SCHOOL OF EDUCATION: Diversity and Teaching in a Multi- cultural Class

s the diversity of American schools is increasing, teachers should understand the role culture plays in the classroom and employ teaching practices that accommodate students from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, while more is known about pre-service teachers’ beliefs about multicultural education, less is known about what practices in-service teachers endorse and what factors influence those beliefs about practices. Specifically, the aims of the study were to determine (a) how teachers define culture, (b) what multicultural practices they endorse, and (c) what school-level factors (i.e. racial/ethnic demographics of the school) and teacher-level factors (i.e. multicultural professional development/coursework, grade level taught, comfort level facilitating multicultural discussions, and definitions of culture) are associated with teachers’ endorsement of multicultural practices.

In this article, Sonia Nieto reflects on the heretofore known history of multicultural education since its beginnings in the early 1970s, with a focus in the United States. She then reviews what has been missing from this rendering and suggests what it might mean, in the current sociopolitical context, to imagine new possibilities for the field, including new voices, new visions, and new contexts. Using her research and that of others, she then explores what it would mean to re-imagine multicultural education in a global context for students, teachers, families, schools, and nations.

In the face of rising white nationalism, multicultural education is simply not enough. In addition to suggestions for curriculum and instruction, in this article the author suggests that teachers, parents, administrators, and students need to be organizing to push back against this tide of racism, sexism, and xenophobia and find ways to concretely support their students and communities.

The main purpose of the research was to determine the multiculturalism and multicultural education perceptions of teacher candidates. The research was designed as qualitative within this context and was patterned as a case study. The research data were obtained from the semi-structured interviews performed with 12 teacher candidates. In this research, teacher candidates evaluate the concept of multiculturalism positively because of the social structure. But, they are also aware of the importance of teacher education in the preparation of this infrastructure. The results of the study showed that especially in the transition of multicultural education, the teachers have primary responsibilities. And in this study, it also seemed that teacher education and teachers’ positive attitudes toward multicultural education have an important role to live together; to be peaceful and respectful; to accept all identities with their cultural properties without fear of the country’s separation.

This article explores the activities teachers developed in a school cluster in Portugal in order to address cultural diversity, and particularly, how students' voices were used as pedagogical tools. Findings show unsettled rather than unified strategies, building on cultural artefacts, universal/individualised topics, and tackling stereotyping, discrimination and racism. However, student voice as a pedagogical tool seemed to be missing, possibly leaving pupils misrepresented and disengaged. It is suggested that the element between teachers’ good intentions and contradictory practices in pedagogies for cultural diversity might be the absence of student voice work in the decision-making process on representation, identification and participation.

Studying in a foreign country, where one becomes a cultural outsider and where one lacks knowledge of and access to dominant cultural practices, can be a perfect context for challenging students’ values, beliefs, and attitudes, particularly when these experiences are coupled with coursework on diversity. This study explored international students’ perspectives of a diverse class on multiculturalism. Data from 45 students’ reflective journals, course evaluation, and focus group interviews were analysed to identify students’ significant learning experiences.

This study reviewed current issues in preparing qualified teachers for increasing diverse student populations in the U.S. and in other multicultural and multiethnic countries. Based on the framework of community-based and multicultural teacher education, this literature review paper analyzed issues and problems existed in the current curriculum, content, and practicum in traditional teacher education programs in addressing cultural knowledge and competence of preparing pre-service teachers in a multicultural society. Drawing from implications from community-based teacher education, this paper proposed several suggested strategies to reform traditional teacher education programs to meet the needs from multicultural and multiracial student populations and instructional context.