The U.S. Census Bureau (2009) reports that over 50% of school-age children will be other than non-Hispanic Caucasians by 2023. In an effort to help meet the imperative need for preservice teachers who are well prepared to work with these students from diverse cultural backgrounds, as well as for teacher education programs to more fully…

Diversity does not simply mean differences of race or ethnicity but includes the cultural experiences that children bring to school, including language, beliefs, values, norms, family configuration, socioeconomic status, gender, special needs, home and community backgrounds, and learning styles. Yet while the population of children in schools is…

Diversity and multicultural education is fast becoming the norm. Race, gender, ethnicity, ability, language, culture, socioeconomic class, family configurations, interests, or combinations of these produce enormous diversity issues. The refection of this huge sociocultural diversity--children coming from different ethnic backgrounds--has…