Calls to increase diversity in the United States teacher workforce emphasize benefits to students without strategic consideration of minoritized teachers' needs. In this ethnographic study, we investigate the affordances of a counterspace for Black women pre-service teachers in a predominantly white institution to support their development as…

The current narrative surrounding urban education, while incomplete, often focuses on concerns related to student achievement, failing schools, and teacher quality. This article targets teacher preparation as one response to these challenges and investigates the extent to which liberal arts colleges and universities are involved in this work. The…

This qualitative case study examines the impact of a workshop on culturally responsive teaching on preservice elementary teacher candidates' ability to conceptualize and apply culturally responsive instruction. The "Rethinking Columbus" workshop teaches students to read critically as text detectives, asking questions such as, "Whose…

Too often teacher professional development (PD) is focused on mainstream K-12 learners, even as US schools become more culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD). This theoretical paper provides guidance for centering professional development on the margins. The three conclusions are distilled from robust experiences with middle and high school…

Preparing teacher candidates for the important work of engaging with family-community is a persistent challenge. Teacher educators should consider repositioning the role that family-community knowledge holds in teacher practice and in the teacher education curriculum. This shift in philosophical, professional, and curricular importance can be an…

The needs of urban schools are the focus of educators. Of primary concern is the lack of qualified teachers who are prepared to meet the needs of learners in U.S. classrooms. One factor of policymakers' concern is the mismatch between the experiences and backgrounds of many teachers versus those of students they will teach. Preservice teachers…

Twenty-first century classrooms are filled with increasingly diverse student populations. Effective teacher preparation programs must include explicit course work in culturally responsive pedagogies and field experiences that place educators in new sociocultural contexts. Field experiences in cross-cultural, place-based settings have the potential…

This paper proposes a framework for the development of culturally responsive practices in beginning teachers to meet the needs of diverse students in multicultural classrooms. The framework describes the trajectory beginning teachers undergo toward becoming culturally responsive and discusses how teacher educators in liberal arts colleges can…

Today's teachers must be equipped to reach all children and embrace a pedagogy of equity. Toward that end, teacher preparation programs need to foster a transformationist pedagogy which allows students to develop into culturally responsive teachers. This paper describes three components of a teacher preparation program that embraces teaching for…

This study is part of a larger study that uses mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative methods) to investigate preservice teachers' knowledge and understanding of multiculturalism and to prepare preservice teachers to work in diverse classrooms. The results indicate two findings: 1) that preservice teachers come from homogeneous backgrounds;…

This paper was adapted from a speech presented at the Annual Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education in Chicago, Illinois, during the spring 2004 conference. Dr. Pearson articulates the status of education, best teaching practices, teacher preparation, educational reform and instructional change for educating diverse…