Preservice teachers on study abroad: A site for developing new pedagogical perspectives on teaching non-White students
Abstract
Preparing White teachers to work in diverse, high needs, low income schools with high minority enrollments is one of the greatest challenges facing teacher education programs in U.S. colleges and universities in this era of education reform. Researchers have identified some of the factors that contribute to this challenge: deeply entrenched beliefs that preservice teachers bring to teacher education; their resistance to current notions of multicultural education; and a lack of consensus about the most efficient approach in addressing these factors. The reality in U.S. schools today is that the foreign born population has increased rapidly due to large scale immigration (U.S. Census, 2010), while the teaching force has remained predominantly White and middle class. Statistically, most foreign-born immigrants tend to settle in urban cities; hence urban schools have the highest number of minority, non-English speaking and low income students, resulting in an upsurge in minority student enrollment in urban, suburban, and some rural public schools. When White teachers who attended rural or suburban schools find themselves in urban classrooms populated with culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students, they are unprepared and ill-equipped to connect and work successfully with them. This racial, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic dichotomy between xvi teachers and minority students has consequences for all involved. The research literature suggests that unless preservice teachers are exposed to multicultural experiences in addition to their courses, the racial gap between minority students and teachers will continue to widen. The victims of this seemingly harmless dynamic are affected by the widening of the academic gap between White and minority students and further marginalization of the minority population. This study explores how sending preservice teachers to study abroad—taking them out of their element—can be an effective approach to giving them hands-on practice in both learning as minorities and learning to work with minority students.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Phillion, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Multicultural Education|Teacher education|Higher education
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