Section archive - Multiculturalism & Diversity

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.

This article investigates how preservice teachers developed a relationships with country. The author has described preservice teachers who participated in an elective subject Engaging Koori Kids and their Families. The goal of this elective subject was to motivate preservice teachers to experience a journey of Aboriginal ways of knowing, learning and behaving. The findings reveal that the elective subject demonstrated how teachers could implement and contribute to a holistic localised Aboriginal perspective originating from Country. The goal of this study is that preservice teachers take their story learnt from Country and implement it into the classroom. Each preservice teacher then has the experience to work with a range of Aboriginal community members.

The present paper examines initial teacher education (ITE) students’ sexual orientations and the intersections of students’ sexualities, socio-demographic backgrounds and career motivations. The findings reveal that although LGBT people experience considerable covert and overt social, institutional and religious barriers when applying for and entering ITE programmes in Ireland, they are highly motivated and committed to a teaching career. Their strong desire to change the of young people, together with their personal experiences of schooling uniquely position them to challenge and disrupt heteronormativity and sexual discrimination in schools and in ITE.