Literacy, Teacher Preparation for Diversity

Conceptions of literacy have changed dramatically as global societies embrace and expand uses of information and communication technologies (ICT). Despite new ways of accessing and using ICTs, schooling in the United States has generally resisted substantive changes in pedagogical approaches to literacy and learning. At the same time, the U.S. and other world societies reflect increasingly diverse nationality, racial, ethnic, religious, gender and sexual orientation, disability, and age-based identities and forms of cultural participation and expression. Consequently, issues of diversity that affect teacher preparation in the United States are also international in scope. To effectively engage diverse learners' identities, interests, cultures, and varied ways of participating in literacy practices, teachers need to learn from international contexts in conjunction with understanding current theories of learning. They ...