All student names used here are pseudonyms.3 ORIENTATIONS TOWARD DIVERSITY: WHAT DO PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS BRING?1

We are going to assume that all these students are this kind, this set of what we probably grew up with. But they are not. And we are going to have to relate to them. (Sheila)3 This is an essay about the orientations of prospective teachers towards diversity. It considers the importance of diversity as an issue for research on teacher education, offers possible understandings of the concept, reports findings from questionnaires and interviews with prospective teachers, and explores questions and possible implications for teaching and teacher education. This paper, drawing on the baseline data collection of the National Center for Research on Teacher Education, examines what prospective teachers think about diversity as well as ways in which teacher educators and researchers on teacher education can know that. Why Ask About Diversity? Why care about the views of prospective teachers on diversity? The quotation from Sheila, an undergraduate who intends to become a teacher, suggests several compelling reasons, which are supported in research. First, as Sheila suggests and Lortie (1975) has shown us, people are drawn to and socialized into teaching in ways that tend to emphasize continuities with the familiar