This document discusses the preparedness of pre-service and in-service teachers to teach culturally diverse students. It notes that some research has found that teachers often do not feel they have the knowledge and skills needed. The document outlines strategies that teachers have reported as being effective in diverse classrooms, such as using culturally appropriate books and recognizing different learning styles. However, it also discusses barriers teachers face, such as a lack of appropriate resources and resistance from others. It raises questions about whether teacher education programs are adequately preparing new teachers for this challenge.

1. From Pre-Service Years to In-
service Years, Can They Teach
What They Do Know?
Dr. Bola Delano-Oriaran
St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI
bola.delano-oriaran@snc.edu

2. Context - Cry For Help
Cry out to show the critical need to prepare the majority of society’s
teaching force (Howard, 2006)
Teachers cannot teach students because they do not know
what, and Gay (2003) echoed similar thoughts about in-
service teachers, sharing that they don’t know how.
Some teachers did not have education knowledge base or
cultural competency skills (Diller & Moule, 2005)

3. Context - Help
“The current literature is replete with calls for the need for
more culturally competent teachers embracing a culturally
responsive pedagogy” (Taylor, 2010, p. 24).
Advancement in approaches
Banks, 2013; Gay 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Ladson-
Billings, 2004; Paris, 2012; Sleeter, 2001

4. Turn & Share
Does “not knowing” still hold
true in present-day society?

5. Focus of Session
Plight of Our Schools
What Are Teachers saying? What are Students Saying? What
Are We Saying?
How do you know?
Provide insights from survey

6. Focus of Session
Been There, Done That! Oh Yes! It Worked! No It Didnt!
Strategies
Critical Conversations
What internal/external practices & programs positions
teachers to claim they don’t know?
Is Your Teacher Education program responding to their
needs?
What Next?

7. Plight of Our Schools
“White student teachers have reported that their preparation
programs did not adequately prepare them for the realities of the
classroom” (Bloom, Peters, Margolin, & Fragnoli, 2013, p. 556)
“doubt their efficacy in teaching students whose cultural
backgrounds differ from their own” (Kumar & Hamer, 2013,
p. 1)
High Attrition rates in urban schools
inadequate preparation (Siwatu, 2011)

8. Plight of Our Schools
“The current literature is replete with calls
for the need for more culturally competent
teachers embracing a culturally responsive
pedagogy (Taylor, 2010).

9. What Ares? Survey
Abilities of in-service teachers to transfer the multicultural
knowledge and skills gained from their undergraduate years to
their in-service years.
Graduated 9 years ago
Are currently teaching.
96% - White; (c) 99% - females; (d) 70% in public schools; (e) 32%
teaching in urban schools, 28% in suburban, 10% in rural and 30% in
small towns; (f) 74% of them teach in predominantly White Schools; (g)
43% have been teaching between 4-9 years; and (i) 100% of them are
elementary education majors with early childhood education
certification.

10. This is What They Are Saying

11. What They Are Saying is Working: Culturally
Appropriate Books
●Using the ten Quick Ways to Analyze books
for Sexism and Racism for the Aniti-bias
Curriculum (Derman-Sparks, L., 1989)
a.http://www.teachingforchange.org/wp-
content/uploads/2012/08/ec_tenquickways_
english.pdf
b. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED188852

12. What is Working: Preferred Learning Styles
“...cognitive, affective, and physiological
behaviours that serve as relatively stable
indicators of how learners perceive, interact with,
and respond to the learning environment “ (Ladd
& Ruby, 1999, p. 363).
●Preferred Cultural learning Styles
○learning styles reflective of students’
cultural backgrounds

13. What is Working: Preferred Learning Styles

14. What is Working: Preferred Learning Styles
●Students develop an at glance page to remind
them of the learning styles
○http://portfolios.snc.edu/2013/mccopl/educ2
72bb/Validaiting_Learning_Stlyes.html
○http://portfolios.snc.edu/2011/sulese/Multicu
ltural/Home%20Page.html

15. What is Working: Strategies

16. What is Working: Strategies For A Multiculturally
Aware Teacher
●Students develop an at glance page to remind
them of the learning styles
○http://portfolios.snc.edu/2013/mccopl/educ2
72bb/Validaiting_Learning_Stlyes.html
○http://portfolios.snc.edu/2011/sulese/Multicu
ltural/Home%20Page.html

17. Barriers (PWS)
● Resistance
○ “Moving to small town where the
population is very set in their ways about
various cultures and stereotypes have not
been broken down”
○ Others who don't understand. "Why are
we learning about other holidays our
family doesn't celebrate?"

18. Barriers (MS)
● Limited Appropriate Multicultural Resources
○ “It is very difficult to find books in Spanish that are
authentic without purchasing them”
○ “I have found that a lot of books supplied in my
school's book room don't seem to be appropriate
based on what I have learned from this course”
● Lack of Awareness by “others”
○ “People who are older than me do not always
understand my approach or goal. Many people also
use outdated terminology and get upset when
corrected”

19. Success in Diverse Schools
● Infusion of multicultural resources
○ “My kids see themselves when they play with puppets,
dolls, and read books.”
● Cross Cultural Communication
○ “Having a more diverse knowledge background helps
me relate to parents of various backgrounds better”
○ “I feel that I have a better understanding of my
students' families, and increased communication with
students and their families.”

20. Turn & Share
Been There, Done That!
Oh No!
It did not Work! Oh Yes, It Did

21. Critical Conversations
What internal/external practices &
programs positions teachers to claim
they don’t know?
Is Your Teacher Education program
responding to their needs?
What Next?

22. References
Bloom, D. S., Peters, T., Margolin, M., & Fragnoli, K. (2015). Are My Students Like
Me? The Path to Color-Blindness and White Racial Identity Development. Education
& Urban Society, 47(5), 555-575. doi:10.1177/0013124513499929
Derman-Sparks, L. (1989). Anti-bias curriculum: Tools for empowering young
children. National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1834
Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009-5786.
Diller, J. V., & Moule, J. (2005). Cultural competence: A primer for educators.
Thomson/Wadsworth.
Howard, G. R. (2006). We can't teach what we don't know: White teachers,
multiracial schools. Teachers College Press.

23. Kumar, R., & Hamer, L. (2013). Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes and Beliefs Toward
Student Diversity and Proposed Instructional Practices: A Sequential Design Study.
Journal Of Teacher Education, 64(2), 162-177. doi:10.1177/0022487112466899
Ladd, P.D., & Ruby, R. (1999). Learning style and adjustment issues of international
students. Journal of Education for Business, 74(6) (July/August), 363–367.
McKenzie, K. B., & Scheurich, J. J. (2008). Teacher resistance to improvement of
schools with diverse students. International Journal of Leadership in Education,
11(2), 117-133.
References

24. Taylor, R. W. (2010). The Role of Teacher Education Programs in Creating Culturally
Competent Teachers: A Moral Imperative for Ensuring the Academic Success of
Diverse Student Populations. Multicultural Education, 17(3), 24-28.
Siwatu, K. O. (2011). Preservice teachers’ sense of preparedness and self-efficacy to
teach in America’s urban and suburban schools: Does context matter?. Teaching and
Teacher Education, 27(2), 357-365.
References