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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.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a very difficult, yet all important and ongoing research question – how do we best use online collaborative learning modalities (CLM) to supplement conversations in multicultural education courses?

This qualitative study examined emergent themes in asynchronous threaded discussions created by 23 students within a Master's level multicultural education course at a large land‐grant university in the USA.

Engagement in threaded discussions fostered student understanding of a systems perspective of social realities. Power, privilege, and oppression related to race, gender, and economics in the USA were explored through student use of real world, concrete examples – something that does not always occur in face‐to‐face classroom encounters constrained by time and the pacing of curriculum.

Researchers would like to see more empirical research in using technologically mediated, CLM to foster conversations surrounding power, oppression, and privilege in efforts to advance the pedagogies of critical multicultural education.

Using threaded discussions seems to be a promising practice in teaching critical multicultural education content.

This research project provides understanding of how CLM can help establish systems perspectives – perspectives critical to multicultural education.

This paper advances the conversation related to promising practices in multicultural education. Scarce empirical research exists related to critical approaches to multicultural education online.

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the dispositions for culturally responsive pedagogy scale (DCRPS).

Scale development consisted of a six-step process including item development, expert review, exploratory factor analysis, factor interpretation, confirmatory factor analysis and convergent and discriminant validity analyses.

The final scale contains 19 Likert items across three dispositional domains: Disposition for Praxis, Disposition for Community and Disposition for Social Justice. The alpha reliability value for the overall scale was 0.92.

The DCRPS can be used in teacher preparation programs for programmatic evaluation, for teacher candidate growth assessment or for career counseling.

Other scales related to multicultural education reflect teachers’ general beliefs about diversity and/or inclusive education. The DCRPS is the first scale that assesses teachers’ beliefs and attitudes underlying culturally responsive teaching practices.

Multicultural teacher education (MTE), self-efficacy and satisfaction are all important for teachers, especially as they relate to their engagement in practices that are beneficial for culturally and linguistically diverse children. Yet it remains to be seen how these important constructs work together to predict teaching practices once teachers enter the field. The purpose of this paper is to explore how MTE, teacher efficacy, teacher satisfaction and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) practices are related among early childhood teachers.

Specifically, the paper will address the connections between these variables via a path analysis. Previously collected data from 105 public early childhood teachers (PreK-2) in a single county in the Southeast United States was analyzed for the study.

Results suggest that CRT in early childhood is a three-faceted construct with teacher efficacy having a direct effect on all dimensions of CRT and teacher satisfaction having a direct effect on two dimensions of CRT. MTE did not have any direct effect on teacher efficacy, teacher satisfaction or CRT.

This paper contributes to the literature in that it is especially necessary to examine how teacher education influences teachers’ efficacy and practices with culturally and linguistically diverse students. There is limited research on how these variables work together in the early childhood setting.

The single-site case study described herein is part of a two-year professional development (PD) initiative aimed at helping teachers from an urban elementary (K-8) school learn how to implement explicit, transactional comprehension strategy instruction across grades using culturally relevant books. This paper aims to describe the urban elementary teachers’ successes and challenges in their first-year implementation of providing culturally relevant literacy instruction.

Three types of qualitative data were collected: researchers’ anecdotal notes during the professional learning sessions; teacher focus groups; and teachers’ blog reflection entries.

The findings revealed that the PD for culturally relevant literacy instruction resulted in teachers’ heightened awareness of how identities and social subjectivities are negotiated in and through culturally relevant discourse, the implicit and explicit bias in the school curriculum. Finally, PD served as a catalyst for facilitating students’ and teachers’ racial and cultural identity development.

The findings of this study suggest that culturally relevant books which incorporate the students’ background may aid in student engagement because students are able to draw upon their culturally acquired background knowledge to better comprehend texts. Thus, to engage, motivate, affirm and promote students’ literacy success, teachers need to possess knowledge of their students’ race and culture, as well as their background, language and life experiences.

The findings of this study suggest that culturally relevant books which incorporate the students’ background may aid in student engagement because students are able to draw upon their culturally acquired background knowledge to better comprehend texts. Thus, to engage, motivate, affirm and promote students’ literacy success, teachers need to possess knowledge of their students’ race and culture, as well as their background, language and life experiences.

Teachers and teacher educators must reflect on, question and critique their own work in preparing teachers to enter today’s schools as critical, reflective educators. The types of children’s literature that are selected and introduced to students play an important role in dismantling technocratic approaches to literacy instruction and strengthen one’s understanding of one another. Teachers must select books that challenge assumptions and speak of possibilities for change.

Culturally relevant pedagogy that includes culturally relevant children’s literature holds promise for improving literacy instructional and assessment practices and school experiences for culturally and linguistically diverse students, especially in environments where high-stakes testing is emphasized. It is one way to imagine a better schooling experience for students that affirms identities and honors and sustains diversity. For culturally relevant pedagogy to be a reality in education, stakeholders must be on board, including students, parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers.

Feminism has provided a sustained challenge to the widespread occurrence of violence against women (VAW). Yet despite the tremendous efforts of feminist activists and academics, it continues to be one of the most tolerated crimes in the world. This paper offers an account of the author’s experiences teaching about VAW in higher education (HE) and an overview of how specific approaches to teaching this subject can provide an empowering space for students who have experienced such violence. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Drawing upon the works of feminists committed to ending VAW, transformative education as envisioned by Paulo Freire and Foucault’s work on knowledge and power, the author proposes a feminist informed teaching practice that facilitates empowerment through: giving voice to women who have experienced violence; exploring and promoting the transformative potential of education and; challenging traditional and dominant forms of knowing.

A recognition of the social, historical and political context in which violence occurs, and how traditional knowledge about it is accepted, is vital in empowering women who have experienced violence to challenge dominant discourses that do not fit with their own perceived reality.

Whilst there is currently a growing interest in the barriers to HE participation, the author seeks to explore the ways in which some of the barriers can be addressed that students may face whilst on HE courses, particularly in relation to self-awareness, empowerment and healing.

In pursuit of democracy, John Dewey argued that public education should be the driving force. As educators strive to address issues of social justice and create inclusive academic environments, they must address the inequalities that are perpetuated in our educational system. Higher education (HE) plays a pivotal role, as it has the potential to shape those who will go on to become future educators, lawmakers, and politicians. Recognizing the importance of HE, we have the responsibility to address inclusivity in and out of the classroom. This chapter examines how critical pedagogy can be used as a tool to promote social justice in HE. In doing so, it will challenge educators to begin to address socially constructed ideas that are agents of oppression. Utilizing critical pedagogy, faculty and students can learn together and critically challenge these educational and social injustices. This will have a rippling impact on our educational system and society as a whole. Successfully implementing this pedagogical approach can lead to diverse and inclusive classrooms that foster learning for all students.

This chapter presents facets of the current challenges relating to policy, leadership and praxis, as perceived by school principals and both Turkish and Syrian teachers working with refugee and Turkish students in Syrian refugee schools in Ankara. Adopting a qualitative methodology, we explore the experiences, challenges and strategies of the educators in these new school types. In order to investigate this this phenomenon, we adopted the post-migration ecology framework proposed by Anderson et al. (2004) and the conceptualization of five dimensions of multicultural education (content integration, knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy and empowering the culture and organization of the school) developed by Banks and Banks (1995). The relevant policy, despite its focus on full integration, is still developing and lack clear technical guidelines for specific issues at school level. The data revealed three themes: perceptions towards the refugees, policy into practice in the schools and the consequent challenges, strategies and needs. Although humanistic ideals are manifest in all the participants’ experience with the new phenomena of refugee education, their needs are multifaceted. They are motivated by a pedagogy of compassion, containment and humanistic universal commitment. The principals employ a style of encouraging social justice and moral leadership, whereas the teachers practise the multicultural pedagogy dimensions with trial and error. Incorporation of Syrian educators and their experience and assistance to the Turkish school staff is also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a collaborative project and study implemented by two teacher educators in an elementary education program. To prepare teacher candidates for field experiences and practicum in a diverse (bilingual) urban school, the program uses coursework to impart asset-based pedagogies and practices.

In this mixed-method case study, this paper examined the awareness and perspectives of preservice teachers (n = 26) to cultural and linguistic diversity and relevant teaching and learning practices. In particular, this study gauged their engagement with multicultural children’s literature in a collaborative interclass activity. The data sources included beginning and end of semester survey responses, notes on participant interactions during the mid-semester collaborative interclass activity and participant retrospective reflections about the activity.

This paper found that teacher candidates showed increased awareness and positive shifts in perspectives. This study also ascertaind that, in learning to become culturally (and linguistically) responsive and sustaining teachers, they benefited from collaborative peer work that focused on learning about multicultural children’s literature, analyzing it and planning to integrate it into their classrooms.

Studies show that culturally relevant literature in schools is beneficial; however, teacher candidates often lack knowledge of such literature and how to use it. This need is especially critical and relevant when learning about and implementing culturally relevant and sustaining practices. The collaborative undertaking discussed in this study fills this gap through co-teaching and interclass activity that brings preservice teachers as a cohort to collaboratively learn about, discuss, reflect on and plan lessons as they prepare to work with students from different backgrounds than their own.

This chapter describes the impact of a multicultural curriculum transformation assignment on the consciousness and pedagogy of pre-service and in-service educators preparing to teach and lead within diverse U.S. P-12 schools. Highlighting how two university faculty leveraged a mosaic of critical theories and pedagogies to engage action research exploring the inquiry, How might the application of an assignment grounded in an instructional framework comprised of theories in educational leadership, critical multicultural education, and critical pedagogy inspire and motivate pre- and in-service educators to teach, lead, and serve for social justice beyond their program of study?, It provokes us to consider how best to prepare educators with the knowledge, skill, and will to teach and lead employing a praxis situated in equity and justice. Findings contribute to scholarly conversations and school-based practices focused on culturally responsive teaching and leadership, and prove relevant for P-12 educators, teacher educators, those in educational leadership, and educators advocating equity and justice for historically marginalized and minoritized students attempting to learn in unjust classroom and school spaces.