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Giving voice to first-year teachers about their preparation for multicultural education: A grounded theory
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine first year teachers' perceptions about their preparation for multicultural education. It also explored first year teachers' thoughts and ideas about what their school district can do to enhance the preparation they received at their college or university. This study used a qualitative research methodology, grounded theory, to build an inductively derived theory based on teachers' perceptions about their preparation for multicultural education. Data were collected through interviews. Data were analyzed using the grounded theory procedures of open and axial coding. The informants were 15 first year teachers (1993-94 college graduates) in a large Midwestern urban school district. These teachers were graduates of ten colleges and universities in the Midwest. They were diverse in race, gender, experiences, hometown, and teaching assignment. This study developed a theoretical model of preparation for multicultural education. The theoretical propositions emerged from four essential components in the teacher preparation process for multicultural education. The four components included: (1) background and experiences; (2) multicultural education courses and courses infusing multicultural concepts and methodologies; (3) multicultural field experiences; and (4) multicultural staff development. The theoretical propositions are as follows: (1) The more teacher education programs consider the background and experiences of preservice teachers, the more effective they are at preparing teachers for multicultural education. (2) The more preservice teachers take multicultural education courses and have multicultural concepts and methodologies infused throughout their program, the better prepared they are for multicultural education. (3) The more higher education and culturally diverse school districts work together and form partnerships, the more preservice teachers are provided with extensive and diverse field-based experiences in the classroom and community. (4) The more school districts provide multicultural staff development, the better prepared teachers are for multicultural education. Recommendations were made for higher education institutions, school districts and future research.
Subject Area
Bilingual education|Multicultural education|Teacher education
Recommended Citation
Dacus, Minnie Ruth, "Giving voice to first-year teachers about their preparation for multicultural education: A grounded theory" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9614982.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9614982