REFLECTING, RECONCEPTUALIZING, AND REVISING - THE EVOLUTION OF A PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT IN A MULTICULTURAL TEACHER-EDUCATION COURSE

The goals of multicultural teacher education courses include increasin g the awareness and consciousness of preservice teachers. promoting at titude change. Increasing knowledge about diversity issues. and provid ing culturally relevant approaches to instruction. However, we know ve ry little about the strategies and assignments that might help teacher educators accomplish these goals. Furthermore. researchers have not e xamined extensively the context wherein these strategies and assignmen ts are developed. how they evolve over time. or how they influence pre service teachers' learning. Hence, in this article we focus on the dev elopment and evolution of a portfolio assignment in a course on multic ultural issues in special education. In addition. we present qualitati ve data that describe students' learning and provide implications for future practice and research.