Do Early Childhood Teachers Truly Understand and Implement Effective Multicultural Education in Their Teaching?

• In Event: A Global Perspective on Early Childhood Education

Abstract

The United States of America is known to be one of the most culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse countries in the world. With this comes the increasing diversity among school populations, making multicultural education necessary at all levels of education while integrating a culturally inclusive world-view into all areas of the curriculum. Early childhood educators have also responded this social change and have a commitment to fostering respect for diversity and to providing equal educational opportunities to all children. The purpose of the study is (1) to explore early childhood teacher’s understanding and integration of effective multicultural education in his or her classroom and, (2) to determine the impact effective multicultural education has in early childhood programs.

Author

• Lauren Kelley Gonzalez, Stephen F. Austin State University