VIEWING THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: RECOGNIZING FACTORS: AFFECTING
MULTICULTURAL AWARENESS AND COMPETENCE OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN EARLY
CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM
Basanti Dey Chakraborty
INTRODUCTION
Consider
the following views of pre-service teachers on multiculturalism:” Multicultural
education is important because it can help to eliminate the stereotypes and
discrimination in the world’s classrooms and possibly outside the classroom as
well.” “Children learn about the world through their classmate’s presence, when
the teacher chooses to teach various ethnic back grounds. It is a great way to
learn about world culture in a non-threatening way. Children become well
rounded at an earlier age and eventually become competent young adults.” “Make
sure to teach each individual with respect and make sure you
highlight/emphasize something significant and important from each culture that
is meaningful for the child.” “The more those teachers will incorporate ideas
on multiculturalism in their teaching and curriculum, the better the people
will get along and coexist peacefully. Children will know that people are more
alike than different and those differences make the world more interesting.”
These voices resonate some of the views of leading scholar in multicultural
education. Consider the following: Thinking, caring, and acting are the heart
of my teaching of multicultural education. It is assumed that in addition to
the need for teachers who are well informed about their content areas and
cultural diversity, the nation needs teachers who are fair minded, critical
thinkers, who care about the welfare of their students and humanity in general,
and who act in ways that encourage all students to learn and develop to their
highest potential (Sleeter, 1995). Scholars (Banks, 1989; Bennett, 1995;
Derman-Sparks & the A.B.C. Task Force, 1991; Haberman & Post, 1998;
Irvine, 1994; Nieto, 1996; Sleeter, 1995, and Tatum, 1992) in the field of
multicultural education have emphasized the need for culturally responsive teachers
in the schools. How do culturally responsive teacher preparation programs look?
Culturally responsive teacher education programs must include opportunities for
pre-service teachers to work in schools where all students learn and develop to
their highest potentiality; where students and teachers understand and begin to
develop multiple ways of perceiving, behaving, and evaluating; and where
students conform to those aspects of school culture necessary for harmonious
social interaction while retaining their own ethnic identity (Irvine, 1994).
Haberman and Post (1998) in their article “Teachers for multicultural schools:
The Power of Selection,” emphasized on the following qualities of
teachers: Self-knowledge, Self-acceptance,
Relationship skills, Community
knowledge, Empathy, Cultural human development, Cultural conflict, Relevant
curriculum, Generating sustained effort, Coping with violence, Self-analysis, and Functioning in chaos. To fulfill these
qualities as responsive teachers in 21st century schools, the pre-service teachers must become
aware of the diversity among young children and their families, develop
understanding and respect for diverse cultures and build partnerships with
families in educating young children. Through early exposure to the concept of
multiculturalism prior to entering into a teacher preparation program,
pre-service teachers can learn to develop the right kind of attitude and skills
to address the issues negatively affecting the education of young children.
Preparation of pre-service teachers involves three major phases: liberal arts
education, specialized subject-field education, and professional education.
During these phases the students get exposures and opportunities to learn about
the world around them, strengthen their personal knowledge on specific content,
and develop critical thinking ability in making decisions and solving problems
for themselves and others. Liberal arts education develops and refines the
thinking process of individuals to accept rational explanation of phenomenon
happening around them and to be able to accept and recognize diverse viewpoints
with patience, respect and decency. This kind of refinement of the thought
process facilitates students’ ability to make rational decisions and solve problems
scientifically. Pre-service teachers in early childhood education courses are
exposed to knowledge, skills and professional dispositions on diversity issues,
teacher expectations of all students, professional and ethical qualities to
become an empathetic teacher through clinical experiences, classroom
activities, discussions and dialogs. It is with these assumptions, the
investigator, explored perceptions of factors effecting the development of
multicultural awareness and competence of pre-service teachers.
RESEARCH
DESIGN
The
following questions were explored in the study:
What is multicultural competence? How is multicultural education
valuable for prospective teachers? Which instructional strategies were
effective in promoting awareness, understanding and appropriate attitude
towards diversity/multiculturalism? What issues posed obstacle in the process
of developing multicultural awareness and competence among the teacher
candidates? The conclusion was based on the analysis of teacher candidates’ responses
to the above research questions.
Methods
Qualitative
approach with a small sample was used to generate data from a survey
questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to pre-service teachers in an
undergraduate early childhood program of a north-eastern university in U.S.A.
Participants were surveyed on their personal exposure to diversity, the impact
of a liberal arts education in exposing them to the process of critical
thinking and the teacher education program in training them to address the
needs of diverse young children. Participants were surveyed on conditions and
factors that facilitated their multicultural awareness and competence. The
questionnaire included items that tapped demographic characteristics (age, sex,
ethnic background) and exposure to diversity.
Data
Source
The
responses to the questions in the questionnaire consisting of objective and
open-ended questions served as the primary data source. Descriptive statistics
were used to analyze the students’ responses to objective questions in the
survey. Content analysis was used to analyze open-ended survey questions. The
survey involved undergraduate students (Total n=302; male=9 and female=293) in
early childhood teacher preparation program. The ages ranged from 22 to the
late fifties. There were 16 Asian American, 46 African American, 122 Hispanic,
101 Caucasian, and 17 who designated their background as other, in the sample.
RESULTS
Exposure
to Diversity
The
personal life experiences of students played a vital role in their acceptance
and understanding of diverse issues discussed either in liberal arts or in
teacher education program courses. These personal experiences also facilitated
students’ acceptance, and understanding of diversity among young children and
their families. 97% of the participants reported having prior exposure to
multiculturalism while 3% reported having no exposure. 93% reported having
exposure to multicultural experiences in education courses. Pre-service
teachers reported their source of exposure to: experience with people of
different ethnicities, multicultural activities in both liberal arts and early
childhood teacher education courses experience of working in school systems,
university environment, reading diverse/multicultural literature
Value
of Multicultural Education
Pre-service
teachers reported that multicultural education is extremely valuable, should be
taught at an early age, and be a part of every students’ life. According to
them:
“Multicultural
education helps one to become a better person, to develop insight into other
culture, and to get to know each other.” “Multicultural education is essential
to living in 21st century, and is a novel way
to learn about the world culture in a non-threatening way. Multicultural
education will work towards eliminating stereotypes and discrimination in the
classrooms. This will help children to be tolerant of others, and help teachers
in dealing with children and parents effectively.”
Successful
Strategies
The
strategies found successful in developing multicultural awareness and
competence of the pre-service teachers were: Observations, meetings and
discussions with parents; Debates on complex issues like “Gay and Lesbians;”
Group work and interviews; Dramatization and role-playing about different
culture; Learning about multiculturalism
thorough content and the process of reflection/conflict resolution; and Reading of controversial books.
Effective
Multicultural Activities as perceived by Pre-service teachers
Participants
responded with powerful messages about effective activities:
“Writing
an essay on our lives and culture was the best activity.” In addition,
participants’ suggested the following activities as powerful and meaningful:
“Doing an activity on stereotype misconception. Having the DISCOMFORT in doing
this activity pushed the pre-service teachers’ boundaries forcing them to think
beyond the box”; Activities with young children in schools to understand their
cultural background, to understand the “Special needs child”; Activities on
“White Prejudice” ; Watching the video “Class Divided” and writing reflection
paper; Annotated bibliography on multicultural children’s literature;
Discussing peer’s background; and
Creating a multicultural tree with children’s handprints.
CONCLUSION
The
results of the survey on strategies, activities and perception of participants
on the value of multicultural education provide critical information for the
teacher educators. The result demonstrates the use of reflective activities,
group work, interviews, discussions and reading of books as important factors
in enhancing participants’ critical thinking. Perceptions of the participants
suggest that certain activities are more powerful than others in evoking the
right kind of feelings and attitudes to think beyond the box and examine issues
critically. The researcher believes that there is a need for evaluation at the
beginning and end of the teacher education program to assess the entry and exit
level awareness and competence of pre-service teachers on multicultural education.
It is also felt that interdisciplinary collaboration between the content
specific courses, liberal arts courses and teacher education courses may
strengthen the competence of pre-service teachers in multicultural education.
The following are some of the suggestions for further research: Interviewing
pre-service teachers; Exploration of faculty views on the issue of
multicultural awareness and competence; and Surveying and interviewing faculty
members teaching various courses in subject specific courses; liberal arts
courses and teacher education program may provide valuable information for
further analysis.
REFERENCES
Banks,
J. A. (1989) Approaches to multi-cultural curriculum. In Banks, J.A. & Gee-Banks, C. A. (Eds.), Multicultural Education: Issues
and Perspectives. Allyn & Bacon,
Bennett,
C.
Derman-Sparks,
L., & the A.B.C. Task Force (1991) The Anti-Bias Curriculum. NAEYC,
Haberman,
M & Post, L. (1998) Teachers for multicultural schools: the power of
selection. Theory into Practice 37, 2.
Nieto,
S (1996) Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural
Education (2nd
ed.)
Sleeter,
C.
Sleeter,
C. E (1992) Keepers of the American Dream: A Study of Staff Development and
Multicultural Education. The Falmer Press,
Tatum,
B.D. (1992) Talking about race, learning about racism: The application of
racial identity development theory in
the classroom. Harvard Educational Review 62, 1, 1-24.