ERIC Number: EJ759615
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1068-3844
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Expanding Multicultural Education to Include Family Diversity
Turner-Vorbeck, Tammy A.
Multicultural Education, v13 n2 p6-10 Win 2005
This article describes a research and teaching project that was designed and implemented to investigate the promise of the integration of family diversity issues into a preservice teacher multicultural education curriculum. Participants were preservice teachers (predominantly White, European-American) within the teacher education program of a prominent Midwestern university which offers a reformed teacher education program redesigned in terms of research findings on best practices. This teacher education program includes a focus on traditional diversity topics such as race, gender, culture, and language issues. Overall, this research project indicates that expanding the definition and scope of multicultural education curriculum holds the potential to prepare new teachers to practice diverse family inclusion in several ways: (1) by broadening preservice teacher awareness of diversity to include family structure diversity since the composition of the American family has changed drastically and continues to evolve; (2) by assisting preservice teachers in discovering and examining their own prejudices concerning children from diverse family backgrounds and providing them with ways to address those biases; and (3) by exposing preservice teachers to ways to reflect upon their own thoughts and practices as well as ways to work collaboratively with others to raise awareness and solve problems.
Descriptors: Preservice Teachers, Multicultural Education, Family Structure, Preservice Teacher Education, Cultural Pluralism, Research Projects, Family School Relationship, Social Bias, Homosexuality, One Parent Family, Student Teacher Attitudes, Journal Writing, Questionnaires, Curriculum, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Adoption, Racial Factors
Caddo Gap Press. 3145 Geary Blvd, PMB 275, San Francisco, CA 94118. Tel: 415-666-3012; Fax: 415-666-3552; e-mail: caddogap@aol.com; Web site: http://www.caddogap.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A