This research examined the critical incidents of 10 United States (US) early childhood student teachers during a three-week university-sponsored international field experience conducted in three urban preschools in Kathmandu, Nepal. The purpose of employing the critical incident technique was to allow the US student teachers to reflect critically…

Our recent research study investigated an international field experience for preservice teachers, labelled as a service-learning internship, a term often used to refer to a student teacher in a Bachelor of Education (BEd) program. Relying on what we know to be advantages and benefits of similar international field experiences for preservice…

In recent years there have been significant changes in education across the globe, largely as a result of changing demographics, technological developments, and increased globalization. Relatedly, the changing needs of societies and families, along with new research findings, provide new directions in early childhood education. Consequently, early…

Background/Context: The article examines how international field experiences promote cross-cultural awareness in U.S. American preservice teachers through experiential learning. The findings presented here are based on a 6-year study of a short-term study abroad program in Honduras that included an international field experience component and took…

The researcher of this study endeavored to determine if a treatment of a multicultural awareness presentation, multicultural coursework, and field experiences impacted teacher candidates' attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of preparedness about teaching culturally diverse students. Today, as evidenced by disaggregation of test scores, and dropout…

This article presents an inventory for a cultural immersion teacher education program based on the program at Indiana University. It offers a rationale and objectives of such a program as well as specifics for participant selection, presite preparation, on-site requirements, external supervision, and evaluation plan. (JMF)

Student teachers completing urban field experiences were trained in reflective thinking. Comparisons with students who did not receive the training indicated that field experiences with opportunities to reflect on practice increased the likelihood that students could recognize and process more of the complexity marking teaching and learning,…

The program to Prepare Teachers for Multi-Cultured Secondary Schools (MULTI-CUL) at Ball State University provides an alternative, elective program open to all enrollees in secondary education who wish to prepare for teaching their subject matter specialities in schools serving adolescents from a variety of cultural, religious, social, and ethnic…

Six issues to consider when colleges make placement decisions for prestudent teaching and student teaching are diversity, collaboration, cooperating teacher preparation, challenging beliefs, mentor matching, and clustering. A study of current North American placement practices is examined. Implications of the six considerations for teacher…

Central Missouri State University faculty forged partnerships with teachers in urban charter schools in Kansas City in an effort to ensure that early childhood teacher candidates' field experiences would take place in school environments with diverse populations of students. During the spring 2001 semester, early childhood teacher candidates were…

Wichita State University's teacher education program was revised to develop sensitive, nurturing teachers who understand student diversity. Pretests and posttests examining students' professional and personal opinions about diversity found that field experiences created significant differences in attitudes toward diversity and social distance…

Schools may not be the best sites for early field experiences of preservice teachers just beginning to work with culturally different children. The paper examines factors limiting public schools' potential as sites, describes an alternative nonschool setting, and analyzes conditions that make the setting better for developing culturally responsive…

The paper describes facets of the teacher education program at Alverno College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) that facilitate teacher empowerment, especially the use of multicultural education to empower urban educators. It discusses aspects of urban teacher development, describes the teaching/learning and assessment processes that develop teachers, and…

The minority population in North Dakota is very small, less than five percent. Most of the students at Valley City State University (VCSU) are white and from middle class families; only about eight percent of the student body represent diverse cultures. Public schools in the state also have a low enrollment of minority students. Although these…

Defining both the general and specific aims of the Indian Teacher Education Program (ITEP) at the University of Saskatchewan, this monograph presents a detailed program description. Specifically, the following are discussed: (1) Equal Certification (special certificates of any kind which limit a minority group in any manner are not considered…