Section archive - Multiculturalism & Diversity

This study aims to examine preschool teachers' beliefs about linguistic diversity using a Q methodology. The findings reveal that the teachers were highly supportive of linguistic diversity and multilingual practices. The findings indicate that the participants saw opportunity rather than difficulty: they believed that interacting with diverse classmates gives young children the chance to develop tolerance, cooperation, and multicultural awareness.

This study examines the role of race in teacher hiring process. The findings reveal that the Hispanic and Asian teachers were hired proportionally to the rate at which they applied. This finding suggests that the low numbers for these groups may indeed reflect a supply problem. The findings show that while Black candidates submitted 13 percent of applications, a proportion greater than the percentage of Black students in the district, their chances of getting hired were low.

This research investigates Taiwanese preservice students’ academic quality in comparison with their nonteaching peers. The findings show that preservice students demonstrated higher academic quality than their non-preservice counterparts, as they had better entry test scores, mid-point grades and final grades. The authors provide explanations of the gap in performance between the two groups within the broader sociocultural context of Taiwanese society. First, the authors found that the majority of the teaching programs set a minimum academic standing as a threshold for student application when they recruit students from various programs/departments within the university. Second, the Taiwanese government adopted policies that provide teachers with generous compensation and benefit packages that provide teachers with generous compensation and benefit packages. Furthermore, the cultural beliefs imbedded in the Confucian cultural heritage may also play a role in constructing favorable teaching conditions.

This article describes a self-study partnership between the authors, Tom and Deb, two teacher educators from different institutions. The partnership between the authors began with discussions about shared interests and shared dilemmas in teaching multicultural education content at their respective universities. Over a 2-year period of time, they began to look closely at Tom’s experiences integrating mindfulness into his instruction, which resulted in self-study research. The authors have found that this study reveals the power of theoretically grounding teaching practice in mindfulness and in intentional consideration of language as a tool to establish an appropriate affective space for learning, even in an online setting.