challenging beliefs about cultural diversity in education

1. Challenging Beliefs about
Cultural Diversity in Education
Presenter: P. Mohammadi
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2. Overview
• A description of main components and contextual
characteristics of teacher trainings targeting cultural
diversity beliefs
• The training effects
• The methodological strengths and weaknesses of
these studies
• 36 studies / 2005 - 2015
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3. Introduction
• Beliefs: individual cognitive conceptions in constant relation to
behavior and external environment
• Beliefs act as a filter to knowledge, influence the framing of a
problem or a task, and guide the teacher’s intention and action
in the classroom(Fives & Buehl, 2012)
• During formal teaching preparation; beliefs are more
susceptible to change
• Teacher education: the principal vehicle to ensure that teachers
acknowledge and challenge beliefs about cultural diversity 3

4. Multidimensional Definition of
Beliefs about Cultural Diversity
• (1) Beliefs about own cultural self-efficacy,
• (2) Beliefs about cultural context and
environment,
• (3) Beliefs about cultural content or
knowledge,
• (4) Beliefs about culturally sensitive
teaching practices and approaches, and
• (5) Beliefs about culturally diverse students
and their families
Fives and Buehl (2012) 4

5. Teacher Training on Cultural Diversity Beliefs
• Training components as well as understanding how
trainings are positioned can provide meaningful
insights on the effects of cultural diversity trainings
on cultural diversity beliefs
• Understanding of these effects is incomplete without
a systematic consideration of the development of
those beliefs over time
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6. The Present Review
1) What are the main components and contextual characteristics of
teacher trainings targeting pre-service teachers’ beliefs about cultural
diversity?
2) What are the effects of these trainings on pre-service teachers’
beliefs about cultural diversity?
3) What are the methodological strengths and weaknesses of these
studies?
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7. Method
• descriptive and narrative approach
• use of words and text
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8. Implications for Teacher Training
• An integration of educational and psychological
perspectives to be implemented in teacher trainings
and the assessment of beliefs about cultural diversity
• Teacher trainings targeting cultural diversity beliefs
are mainly implemented with a standalone approach as
part of a more general teacher preparation programme.
• Teacher educators should integrate cultural diversity in
a comprehensive curriculum of teacher education 8

9. Multidimensionality of Cultural Diversity Beliefs
• complexity of teacher belief as well as cultural
diversity, seems to be an important aspect when
teacher educators design their programme and
training
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10. Addressed Areas of Cultural Diversity
• Beliefs towards culturally diverse students and their
families
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11. Effects on Cultural Diversity Beliefs
• positive effects on pre-service teachers’ cultural
diversity beliefs
• the dynamic nature of teachers’ beliefs
• the crucial role of multicultural teacher training
• experiential learning
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12. Conclusion
• The multidimensionality and complexity of cultural
diversity beliefs are rarely accounted
• Experiential learning in the form of field experience
and service-leaning community
• Systematic evaluation of the effects on beliefs in
combination with teaching behaviors
• Targeting and challenging pre-service teachers’
beliefs to assure equitable education to culturally
diverse students 12