Abstract:
In the past decade, issues related to cultural diversity and pluralism
have risen to the forefront in education. The increasing cultural diversity in
American classrooms and communities requires preservice teachers to be
ready to promote multiple perspectives within their curricula and among their
students. The purpose of this study was to understand how elementary
preservice teachers engage in multicultural education. The researcher
perspective is that of an African American woman working in a predominantly
European American community.
The connection between multicultural education theories and
preservice teacher practices has not been consistently established. In order
to bridge this gap, I used an experience-based methodology, drawing on
close interaction with and observation of five participants over the course of a
year. Different individuals exemplify the four themes that emerged from all
five participants.
The first and central theme that emerged was caring for individuals
based on core beliefs. This is a crucial element for teaching in a multicultural society. Second, caring leads to willingness to dialogue on multiple
perspectives, or any dichotomy, as a basis for understanding. Third,
passionate pursuits become bases for action in the realm of multicultural
education and for promoting the interests of all children. Fourth, openness
to learn is a prerequisite to progress in multicultural education.
Demonstrating caring concern, developing and encouraging
passionate pursuits, and utilizing multiple perspectives through dialogue
have been valuable in encouraging the openness to learn by preservice
teachers as they facilitate a similar growth in their students. These same
methods have shaped my research. I recognize that the themes that
emerged from the participants are also embedded in the research method
and reflect many appropriate college and elementary classroom teaching
practices. These mirrored similarities are grounded in the metaphor of
chaos theory. I also made connections to James Banks' Dimensions of
Multicultural Education, and his Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content,
and to LeoNora Cohen's Principles for Serving Students. Additional contributions of this study are the epistemological and
methodological basis of the research and the way the representation of the
data mirrors the method and the findings.
