Search results

The aim of this study is to examine the pedagogy courses of teacher education programs implemented in two universities in Turkey and the USA in terms of multicultural education. The teaching practices in the pedagogy courses of teacher education programs in the USA might have multicultural education principles, and they could be models for teacher educators in Turkey. In addition, this study can contribute to the cross-cultural studies on teacher education between the USA and Turkey.

Ten teacher educators participated in the study; all of them had experience in teaching pedagogy courses in the early childhood teacher education program. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The open-ended questions were related to objectives, content, teaching methods and activities. Assessment procedures and methods were also asked from the participants to evaluate their teaching experiences in terms of multicultural education. Thematic analysis was used to examine data of the study.

The results of the study revealed that there were differences between the objectives, content, teaching process and assessment methods of the courses in the teacher education programs in Turkey and the USA in terms of multicultural education. The results of this study revealed that the objectives, content, teaching process and assessment methods planned and implemented by teacher educators in the USA are more multicultural and multiethnic when compared with their counterparts in Turkey.

This study can contribute to the cross-cultural studies on teacher education between the USA and Turkey.

This study aims to examine the effect of critical multicultural education on the multicultural attitudes of preservice teachers in a teacher education program.

The study sample consisted of 76 preservice teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program. This study used a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental research design with pretest-posttest. The multicultural content integration was implemented in an experimental group for one semester, and data were collected using the teacher multicultural attitude survey.

Analyses indicated that preservice teachers who were exposed to the critical multicultural education program showed significantly greater progress in their multicultural attitudes compared with teachers in the control group. The results of this study indicate that the integrating critical multicultural education content into teacher education program has a positive effect on fostering preservice teachers’ multicultural attitudes.

Teacher education program planners should integrate multicultural content, materials and activities into teaching methods courses to promote change in preservice teachers’ multicultural attitudes.

This study contributes to the multicultural studies on teacher education.

The paper aims to investigate the effect of multicultural knowledgebase on attitudes and feelings of preparedness to teach children from diverse backgrounds among pre‐service teachers. Currently issues of multicultural education have been heightened by the academic achievement gap and emphasis on standardized test‐scores as the indicator of learning.

This descriptive study was conducted using surveys. A variety of data were collected through pre‐ and post‐tests. Questionnaires included Multicultural Content Test‐Educational (MCCT‐E), Multicultural Questionnaire (MC), and Preparedness Survey (PS). Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.

Results indicated that a class in multicultural education significantly increased knowledge about diversity, attitudes towards multiculturalism, and levels of preparedness to teach children from diverse backgrounds. There was no correlation between multicultural knowledge and attitudes and between attitudes and preparedness to teach children from diverse backgrounds.

As teacher education evolves, there is need to rethink opportunities to learn how to teach children from diverse backgrounds beyond multicultural knowledgebase. More extensive and well integrated methods (direct experiences, mentorship, observing and working in authentic settings) are recommended. These methods enhance internalization of concepts, and ability to confront fears, misconceptions and misinformation during teacher preparation. This study suggested that teacher education programs should provide more sustained interaction with diversity issues and/or children of diverse backgrounds in order to transform the gain in multicultural attitudes into practice.

The study challenges the assumption in teacher preparation programs that knowledge transforms pre‐service teachers’ attitudes and preparedness to teach children from diverse backgrounds.

The purpose of this paper is to examine teaching approaches adopted by teachers in ex-Model C English medium secondary schools (former mono-ethnic White Schools) currently in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, after schools became desegregated in 1994 and changed from being mono-ethnic to multi-ethnic.

This study was conducted through a qualitative research approach against the backdrop of a phenomenological design according to the interpretivist paradigm. Data were elicited through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 teachers from four ex-Model C English medium secondary schools (former White schools) who had experiences of teaching both pre-1994, when schools were mono-ethnic, and post-1994 when the schools were multi-ethnic. The interviews were transcribed, and the data were analysed and categorised into themes and sub-themes.

The findings indicated that although the teachers were positive towards teaching in multi-ethnic contexts, the majority of them tended to adopt approaches that militated against multicultural education in their classes; such as assimilationist, colour blind and business-as-usual approaches, while a minority incorporated various aspects of multicultural education in their teaching to a limited degree.

The study is original in the sense that it focused on the application of Castagno’s framework of typologies to teachers’ approaches to teaching in multi-ethnic classes. Research of this nature, which explored teachers’ approaches to diversity within their multi-ethnic contexts according to Castagno’s framework, has not been previously undertaken in South Africa.

This paper aims to explore the multicultural education strategies employed by primary school teachers in Georgia.

In-depth interviews with 65 primary school teachers were used. The interviews were analyzed using the theoretical framework of multicultural educational approaches defined by James Banks. The approaches used by Georgian teachers were classified into four approaches to multicultural education: contributions, additive, transformation and social action approaches.

The research revealed that the majority of teachers use the contributions and additive approaches to multicultural education. The use of the transformation approach by teachers is very rare and only happens if school textbooks, as well as exercises and assignments in the textbooks, provide this opportunity. The social action approach to multicultural education has not been used in primary grades in Georgia. The research revealed that some teachers reject diversity in their classroom as well as the necessity of developing their students’ intercultural sensitivity. These teachers have an informed and conscious approach to not using multicultural approaches in the teaching process. This approach is named by the author as the “inactive action approach”, which is specific to Georgia and is widely used in primary school classes.

The study has scientific and practical importance. The findings of this study also have practical importance. They can be used for the implementation of teacher education and training programs in Georgia. Consideration of these findings will contribute to the implementation of the National Objectives of General Education and the National Curriculum of Georgia.

This study makes contribution to the development of the field of multicultural education in Georgia.

The primary purpose of this paper is to illustrate strategies college students learn to practice in their analysis of multicultural documents located through use of the internet.

Students explored a variety of meanings for diversity within and across texts readily available in public databases. Using linguistic devices (forms and functions of discourse) as language resources, and following a propositional analytic scheme, students compiled samples of text from online documents.

Evaluation of these compilations at the end of the course demonstrated that students can use conceptualizations of language forms and functions to identify representations of multicultural, and can identify attributions of the phenomenon of diversity using conceptualizations of science as propositional structures.

The value of this conceptual paper has been articulated: In what ways can projects that attempt to connect multicultural education and technology facilitate college students' critical engagement with diversity topics and issues?

This chapter seeks to help and support online educators in their efforts to improve tomorrow. Specifically, the chapter shares practical strategies and tools that online educators can easily apply, adapt, and/or personalize in order to help promote a mindfully multicultural classroom in their online classrooms and programs. The chapter includes a wide range of actionable tools and exercises to help online instructors optimize the learning experience for all students by building upon the unique strengths and diverse cultural backgrounds of all students in their online classrooms. The strategies help instructors leverage diversity as a means to promote equity and social justice in online programs and, ultimately, the world as a whole. The chapter relies upon Gollnick and Chinn’s (2017) six beliefs that are fundamental to multicultural education and presents strategies from two perspectives or lenses (student-focused and faculty-focused). Approaching the issue from a dual-sided lens is intended to best support the ultimate goal of improving the student learning experience. Emphasis is placed on both public and private interactions between faculty and students. Public interactions include all discussion board and announcement communications. Public interactions also include resources that are shared in the online classroom for all students’ benefit.

Teacher effectiveness in diverse school environments depends highly on the multicultural education courses provided by Educator Preparation Programs (EPP). Research measuring new teachers’ (i.e. teachers having 0-3 years of teaching experience) effectiveness as a result of EPPs’ multicultural education courses is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine if any association occurred between the number of multicultural courses offered to pre-service teacher candidates by EPPs and their graduates rating of effectiveness, as it pertains to creating a culturally diverse classroom environment.

Using data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) and public EPPs course catalogs for North Carolina, this descriptive study investigates multicultural education course offerings and recent teacher graduate data for North Carolina for 2015, as it pertains to creating culturally diverse learning environments for students of color.

The results indicate that multiple EPPs in North Carolina are not providing multicultural courses for their pre-service teachers, and that novice teachers in North Carolina are lacking the ability to produce diverse learning environments for students of color at a high capacity as defined by the North Carolina Teacher Effectiveness definition.

Data were retrieved from 2015. In the current year, EPPs could have boosted their offerings of multicultural courses since that time.

It is anticipated that the lack course offerings by EPPs will directly reflect new teachers’ ability to create respectful learning environment for students of color, suggesting that EPPs may be counterproductive towards teacher candidates’ understanding of race in the classroom.

This study’s originality exists in its ability to begin to connect new teachers’ productivity with regards for promoting diversity or multiculturalism and the multicultural courses offered by EPPs.

Schools maintain a monocultural approach to teaching even with a growing CLD school population. Multiculturalism supports the idea that school curriculum should represent and reflect the cultural make-up of the school population. Multicultural education is democratic, and it promotes cultural differences as assets rather than liabilities.

In this chapter, the author uses the interrelated knowledge base of multicultural education and critical pedagogy to offer possibilities for identity negotiations among students and educators. As an international scholar of color, she also interweaves how her own identity is negotiated by comparing and contrasting her teaching experiences in her home country and in the United States. The author argues that it is important for educators to interrogate their identity and embrace the tensions that arise in the process, in order to enact a critically engaged dialogue in their classrooms.