Preservice Teachers' Transformative Journeys in a Multicultural Education Course

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session offers participants an opportunity to engage with five research papers that present findings from analysis of data collected from a cohort of 58 student participants in five sections of a multicultural education course. The research shared here is intended to generate conversations and dialogue concerning the importance of multicultural education to the development of pre-service teachers’ beliefs and practices. We hope that this session will provide attendees an opportunity to consider the role of multicultural education in teacher education programs, how such courses impact students’ beliefs and understandings, and the importance of designing the curriculum and structure of such courses to align with the goals of the larger program.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Multicultural/Multiethnic Education: Theory, Research, and Practice

Chair

• Vanessa Ann Klein, University of Maine at Orono

Papers

• Monocultural Versus Multicultural Schools - John Maddaus, University of Maine

• Intersections Between the Politics of Location and Critical Family History in Students' Poetry Writing - Tammy Mills, University of Maine

• Complexity in Social Justice Teacher Identity Formation - Rebecca Buchanan, University of Maine

• Developing Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills: The Impact of a Multicultural Education Course - Bryan Silverman, University of Maine; Ming-Tso Chien, The University of Maine

• What Constitutes "Multiculturalism?" How Student Advocacy Reveals Understandings of Multiculturalism - Evan Mooney, Husson University

Discussant

• Eleni Oikonomidoy, University of Nevada - Reno