Multicultural teacher education for the 21st century

TLDR

Teacher education programs must deliberately prepare predominantly European‑American preservice teachers to work with ethnically diverse K‑12 students, because rising racial, cultural, and linguistic divides, fear of diversity, and resistance to addressing race and racism threaten effective instruction. This article argues for the importance of multicultural preservice teacher education and proposes strategies to enhance its implementation. The authors recommend a two‑part professional‑development program to equip preservice teachers with the skills needed to work effectively with ethnically diverse students.

Abstract

Abstract This article explains several reasons why multicultural preservice teacher education is important and suggests some ways it can be better accomplished. The authors make a strong case for teacher education programs to be more deliberate about preparing European Americans to teach ethnically diverse students of color. They argue that this explicit professional preparation is needed because of the increasing racial, cultural, and linguistic divide between teachers (predominately European American) and K–12 students (increasingly from ethnic groups of color). Two other factors underscore the need for more multicultural teacher education: the fear of diversity and the resistance to dealing with race and racism frequently expressed by students enrolled in teacher education programs. To overcome these problems and better prepare preservice teachers to work effectively with ethnically diverse students the authors suggest a two‐part program of professional development.