Multicultural Education Courses in Teacher Education Programs: Perceptions of Faculty and Current Teachers

• In Event: 77.044 - Faculty of Color Speak Out: Cultivating Systems, Support, and Sustainability in the Ivory Tower

Abstract

This paper examines the narratives of both in-service teachers and pre-service teacher educators on the topic of multicultural education courses taught as part of teacher training programs in Western New York. I examine the divergent views of these two groups and how the narrative of the teachers is shaped by place and a need to distance themselves from their own resistance to multicultural ideas. My study asks, what results do we see from diversity courses several years into new teachers’ tenure and how do teachers frame their responses to these classes after they have had time to think about them? I argue that teachers in Buffalo use the diversity here as a means of deflecting analysis of inequities in schools.

Author

• Tami E. Ryan, University at Buffalo - SUNY