Scholars for decades now have argued for the importance of multiculturalism in the United States, as they become a more diverse society. Multicultural education has the potential to provide a curriculum that is inclusive, offering multiple perspectives, and concerned with equity. It is without question the responsibility of colleges and…

Students in public schools nationwide are becoming more diverse. By 2020, students of color will account for 50% of the school population, while teachers will likely remain predominantly White and female. The cultural gap between students and teachers will continue to present numerous obstacles for students of color to succeed at school. As a…

Although many programs ascribe to promoting and celebrating diversity, traditional teacher preparation rarely centralizes multicultural education courses. Instead, these courses are often "added on" to or disconnected from the rest of the program. Multicultural education courses and other courses that address diversity often ask the preservice…

Over the last decade, teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities across the United States have attempted to respond to the challenges of preparing teachers for the increasing diversity that is represented in public schools today. Teacher programs have responded to these challenges by altering courses, curriculum, fieldwork…

Resistance that educators face in teaching multicultural education courses, particularly from preservice teachers, is well documented. Much of the literature around resistance tends to focus on strategies that multicultural educators can employ in overcoming preservice teacher resistance. However, preservice teacher resistance is not the only kind…

As a teacher educator who regularly teaches a multicultural education course, the author has often employed service-learning as a pedagogical strategy in assisting preservice teachers to understand better the various multicultural topics they discuss, such as racism, heterosexism, and sexism that impact their schools. Therefore, when she was…

Many teachers teach undergraduate and graduate teacher education courses that include a cultural hodgepodge of future teachers who differ not only in ethnicity, but in age, sexual preference, religion, language, and a host of other microcultural areas. Occasionally it is clear within the first couple of class sessions that these groups are…

Hernandez (1989) argued that teacher educators who teach multicultural education courses too often focus on curricular or content aspects of multicultural education and rarely deal with the process of changing teachers' belief systems related to multicultural education. This article presents a host of practices that have supported teachers'…

This study was conducted to assess and improve an introductory multicultural-designated course in an urban teacher preparation program. The course aimed to promote candidates' positive response to multiculturalism, especially White/Caucasian candidates. Results suggest that this approach effectively laid the foundation for almost all candidates'…