Ks. Cockrell et al., Coming to terms with "diversity" and "multiculturalism" in teacher education: Learning about our students, changing our practice, TEACH TEACH, 15(4), 1999, pp. 351-366
A teacher educator team addressed negative student responses to a multicult
ural foundations course by designing an action research study to learn more
about their student's identities, experiences and beliefs. Through qualita
tive analysis of written assignments, they identified three categories of s
tudent beliefs about the purposes of schools in relation to cultural divers
ity in American society. These categories were reinforced through triangula
tion with data from focus group dialogues. The findings suggest relationshi
ps between previous cross-cultural experiences, gender, and beliefs. Focus
group data also revealed unrecognized sources of student resistance to mult
icultural teacher education, even among students who took a transformative
position. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.