The world is becoming increasingly more diverse in our nation’s classrooms. One critical aspect of respecting diversity as well as using it as a means to strengthen students’ educational experiences and academic outcomes is how the issue of diversity plays out in American teacher education programs in literacy and reading. International Reading Association’s (IRA) Committee on Learning Diversity has undertaken a national study to examine this issue.
Z Score,T Score, Percential Rank and Box Plot Graph
Diversity in united states teacher education programs in literacy and reading a nationwide investigative study, jonkoping 2013
1. Swedish Council of the International Reading Association
18th European Conference on Reading
New Challenges – New Literacies
Wendy C. Kasten, Ph.D., Sue Ann Sharma, Ph.D., & Diana Sisson, Ed.D.
Jönköping, Sweden – August 6-9, 2013
Diversity in United States Teacher
Education Programs in Literacy and
Reading: A Nationwide Investigative Study
International Reading Association, Learning Diversity Committee
5. Racial/Ethnic Diversity of U.S.
Teachers
82.9
6.9
7.2
1.3 0.2
0.5 0.9
Percentage of U.S. Teachers by Racial/Ethnic
Diversity in 2007-2008
White
Black
Hispanic
Asian
Native Hawaiian/
Pacific Islander
American Indian/
Alaska Native
6. IRA Standard 4: Diversity
Candidates create
and engage their
students in literacy
practices that
develop awareness,
understanding,
respect, and a
valuing of
differences in our
society.
7. Studying Teacher Education:
AERA Report
• Teacher candidates are a homogenous population
with limited experience interacting with people from
different backgrounds to their own.
• Enter teacher prep programs with negative or deficit
attitudes about those who are different from
themselves.
• Limited evidence of whether activities aimed at
reducing prejudice have long-term results on the
instruction that teacher candidates provide.
Cochran-Smith, M. & Zeichner, K. (2005). Studying teachers education: The report of the American Education Research Association (AERA)
panel on research in teacher education. Lawrence Erlbaum, 7(3). 20-27.
8. Studying Teacher Education:
AERA Report
• Candidates placed in urban settings with diverse
students for field work gain more complex
understandings of cultural and experiential
differences than candidates in suburban settings.
• Teacher preparation programs are at different
points in preparing teacher candidates to address
diversity.
Cochran-Smith, M. & Zeichner, K. (2005). Studying teachers education: The report of the American Education Research Association
( AERA) panel on research in teacher education. Lawrence Erlbaum, 7(3). 20-27.
9. Teacher Education for Equity and
Democracy
Equitable Access Democratic Participation & Advocacy
for Equity
Recruit & admit More diverse teacher candidates Candidates committed to multicultural
democracy and equity
Early fieldwork In multiple classrooms,
Inquiry-based to disrupt deficit
theorizing,
In communities to learn culture of
students
Inquiry into school and community
patterns of inequity
Professional coursework Self-analysis,
Socio-cultural framework for teaching &
learning,
Teaching strategies linking what
students bring to academics
Strategies for building multicultural
democracy in classroom,
Nature of institutional discrimination in
society and schools
Student teaching In culturally diverse and/or low-income
schools, with plenty of time and support
In classrooms that support democratic
decision-making,
With teachers that model advocacy
stance
On-going professional development Practice-based inquiry with support Activist teacher networks
Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness.
Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94-106.
10. Defining Diversity
The dimensions of
diversity range from
generic facets involving
race, culture, religion,
language, and gender
identity, including
differences related to
learning interests,
capabilities, and
disabilities.
13. Research Questions
• Question 1: What are the beliefs and values
teacher educators hold about diversity as it relates
to teacher preparation programs?(survey)
• Question 2: How do teacher educators describe
the experience they provide around diversity?
(narrative description)
• Question 3: What influences shape literacy
teacher educators’ teaching practices and
developing beliefs about literacy and learning?
(focus groups)
18. Research Question 1:
Quantitative Results
What are the beliefs and values
teacher educators hold about
diversity as it relates to teacher
preparation programs?
19. Value of Diversity in General Value With Regard to Specific
Areas of Diversity
Agreement
Disagreement
88.2
11.8
Agreement
Disagreement
Development of Diversity Awareness
Religion &
Sexual Orientation
Sign Test Analysis
20. Reality is Relative to Experiences
Strong
Logistic
Regression
Suburban
D=.95
Urban
Logistic Regression Analysis
21. IRA Standard 4: Diversity Valued by
Teacher Educators
Teacher Educators
Most Strongly Agreed
Institution of
Employment Values
Diversity
IRA Standard 4:
Diversity
P> .000000000000000000001
with Bonferroni Corrections
Modified Sign Tests
22. Instructional Practices Taught to
Support Learning Among Diverse
Students
Under
Graduate
Relevant
Curriculum
Differentiated
Instruction
Adapt
Approaches
for ELL
Graduate
(P<.000001)
Relevant
Curriculum
Differentiated
Instruction
Adapt
Approaches
for ELL
✔
✔
✔✔
✔
X
23. Coursework that Develops
Diversity Awareness
Curriculum
That Promotes
Diversity
Understanding
Complexity
of Learning
for ELL
Students
Awareness of
Responsibility
to Educate
About
Diversity
(p< .0001)
31. Conclusion
• Teacher educators value addressing diversity
• Demographics and location of teacher preparation
institutes influences one’s diversity lens
• Next Steps:
– Find Ways to learn exactly what is happening
and how it is enacted in the field
• Conduct focus groups by institution size
– Urban, Suburban, and Rural
32. Focus Group Questions
• Briefly describe your teacher candidate profiles and the
kinds of populations your teachers will serve.
• Describe the complexities that your teacher candidate face
when meeting the needs of diverse learners.
• Describe what you do to prepare teacher candidate to meet
the needs of diverse learners both at the program level and
the courses you teach.
• Describe what challenges you face in preparing teacher
candidate to met the needs of diverse learners.
• Specifically, can you speak to preparing teacher candidate
to meet the needs of ELL, religious and sexual orientation
and any other areas of diversity?
• What else would like to add to our discussion?
33. Educational Significance
• All students would benefit from higher education
programs that cultivate diversity and multiculturally
responsive teachers.
• This research is significant to the enhancement of
instructional support for the advancement of
teaching diversity.
34. Between Teacher and Child
I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the
decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal
approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood
that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a
tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or
joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of
inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is
my response that decides whether a crisis will be
escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or
dehumanized.
Ginott, H. (1975). Teacher and child: A book for parents and teachers. New York, NY: Macmillan.
35. Acknowledgments
• International Reading
Association Committee for
Diversity of Learning
– Linda Akanbi, Ed.D.
– Susan Grogan, Ph.D.
– Abha Gupta, Ph.D.
– Wendy Kasten, Ph.D.*
– Julie Kidd, Ed.D.
– Sue Ann Sharma, Ph.D.*
– Diana Sisson, Ed.D.
– Lynn Smolen, Ph.D.
– Tanya Wright, Ph.D.
• Principal Investigators*
• Quantitative Analysis Team
– Yeaton Clifton, Ph.D.
– Sue Ann Sharma, Ph.D.
– Tanya Wright, Ph.D.
• Qualitative Analysis Team
– Abha Gupta, Ph.D.
– Julie Kidd, Ed.D.
– Nedra Cossa
– Heather West
– Wendy Kasten, Ph.D.
– Sue Ann Sharma, Ph.D.
• Literature Review Team
– Tanya Wright, Ph.D.
– Marliese Peltier
– Chad Waldron
36.
37. Contact Information
Wendy C. Kasten, Ph.D. wkasten@kent.edu
Sue Ann Sharma, Ph.D. sa3sharm@oakland.edu
Diana Sisson, Ed.D. sissonconsulting@comcast.net
Presentation can be found online at www.slideshare.com
38. References
• Banks, J. (1993). Multicultural education: Historical development, dimensions, and
practice. Review of Research in Education, 19, 3-49.
• Cochran-Smith, M., Davis, D., & Fries, K. (2004). Multicultural teacher education: research,
practice, and policy. In Banks, J. A. (Ed.), Handbook of research in multicultural education
(2nd ed., pp. 931–936). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Cochran-Smith, M. & Zeichner, K. (2005). Studying teachers education: The report of the
AERA panel on research in teacher education. Lawrence Erlbaum, 7(3). 20-27.
• Darling-Hammond, L. & Bransford, J. (Eds.). (2005). Preparing teachers for a changing
world: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Douglas, F. (1845). Narrative of the the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. New
York, NY: Signet Classics. 2005 Print.
• Gay, G. (2010). Acting on beliefs in teacher education for cultural diversity. Journal of
Teacher Education, 61(1-2), 143-152.
• Gee, J. P. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (2nd ed.).
London: Taylor & Francis.
• Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of culture: Selected essays. New York, NY: Basic
Books.
• Ginott, H. (1975). Teacher and child: A book for parents and teachers, New York, NY:
Macmillan.
39. References
• Hollins, E. & Torres-Guzman, M.E. (2005). Research on preparing teachers for diverse
populations. Cochran-Smith, M. & Zeichner, K. (Eds.). Studying teacher education the
report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education: (pp.477-544). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• International Reading Association's Standards for Reading Professionals (2010). Retrieved
from http://www.reading.org/General/CurrentResearch/Standards/
ProfessionalStandards2010.aspx
• Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Preparing teachers for diverse student populations: A critical
race theory perspective. Review of Research in Education, 24(2), 211-247.
• Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2002). Teacher sorting and the plight of urban
schools: A descriptive analysis. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(7), 37-62.
• Lenski, S. D., Crumpler, T. P., Stallworth, C., & Crawford, K. M. (2005). Beyond awareness:
Preparing culturally responsive preservice teachers. Teacher Education Quarterly,32(2),
85-98.
• Lucas, T. Villegas, A. M., & Freedson-Gonzalez, M. (2008). The culturally responsive
teacher: Preparing classroom teachers to teach English language learners. Journal of
Teacher Education, 59(4), 361-373.
• Miles, M. B, Huberman, M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
40. References
• Menken, K., & Antunez, B. (2001). An overview of the preparation and certification of teachers
working with limited English proficient students. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse of
Bilingual Education. Retrieved July 30, 2013. www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?
accno=ED455231
• National Center for Education Statistics. (2013). The conditions of education. Retrieved from
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/
• National Center for Education Statistics. (2011). The conditions of education. Retrieved from
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/ analysis/2011-index.asp
• Reardon, S.F., & Bischoff, K. (2011). Income inequality and income segregation. American
Journal of Sociology, 116(4), 1092-1153.
• Shudak, N. J. (2010). Diversity in teacher education: A double helix. Academic Questions, 23(3),
348-355.
• Simonds, B. K., Lippert, L. R., Hunt, S. K., Angell, M. E., & Moore, M. K. (2008). Communication
and diversity: Innovations in teacher education. Communication Teacher, 22(2), 56-65.
• Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the
overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94-106.
• Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures
for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Tatum, A. W. (2003). Professional development for teachers of African American adolescents.
Illinois Reading Council Journal, 30(1), 42-52.
• Villegas, A. M. & Lucas, T. (2007). The culturally responsive teacher. Educational Leadership,
64(6), 28-33.
Notes de l'éditeur
Wendy:The world is becoming increasingly more diverse inour nation’s classrooms. One critical aspect of respecting diversity as well as using it as a means to strengthen students’ educational experiences and academic outcomes is how the issue of diversity plays out in American teacher education programs in literacy and reading. International Reading Association’s (IRA) Committee on Learning Diversity has undertaken a national study to examine this issue.
Diana:From 1990-2010, the percentage of white students attending public schools in the United States decreased from 67 to 54% (National Center of Education Statistics or NCES, downloaded), and based on the most recent projections (NCES, 2013), from 2010 to 2021, U.S. public school can expect an additional 2% decrease in students who identify as White. In contrast, from 1990-2010, Hispanic students increased from 12 to 23% and projections expect another 24% increase in Hispanic students and a 5% increase in Black students in U. S. public schools from 2010-2021. Enrollment by race/ethnicityBetween 2010 and 2021, enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools is projected to decrease 2 percent for students who are White;increase 5 percent for students who are Black; increase 24 percent for students who are Hispanic;increase 26 percent for students who are Asian/Pacific Islander;increase 16 percent for students who are American Indian/Alaska Native; andincrease 34 percent for students who are two or more races. (This racial/ethnic group was not included in figure 3, due to its size in comparison to the other groups.)
Diana:The percentage of public school students in the United States who were English language learners (ELLs) increased from 8% to 10% from 2000-2010 (NCES).
Diana:In contrast to the students they teach, teacher candidates typically come from white, middle class backgrounds, and may have limited exposure to people from backgrounds different to their own (Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Sleeter, 2001). Data from the National Center for Education indicates that in the 2007-2008 school year, 84% of public school teacher were women and 83% identified as White. Recent evidence (Reardon & Bischoff, 2011) indicates that the rise in income inequality has led to an associated rise in the sorting of families into neighborhoods that are increasingly segregated by race and class. Students from under-served populations are more likely to attend low-performing schools with highly inexperienced teachers (Education Trust, 2004; Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2002). Therefore, more than ever, novice teachers need to be well-prepared to serve all students and to ensure their success as literacy learners.DO NOT SEE EDUCATIONAL TRUST, 2004 IN REFERENCE SECTION.
Diana:The following are the major assumptions of the Standards 2010 Committee for developing this standard and its elements:Diversity will be as much a reality in the future as it is in our lives today and has been in the lives of our predecessors.There is a tradition of “deficit” thinking and discourse in the context of diversity and schooling. As a society, we are not far removed from a time when cultural deprivation was an accepted term. Diversity is a potential source of strength of a society to be encouraged not discouraged. Diversity is the basis for adaptability to change, and change is the only certainty in the future.Creating a curriculum that values diversity requires that teacher educators and teachers step outside their personal experiences within a particular linguistic, ethnic, or cultural group to experience the offerings of other groups.The elements of diversity in a society cannot be isolated within that society and certainly not within an individual. The elements of diversity interact in the form of multiple identities that may move from the background into the foreground as a function of the context and the moment.There is a danger in overgeneralizing (i.e., stereotyping) characteristics to all members of a group.Language-minority students need appropriate and different language and literacy instruction if they are to be successful academically while they learn English.It is the responsibility of teachers and schools not only to prepare learners in ways that value their diversity but also to prepare those learners to engage in active citizenship to redress areas of inequity and privilege.
Wendy:
Wendy:
Wendy:
Wendy:Various attributes of diversity encompass race, culture, religion, language, and gender identity, including differences related to learning interests, capabilities, and disabilities.Identifying the multi-faceted dimensions in terns diversity is fundamental to prepare teachers to build and engage their students in a curriculum that places value on the diversity that exists in our society.
Wendy:Predominantly, a single theory emerges during a research study. In examining the topic of diversity and teacher education, we found that three individual theories continually blended and overlapped to such a degree – that all three had to be included.
Wendy:A national study was undertaken to perform a collective review of the various teacher preparation programs in the field of literacy to investigate how are literacy teacher educators faring with IRA’s Standard 4: Diversity?
Wendy:The following research questions that guided the investigation….Focus groups will be conducted during the second phase of the study to investigate what influences shape literacy teacher educators’ teaching practices and developing beliefs about literacy and learning.
Sue:This study was designed using the methodology of mixed-methods. Both descriptive and inferentialstatistics research techniques were utilized to analyze the survey data collected.
Sue:This table illustrates the survey distribution. A national survey was developed and administered to teacher educators in United States in the spring of 2012. Listed along the Y access are the names of states throughout the United States. The X access represents the number of teacher educator participants from that state. Of the 1700+ participants, 201 teacher educators responded to the survey.
Sue:In respect to institution student profile, you can see from this graph that the majority of participants described the student enrollment of their institution as not particularly diverse – while the majority of participants describe the location of their institution as suburban.
Sue:From here you can see that the survey components reflect a mix-methods design. The data source included a survey instrument comprised of four quantitative subscales: Institutional Information, Faculty Background, Program Level, and Course Level, as well as one qualitative narrative description.Part 1: Institutional Information included institution accreditation status. In the United States there is no official federal agency for accreditation. Accreditation occurs at the institution level through the discipline. For example, teacher education programs are accredited through an independent agency known as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).The NCATE accreditation system is a voluntary peer review process that involves a comprehensive evaluation of the professional education unit.The review is based on the NCATE Unit Standards, a set of research-based national standards developed by all sectors of the teaching profession.Student population, institution location and faculty profile were also part of the institutional information collected.Part 2: Faculty Background encapsulated life experiences from childhood through adulthood and work life of the faculty. Part 3: Program Level reflects agreed upon knowledge and experiences to be had during undergraduate & graduate courses.Part 4: Course Level. There are no regulations at the course level. Faculty have freedom to develop a course in whichever way they choose.Finally, in Part 5teacher educators described innovative assignments or experiences they provided in a narrative format.
Sue: Previous studies have suggested that teacher education preparation programs are key in making a difference in how well teachers are able to meet the diverse needs of students in their classrooms. Therefore, as an IRA committee, we felt it was important to get a sense of…What are the beliefs and values teacher educators hold about diversity as it relates to teacher preparation programs?
Sue:Teacher educators were asked a range of questions as to whether their course or program deepened the diversity understandings of pre- and in-service teacher candidates. 100% of time, teacher educators were in agreement that their course or program values diversity understandings, even if they didn’t agree how. However, when diversity is broken down by area, teacher educators disagreed 11.8% of the time on how well religion and sexual orientation is being addressed. While, 88.2% of teacher educators that responded to the survey believed they areadequately preparing teacher candidates to address all aspects of diversity, including religion and sexual orientation issues in education. Overall, the majority of teacher educators’ values, significantly mirror the International Reading Association’s (IRA’s) Standard 4: Diversity.
Sue:Interestingly, the biggest discrepancy in the data was in the responses between suburban and urban educators with respect to diversity. Urban faculty are more likely to disagree that course work and core experiences help teacher candidates development adequate knowledge of how urban, suburban or rural environments impact learning to read and write. These results suggest urban faculty express more awarenessto the fact that we are not doing enough in the area of preparing to teachers to address the complexity of diversity issues they will encounter.Reality is relative to experiences and reminds me of the…Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Frederick Douglass accounts the following:I had somehow imbibed the opinion that, in the absence of slaves, there could be no wealth, and very little refinement. And upon coming to the north, I expected to meet with a rough, hard-handed, and uncultivated population, living in the most Spartan-like simplicity, knowing nothing of the ease, luxury, pomp, and grandeur of southern slaveholders. Such being my conjectures, any one acquainted with the appearance of New Bedford may very readily infer how palpably I must have seen my mistake. (p. 79)
Sue:Finally, modified sign tests indicate teacher educators strongly agree that their institution has value for the International Reading Association’s (IRA) Standard 4: Diversity. (p > .001 with Bonferroni corrections)
Sue:Additional Modified Sign Test Revealed:Teacher Educators agree that their practice support learning among diverse students for all incidences for graduate and all but one for undergraduates. A significant number of teacher educators are not reporting that they are teaching undergraduates how to adapt approaches to support second language learners. Since our English language learner (ELL) populations are increasing, more attention should be paid to prepare teacher candidates at an under-graduate level to second the needs of English language learners. This also mirrors the current literature on English language learners. Most states do not require mainstream teacher candidates to have course work in English language learners. As you ponder this finding, think about what this means with regard to the facts that: 1) Although English learners spend most of their day in the classroom with mainstream teachers, only one-sixth of institutions of higher education require the preparation of mainstream elementary and secondary teachers to teach English learners (Antunez & Menken, 2001). 2) The majority of teachers receive little or no professional development for teaching English learners (National Center of Educational Statistics, 2002, as cited by Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008).3) Finally, only 4 states require all mainstream teachers to complete coursework focused on the instruction of English learners.
Sue:In summary, from the quantitative data portion of the survey, we learned that coursework development had a consistently large effect sizes for all subscales, with regard to a high value is placed on curriculum development that promotes diversity understandings, awareness of the complexities ELL students face, and awareness that we have a responsibility to educate, educators about diversity issues.This is the one section of the survey that was consistently large in its effect sizes for all subscales.
Sue:In the last survey item, we asked respondents to describe anything in their courses they believed enhanced understanding of diversity learning. To answer this question we asked: How do teacher educators describe the experiences they provide around diversity?
Sue:Overall, people who responded to the narrative were very similar to the people who took the survey as a whole with the exception that they were more likely to say they have a somewhat diverse institution. In respect to where their institution is located, you can see from this graph that the majority were in urban or suburban locations.
Sue:As the committee examined the data, we noticed two types of responses that emerged: direct engagement with people from diverse groups and indirect engagement with diverse perspectives. We had two groups of coders code the data using these themes. There was an .833match between these two groups. Of the 89 who responded to this question, we had 13 responses that did not answer the question. Of those who did respond to the question, 40 provided examples of experiences that indirectly engaged students with diverse perspectives, 20 provided examples of activities that involved direct engagement with people with diverse backgrounds, and 16 included examples of both indirect and direct engagement.
Sue:Those who shared experiences coded as indirect experiences indicated that they provided opportunities for their students to engage in activities that developed awareness of diversity through experiences that did not have the students directly interact with students, families, and professionals with diverse backgrounds and/or learning abilities. Examples of indirect engagement included reading multicultural literature, observing videos related to diverse learners, readings focused on diversity, and demonstration lessons with classmates that required responding to student diversity in lesson planning and implementation.
Sue:A few respondents provided shared ways they engage their students in direct as well as indirect interactions with diverse learners. For example, one respondent wrote:My students regularly engage in simulations that help them understand diverse learner needs such as reading disabilities, language delays, and auditory challenges. For instance, they participate in grouping activities where one group is given multiple options for success while the other experiences overwhelming failure in completing an activity. They develop their own "writing system" in order to see the production and interpretation differences between logographic and phonetic writing systems. They are given guided practice in interpreting children's writing and reading errors to decide whether they are merely racial, cultural, or ethnic differences rather than knowledge gaps. They also work one-on-one with children from multiple cultures including Hispanic, African-American, African, and Korean in local schools to put their knowledge into practice.
Sue:Although the majority discussed activities that provided indirect engagement with diversity, some shared ways they encourage students to interact directly with diverse learners. Examples of direct engagement included tutoring diverse students, field experiences in diverse schools, involvement in family literacy events, and conducting one-on-one studies of students from cultures different from their own. For example, one respondent shared:One of the assignments my undergraduate students complete related to enhancing students' understanding of students (and their diversity) is an interview project. As part of their weekly 2 hour placement at a local urban middle school, each of my undergraduates must identify and interview 1 middle school studentFrom these responses, it is apparent that there are a variety of ways literacy educators are attempting to develop their students’ understanding of diverse learners. However, there is more to learn about what literacy educators are doing and what practices contribute to pre-service and in-service teachers’ work with diverse learners.
Sue: There was plenty of enthusiasm to agree with the standards.Those that responded to the survey are most likely to be interested in diversity issues (Selection Bias).A little over 10% of teacher educators responded to the survey. Typically, teacher educators do not take the time to respond to surveys. This is why it is even more important to follow up to this survey with focus groups.
Wendy:The first year of the current ongoing study confirmed the presence of factors such as the direct and indirect engagement of pre-service and in-service teachers with diverse student populations, specific program characteristics, demographics and location of teacher preparation institutes.The research shows the importance of programmatic experiences that teacher educators create and experience towards the development of candidates’ knowledge and skills related to diversity within the context of educational learning. Specifically, concerning the effects of teachers’ lack of diversity understanding and its influence on students.
Wendy:Find ways to learn exactly what is happening and how it is enacted in the field. Conduct regional focus groups.
Wendy:In order to prepare teachers to increase educational practices that successfully meet the needs of diverse learners, it is essential for today’s literacy teacher educators to provide pre- and in-service teachers with direct engagement experiences that will deepen their understandings.This study fills a gap in the research literature regarding the literacy practices that prepare teachers to increase educational practices that are inclusive of diversity in an era of high-stakes accountability and testing.
Wendy:Teacher education preparation programs are key to making a difference in how well teachers meet the diverse needs of students in their classrooms.
