The implementation of a multicultural strand in selected teacher education courses in a monocultural institution.

As the population of the United States becomes more racially and ethnically diverse the public school systems will be challenged with teaching students who are also diverse. While our classrooms are becoming more multicultural, our teaching force in becoming increasingly more white, female, and middle class. These changing demographics present specific challenges to teacher education programs that must prepare pre-service teachers to provide an education that is multicultural for all students. The goal of this study was to identify if and how multicultural education was being integrated into the teacher education program at a predominately White land grant Research One institution located in a Mid-Atlantic rural state. The study asked four research questions: how does the teacher education program faculty define multicultural education; what professional and personal experiences have the faculty had with cultural diversity; how does faculty report that they have been prepared or trained to teach multiculturally; and what is the multicultural education pedagogy of the teacher preparation program. Study data was collected via participant interviews with open-ended questions, a selected response questionnaire, and course syllabi submitted by participants. A gradual analytical induction approach determined themes and categories. Triangulation was used to comparing different data sources. The findings of the study indicate the faculty believe that multicultural education needs to be infused throughout the teacher education program. Additional finding show faculty had limited higher education teaching experiences with a diverse student population as well as a lack of academic preparedness in this area. The study also indicated that faculty relies heavily on textbooks to incorporate a multicultural perspective. This teacher education program has established a “multicultural strand†to encourage faculty to infuse a multicultural perspective in their teaching however, the strand is not well articulated or developed. The study provides a number of recommendations for improving multicultural education in this teacher education program as well as recommendation for recruitment of diverse faculty and students