Towards Transculturalism in Tackling Diversity for Literacy Teacher Education

The approaches towards addressing diversity in literacy teacher education within the United States typically position in-service teachers to focus on differences within certain student populations as they operate from positions of power in relation to diverse students . There is clear evidence in the research of the need for more culturally responsive and culturally sustaining pedagogy that appropriately addresses teachers\u27 capacity to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners in the United States. The term culturally relevant pedagogy first grew out of Gloria Ladson-Billings\u27 desire to address the needs of underrepresented African American students in US K-12 schools in a desire to develop pedagogical principles for all students. The chapter examines the ways in which American in-service teachers interacting with an Afro-Caribbean immigrant literacy educator in graduate literacy course approached diversity based on differences between themselves and students as opposed to differences within certain student populations