
increasingly Euro-American middle or lower middle class women; 3) teacher educators
are also homogeneous; and 4) racial privilege is frequently disguised under
the belief in individualism. Even when teacher education programs claim to infuse
multicultural concepts, attention to those ideas is minimal. Teacher educators
generally fear alienating their students who frequently support the status quo,
fear alienating K-12 school personnel with whom they must work, and fear tensions
arising from critical approaches of existing institutions and society. Some
view multicultural education as meeting the needs of individual students as
opposed to changing collective social structures. Even if teacher educators
explicitly try to prepare students for culturally diverse classrooms, students
are frequently uncomfortable and draw conclusions from their field experiences
that confirm initial prejudices and misunderstandings. In the author’s
multicultural, social reconstructionist teacher education course, students analyzed
the bias of history textbooks through an awareness of whose perspectives are
portrayed, whose experiences are included, and what assumptions are implied.
This course illustrates how students can encounter multicultural ideas within
the logical, existing structure of the school system. The author concludes that
preservice teachers must have the opportunity to become more aware of their
own background and the social forces toward diversity and the oppressed. Minami, M., & Ovando, C. J. (1995). Language issues in multicultural
contexts. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural
education (pp. 427-444). New York: MacMillan. Studies in language, literacy, and multicultural/bilingual education have shifted
from a theoretical linguistic approach to a focus on the sociocultural mediation
of activities. Classic theoretical approaches to language were influenced by
Chomsky’s (1959) emphasis on the language acquisition device with which
humans are biologically endowed to internalize the structure and rules of language.
Later theories (e.g., Brown & Bellugi, 1964) accounted for the influence
of environmental factors and social interaction on language development. Sociolinguists
of the 1970s advocated the ability to participate in social processes as part
of language development. In the 1980s, language studies focused on the divergent
directions in which children are driven based on culture-specific norms and
different language forms endorsed by adults around them. In the context of schooling,
culturally compatible instruction which builds new knowledge based on the communicative
skills students have already acquired facilitates their academic success. Successful
cases in the education of minority students have resulted from the participation
of parents and community in the schooling process to maintain the value of linguistic
diversity and to preserve community and cultural traditions. The educational
biases against socioculturally disadvantaged students result in teachers interacting
differently with these students from different sociocultural backgrounds. Teachers’
roles should be redefined as experienced participants as opposed to authoritative
figures to facilitate classroom discourse and educational interaction. This
requires an understanding and appreciation for the relationship between the
linguistic, sociocultural, and cognitive processes of language minority students. Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge
for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms.
Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132-141. Based on a collaborative project on household and classroom practices within
working class, Mexican communities in Tucson, Arizona, the authors advocate
developing innovations in instruction “that draw upon the knowledge and
skills found in local households” (p.132). Using a combination of ethnographic
observations, open-ended interviews, life histories, and case studies, this
study reveals the complexities of household functions within socio-historical
contexts. Moreover, this qualitative research approach has enabled the authors
to coordinate the interrelated activities of household dynamics, classroom practices,
and the development of after-school study groups with teachers. Through the
study groups, strategic connections between the home and school cultures have
been made with the use of novel classroom practices. The household knowledge base of this study’s sample is broad and diverse.
“Funds of knowledge” refers to the “historically accumulated
and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household
or individual functioning and well-being” (p.133). The authors are interested
in “how household members use their funds of knowledge in dealing with
changing, and often difficult, social and economic circumstances” (p.133). In the household context of learning, the child is seen as a whole person by
the “teacher” as a result of his or her “thick” or “multi-stranded
networks, or multiple relationships with the same individual or with different
individuals. On the other hand, a typical teacher-student relationship is characterized
as “thin” or “single-stranded” and therefore, the student
is “known” only within a limited classroom context. In addition, the classroom is separated and isolated from the social processes
and resources of the community. Whereas in the community where relationships
draw from outside the immediate household context, teachers rarely incorporate
from students’ funds of knowledge established from the world outside the
classroom context. Related to this, children are active participants in the
vast range of activities in the households but are passive bystanders in the
classrooms. As much learning is motivated by students’ interests and curiosities in
the households, knowledge is constructed by the learner and not imposed by the
teacher as it is in the classroom. From this, the authors believe that students’
funds of knowledge represent a wealth of “cultural and cognitive resources
with great, potential utility for classroom instruction” (p.134). The after-school
settings are where teachers have been meeting with the authors to discuss household
observations and develop innovative teaching strategies based on the research.
However, this “transmission” model in which teachers received the
knowledge regarding household data was reevaluated. Then it was decided that
teachers should participate as researchers to gain a more sophisticated understanding
of students and their experiences. This has become an important conclusion to
this study: “teachers as co-researchers using qualitative methods to study
household knowledge, and drawing upon this knowledge to develop a participatory
pedagogy” (p.139). When teachers visit households for research purposes,
the teachers become learners to help establish a relationship with the students
and their families. This relationship enables new and engaging activities to
evolve which tap into students’ funds of knowledge in order to achieve
goals of the school curriculum. Moran, C. E., & Hakuta, K. (1995). Bilingual education: Broadening research
perspectives. In J. A. Banks & C. A. M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research
on multicultural education (pp. 445-462). New York: MacMillan. Programs in bilingual education represent different approaches to educating
students acquiring a second language. In Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE),
native language is used sparingly to help students learn a second language.
In early-exit programs, students are placed in English-only classrooms before
their native language literacy is fully developed. In late-exit programs, placement
in English-only classroom occurs in the fourth through sixth grade. Dual-language
(or two-way) immersion programs work to maintain language minority students’
native language and promote it among students that are not of the language minority. Historically, bilingualism was perceived to result in inferior intelligence.
Today, approaches to bilingual education are based on the idea that entering
school with a minority language background is a negative factor in school success.
Although more recent studies support the cognitive flexibility associated with
bilingualism, criticism of methodological shortcomings has come about for research
on both positive and negative associations between bilingualism and cognition. In the Significant Bilingual Instructional Features study, a three-year federally
funded study which examined the effective instruction of Limited English Proficiency
students, five features of instruction were found to be significant, occurring
frequently, consistently, and with high quality: 1) Active teaching strategies
were utilized; 2) Primary and secondary language were used to mediate instruction;
3) Home culture was incorporated into the classroom; 4) English language development
was integrated with academic skills; and 5) Instructional goals, organization
and delivery of lessons, and student outcomes were congruent. Bilingual education researchers can extend the concept of interactive or collaborative
learning to the education arena in which there exists a disconnection between
researchers and practitioners. Researchers can take on the role of facilitator
and communicate in a language that effectively is understood and brings together
the heterogeneous group of practitioners, policy makers, and parents. The goal
of bilingual education should be one which works for a language rich society
and views native languages as a valuable natural resource. Nieto, S. (1992). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of
multicultural education. New York: Longman. In her book, Nieto promotes an understanding of multicultural education in
its personal, social, historical and political context. She advocates a broad
conceptualization and implementation of multicultural education to have a substantive
and positive impact on the schooling experiences of students. Her purpose in
this book is to examine the meaning, necessity, and benefits of multicultural
education for students from all cultural backgrounds through the following: The first part of the book focuses on developing a conceptual framework for
multicultural education in a sociopolitical context. This section emphasizes
the structural and cultural factors in schooling, as well as the individual
and group responses to education. The purpose of the first section is to discuss
the great number of forces that may affect the school achievement of students
from a variety of backgrounds. In developing a conceptual framework for multicultural education, Nieto analyzes
the factors affecting the school success or failure of students. These factors
include the persistence of racism and discrimination, structural factors within
schools, as well as cultural and language differences. According to Nieto, racism
is a concept that is specifically directed against racial groups, whereas discrimination
is a more general concept that encompasses the belief systems and behaviors
directed against individuals or groups based on their gender, class, language,
or other perceived differences. She points out three levels of racism: individual
racism is “a personal belief that people of one group are inferior to people
of another because of physical traits”; institutional racism “is manifested
through the established laws, customs, and practices that reflect and produce
racial inequalities in society”; and cultural racism is “the belief
in the inferiority of the culture of a group of people or even the belief that
they have no real culture” (p.22). In considering the different manifestations
of racism and discrimination in schools, the impact of self-fulfilling prophecy,
or the idea that students perform in ways that teachers expect, is significant.
However, as Nieto highlights, the blame should not be placed only on teachers
since it is in the broader, social framework in which their expectations mostly
originate, are influenced, and are embedded. Structural factors in schools can affect student learning in negative ways,
particularly school policies and practices that reinforce social inequalities.
Nieto examines tracking, the curriculum, pedagogy, physical structure, disciplinary
policies, limited role of students, limited role of teachers, and limited role
of parents as the school structures that may inhibit the educational success
of students. However, these factors alone cannot explain lack of student achievement;
it is important to consider student characteristics and the mismatch between
the schools and the students they serve. Many teachers and schools adopt a stance which claims to be “color-blind”
and assumes this stance to be fair, objective, and impartial. In fact, the result
of such color-blindness can be “refusing to accept differences and therefore
accepting the dominant culture as the norm” (p.109). Rather, a multicultural
perspective is one that affirms differences rather than deny them. Nieto identifies
three educational implications of “equal is not the same” (p.110):
first, the differences that students bring to school should be acknowledged;
second, such differences may influence how students learn; third, these differences
should be viewed as a strength on which educators can draw. Language is often overlooked in issues of cultural diversity, although it is
inextricably linked to culture. However, the language that students bring to
school affects how and what they learn. Nieto emphasizes the significance of
linguistic differences on student achievement particularly by exploring bilingual
education as an approach to these differences that empowers language minority
students. Although bilingual education is not the only way to deal with linguistically
diverse students, it has proven to be an effective program for students whose
first language is not English. Nieto defines multicultural education as follows: Multicultural education is a process of comprehensive school reform and basic
education for all students. It challenges and rejects racism and other forms
of discrimination in schools and society and accepts and affirms the pluralism
(ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, economic, and gender, among others)
that students, their communities, and teachers represent. Multicultural education
permeates the curriculum and instructional strategies used in schools, as well
as the interactions among teachers, students and parents, and the very way that
schools conceptualize the nature of teaching and learning. Because it uses critical
pedagogy as its underlying philosophy and focuses on knowledge, reflection,
and actions (praxis) as the basis for social change, multicultural education
furthers the democratic principles of social justice. Moreover, there are seven basic characteristics that further define multicultural
education: 1) antiracist; 2) basic; 3) important for all students; 4) pervasive;
5) education for social justice; 6) process; and 7) critical pedagogy. When
all these characteristics apply, “multicultural education represents a
way of rethinking school reform because it responds to many of the problematic
factors leading to school underachievement and failure” (p.222). Nieto discusses actions that can be taken at various levels to develop environments
infusing multicultural education and social change. These actions include strengthening
bilingual programs, developing comprehensive multicultural programs, providing
inclusive and meaningful activities, expanding parent and community involvement,
and raising expectations and standards. However, Nieto asserts that individual
transformations are necessary and particularly, that becoming a multicultural
teacher “first means becoming a multicultural person” (p.275). She
offers suggestions and strategies in making this slow process of transformation
happen in the contexts of the issues earlier discussed: racism and discrimination,
structural factors in school, cultural issues, and linguistic diversity. Ogbu, J. U. (1996). Variability in minority student population: A problem
in search of an explanation. In E. Jacob & C. Jordan (Eds.), Minority
education: Anthropological perspectives (pp. 83-111). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. In his framework for explaining the variability in the school performance among
minority students, Ogbu incorporates the historical and societal forces that
impact the social experiences of minorities, as well as the responses of minorities
to these forces: While cultural, language, and opportunity barriers are very important for all
minorities, the main factor differentiating the more successful from the less
successful minorities appears to be the nature of the history, subordination,
and exploitation of the minorities, and the nature of the minorities’ own
instrumental and expressive responses to their treatment, which enter into the
process of their schooling (Jacob and Jordan, 1996, p.88). Ogbu makes the distinction between immigrant minorities, or those who have
come to the United States in pursuit of better opportunities for economic well-being
and political freedom, and castelike or involuntary minorities, or those who
were originally coerced into the U.S. society through colonization or slavery.
There are significant qualitative differences in how the cultural, linguistic,
and socioeconomic factors of each minority type differ from those of the dominant
group. Consequently, the differences in minority students’ perceptions
and responses to schooling based on these differential factors lead to variable
academic outcomes. According to Ogbu, cultural differences between the dominant and minority groups
that existed prior to the emigration of the minority group to the U.S. characterize
immigrant minorities. The academic success of immigrant minorities can be partially
explained by their belief in the school culture and language as factors that
do not replace but are added to their own culture and language, and that enable
them to succeed in school and in the labor force. Moreover, many immigrants
tend to view education in the U.S. as superior to the schooling they received
in their homeland, consider the opportunity structure as more favorable in the
U.S., and believe that they are treated better here than in their home country.
In addition, prejudice and discrimination are tolerated by immigrant minorities
because they feel that they are “guests in a foreign land” (p.100)
and have no other choice but to accept the antagonism as part of their experiences. Involuntary minorities are characterized by the cultural differences that evolve
after the dominant and minority groups have been continuously in contact, and
particularly as a result of the subordinate treatment of the minority group
by the dominant group. The social identity among involuntary minorities tends
to grow in opposition to their oppressive experiences with the dominant group.
Hence, many cases of the academic difficulties experienced by involuntary minority
students can be explained by their doubts in equal opportunities for getting
ahead through education. Instead of striving for academic success these students
employ ways to minimize the obstacles they face in the opportunity structure.
Moreover, the school problems experienced by the minority students can be further
defined by the conflict and distrust that exist between the involuntary minorities
and the authorities who control the schools through frames of reference based
on dominant standards and culture. In conclusion, Ogbu sees the real issues in the variable school adjustment
and academic performance of minority students as: 1) whether the students come
from a part of society in which people have traditionally experienced inequalities
in the opportunity to use their educational credentials in a socially and economically
meaningful way, 2) whether or not the relationship between the minority students
and the schools has encouraged the students to interpret their school learning
as a replacement of their cultural identity with that of the dominant culture
without full reward or assimilation, and 3) whether or not the relationship
between the minority students and the schools is based on trust that enables
the students to accept school practices. Tharp, R. G. (1989). Psychocultural variables and constants. American
Psychologist, 44(2), 349-359. Addressing the differences in the school experiences and achievement of culturally
different students requires instruction that is contextualized and compatible
with their native culture. According to the cultural compatibility hypothesis,
instruction that is compatible with the patterns of students’ native culture
is expected lead to improvements in the learning processes of these students.
Social organization, sociolinguistics, cognition, and motivation are psychocultural
constructs which vary by culture and therefore, can be determinants of culturally
compatible instruction. Social organization as a cultural variable reveals the
social structures in which students are most productive and likely to learn.
Sociolinguistics help to identify the sociolinguistic patterns of school which
are compatible with those in the culture of home and community. Cognition as
a cultural variable promotes understanding of certain patterns in culturally
influenced cognitive functions of students. For example, holistic and visual
teaching strategies versus verbal and analytic thought devices should be considered
with respect to cognitive processes affected by culture. Finally, cultural differences
in motivation need to be realized at the trait-level as well as the state-level.
Motivation is relatively consistent, persistent, and supported by parental,
community, and cultural reinforcement at the trait-level whereas motivational
and incentive variables are manipulable by teachers and program designers at
the state-level. These four psychocultural variables produce varied prescriptions
for different cultural groups of students. Language development and contextualized
instruction, on the other hand, are described as two prescriptions that should
remain constant cross-culturally in order to maximize the school experiences
and achievement of all cultural groups. Critical connections between language,
thinking, values, and culture mandate that language development be a goal that
is constantly recognized throughout the school day. In addition to language,
instruction should be contextualized based on students’ experiences, previous
knowledge, and schemata. Further research needs to address four areas in which
pressing questions remain. First, an understanding of intracultural variability
requires a closer look at the education of major subcultural groups whose success
and lives are minimally, if at all, considered in the education literature.
Second, identification and selection of critical culturally compatible elements
are needed. Third, compatibilities within multicultural school settings require
closer consideration. Finally, highest priority should be given to experimental
work in actual classrooms in order to put school/culture compatibility to practical
use and evaluate its potential for effective instruction. Tran, M. T., Young, R. L., & DiLella, J. D. (1994). Multicultural education
courses and the student teacher: Eliminating stereotypical attitudes in our
ethnically diverse classroom. Journal of Teacher Education, 45(3), 183-189. The authors address the multicultural agenda within an education course and
how multicultural education may bring about greater understanding between ethnic
groups. The study was conducted to examine the effects of this multicultural
education course on the attitudes toward Europeans, Mexican-Americans, and African-Americans.
Student teachers rated these groups in a seven-point semantic differential cultural
survey containing pairs of traits and formats common in stereotype studies.
The results indicate that the course appears to have a significant effect on
changing students’ attitudes towards the three ethnic groups. Zeichner, K. M., & Hoeft, K. (1996). Teacher socialization for cultural
diversity. In J. Sikula, T. J. Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook
of research on teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 525-547). New York. This chapter focuses on the need to assist all teachers in the construction
of the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary to work effectively with an
increasingly diverse student population. The authors’ discussion is embedded
in the belief that “all individuals are intercultural beings and all teachers
have to be concerned with the challenge of intercultural communication regardless
of their particular cultural identity and the demographic composition of their
students” (p.525). The chapter looks at preservice teacher education, particularly
at the dimensions along which programs vary with respect to diversity, the problem
of selection, and strategies of curriculum and instruction. The authors then
briefly discuss the institutional environment of teacher education, which is
followed by an examination of in-service teacher education for cultural diversity.
The chapter concludes with a look at the strategies used in other fields that
prepare for “cross-cultural” work and how insights can be gained by
teacher educators from this literature. Preservice teacher education varies in the strategies employed to better prepare
teachers to high standards for all students. There are two ways in which these
strategies are generally organized. The infusion approach “integrates attention
to cultural diversity throughout a program’s courses and field experiences”
(p.527) while the segregated approach “treats cultural diversity as the
focus of a single course or as a topic in a few courses whereas other components
of the program remain untouched by this concern” (p.527). Unfortunately,
the segregated approach tends to be the dominant model used in preservice teacher
education. Another dimension along which preservice teacher education varies is in the
attention given to culture-specific or culture general socialization of teacher
education students. In the culture-specific approach, teachers are being prepared
“to teach particular students in specific contexts” (p.527) while
in the culture-general approach, teachers are prepared for “any context
that involves cross-cultural interactions” (p.527) by developing their
competence to teach students from a variety of different cultural backgrounds.
Teachers who undergo training through the latter approach are expected to be
better prepared to confront cross-cultural misunderstanding and potential conflict
with an awareness that takes into account culturally determined factors. Preservice teacher education for diversity also varies in the degree to which
an emphasis is placed on interacting with cultures as opposed to studying about
cultures. Some programs require only a minimal number of hours in school placements
where the backgrounds of students are similar to those of the student teachers.
Other programs require extensive school and community experiences in which the
backgrounds of the students and families are different from those of the student
teachers. The degree to which the teacher education program itself is a model of cultural
inclusiveness and responsiveness is a fourth dimension along which preservice
teacher education for diversity varies. Too often teacher education students
are “passive recipients of knowledge about a culturally responsive approach
to teaching, but they do not get to experience it in their education for teaching”
(p.528). A major concern in teacher education has been the growing disparity in the
cultural backgrounds and life experiences between public school students and
their teachers or prospective teachers. Student teachers “are overwhelmingly
white, monolingual, from a rural (small town) or suburban community, and come
to their teacher education programs with very little direct intercultural experience”
(p.528). Furthermore, many student teachers come to their teacher education
programs “viewing student diversity as a problem rather than a resource”
(p.528) and therefore, have difficulty discussing student differences in thoughtful
and comprehensive ways. The authors point out several strategies that teacher education programs employ
in their curriculum and instruction as attempts to prepare teachers for cultural
diversity. These include building high expectations for pupils among teacher
education students, increasing their knowledge of their own cultural experiences
and enabling them to see themselves as cultural beings in a culturally diverse
society, and providing them with the histories and contributions of different
cultural groups. Field experiences in which teacher education students are in
direct contact with pupils and adults with cultural backgrounds different from
there own are critical since “coursework and academic analysis alone are
insufficient for encouraging the kind of affective and emotional response by
prospective teachers needed to develop greater intercultural competence”
(p.534). According to Zeichner and Hoeft, the institutional environment in which teacher
education exists “is critical in determining the success of curriculum
and instructional strategies designed to promote greater intercultural teaching
competence” (p.537) but is often ignored by teacher educators. Part of
the problem is the lack of teacher education faculty of color which makes teacher
preparation for diversity difficult because there is hardly a culturally diverse
learning community in which the development of intercultural teaching competence
can be developed. Four approaches that have been used to strengthen the institutional
context of teacher education for diversity include: 1) the active recruitment
of faculty of color; 2) the creation of a consortium in which participant institutions
combine their resources to hire staff with expertise in teacher education for
diversity; 3) the provision of systematic staff development for teacher education
faculty on how to incorporate various aspects of teacher education for diversity
into their practice; and 4) partnership agreements between predominantly white
teacher education programs and school districts with large numbers of ethnic
and language minority students. Much of the literature on in-service teacher education concludes that there
is little attention given to issues of diversity. In addition, there is very
little empirical evidence concerning the impact of staff development programs
for cultural diversity on teaching practice. The authors bring in Guskey’s
(1986) argument that “enduring changes in teachers’ attitudes and
beliefs will follow changes in teachers’ practices and in the learning
outcomes for their students” (p.539). More research is needed to examine
the relevance of these claims since most discussions focus on either the changing
teachers’ attitudes and beliefs or on a combination of attitude change
and skill development. There are many similarities in the preparation for diversity in the human services
fields of social work, counseling psychology, nursing, and law and in teacher
education programs. Human services educators distinguish the development of
cultural sensitivity from the development of cultural competence and argue that
the former is insufficient by itself for occupational preparation. Some experiential
components of human services training programs incorporate immersion experiences
in other countries and an emphasis on providing regular times for systematic
reflection about the experiences. Literature in the human services report how
particular approaches in the preparation for diversity affect the attitudes
and beliefs of prospective human services workers. Finally, similar to the literature
in teacher education for diversity, there is a lack of empirical evidence related
to the impact of particular training experiences on the practices of participants
in human services preparation programs. The authors conclude that it is important
to end the isolation of teacher education from research efforts occurring in
other occupational areas and to learn from these other efforts in preparing
for cultural diversity.
The second part of the book discusses the implications of cultural and linguistic
diversity for teaching and learning. A definition of multicultural education,
rooted in the conceptual framework developed in the first section, is provided.
Nieto presents a rationale for multicultural education as a means of equalizing
school experiences and suggests ways in which barriers to learning can be removed.
Moreover, she discusses how environments that foster high quality education
can be developed and concentrates on multicultural education as a process through
a model of multicultural education that affirms all students. The book concludes
with strategies that teachers and schools can use to implement multicultural
education.
