Pre-Service Teachers In Multicultural Education

Teacher educators and K-12 public school educational leaders recognize the need to provide specific culturally responsive teaching (CRT) training to pre-service and in-service teachers to better prepare these individuals to teach culturally diverse student populations. According to Brown (2012) and Gonzalez (2012), teacher preparation programs are training teachers in the use of CRT. For example, Gonzalez (2012) asserts that pre-service teachers need training in classroom-based assessments that address the learning needs of culturally diverse students. This study explored teachers’ lived experiences with teaching a culturally diverse student body and fills the gap in the literature on teachers’ lived experiences using CRTS with culturally diverse

Educational leaders, such as school principals, were primarily responsible for everyday operations of a school. However, their responsibility would eventually grow to include involvement in community service, developing data analysis skills for student assessment, and mediating between the shared concerns of all stakeholders. As a result of these changes in administrative duties, educational leaders must hire teachers that are prepared to work in the schools with culturally diverse students and provide learning opportunities that increase teachers’ cultural sensitivity towards their students, student families, and other stakeholders (Council of Chief State Officers, 2015). Waddell (2013) found that pre-service teachers are unfamiliar with the cultural values or the lifestyles of children from low-income families and may even harbor a negative opinion of how these students and their families think about education. Therefore, teacher college preparatory programs, along with professional development opportunities, must develop curriculum that involves preparing pre-service and in-service teachers for working with diverse student populations, their families, and the community. Teachers must become familiar with the various customs and values held by the different cultures and subgroups represented in our public school

The target population was teachers of culturally diverse students that teach core subjects of math, science, social studies, English language arts and exploratory subjects at an urban high school. According to Moustakas (1994), a small sample size is recommended. Accordingly, the sample size for this study was 10 teachers that had at least one year of experience teaching culturally diverse high school students from ninth through twelfth grade. Although there are several ways to implement CRTS, the study focused on how 10 teachers of culturally diverse students perceived and described their lived experiences using culturally responsive teaching strategies. Research has shown that pre-service teachers and in-service teachers have limited diversity training (Castro et al. 2012) therefore; further research was needed to understand teachers’ use or non-use of CRTS based on their lived experiences. This study contributes to filling the gap in the literature on understanding teachers’ lived experiences, and can lead to the development of new and revised training strategies of pre-service and in-service teachers in teacher preparation programs and professional development