Teachers’ Understandings of Ethnic Diversity: After 40+ Years of Official Multiculturalism in Canada, Are We Any Further Ahead?

• In Event: Critical Issues of Race, Class, and Gender

Abstract

In this paper we report on a study of how teachers in two Canadian provinces (Alberta and New Brunswick) understand the concept of ethnic diversity. The paper will: (1) Delineate the conceptions of ethnic diversity inherent in policy and curriculum documents in both provinces and set them in the context of theoretical conceptions of ethnic diversity; (2) Map the qualitatively different ways in which teachers understand ethnic diversity; and (3) Provide an assessment of the relationship between teachers’ conceptions of ethnic diversity and the conceptions outlined in policy and curricular documents.

Authors

• Carla L. Peck, University of Alberta

• Alan M. Sears, University of New Brunswick