Student Teachers' Perception of their Exposure to Special Population

The preparation of pre-service teachers to be culturally responsive is becoming more critical as America's minority student population continues to rapidly increase. It is generally acknowledged that the public school classroom is the place where pre-service teachers experience and acquire culturally responsive behaviors such as interdependency with in-service teachers and students, parents, administrators and stake holding associations. The most critical among these is the experience the pre-service candidates receive with culturally diverse students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a Pacific Northwest undergraduate teacher preparation program provided its pre-service candidates work opportunities with special student populations in the program. Analyses of the study indicate that the pre-service teachers rated their experience with exceptional students high (63% for exposure with special education and 77% for experience with the highly capable). The pre-service candidates who did their student teaching in urban areas had higher exposure to students with ethnic, linguistic and socio-econo1nic backgrounds than the candidates who student taught in rural areas. No differences in exposure were found between the male and female preservice teachers