Teacher Preparation for Diversity

Overview of the Problem

In many nations, there is increasing diversity in the school population. In the United States, there have been enormous increases in immigration over the last 2 decades, bringing large numbers of students whose first language is not English into the public schools. This is added to a situation wherein inequities based on the marginalization of indigenous and formerly enslaved minorities have been emphasized since the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s. New patterns of immigration have heightened awareness of the inequities in achievement and other school outcomes that persist between majority and minority groups. In addition, there has been a steady increase in the number of students with identified special learning needs who spend significant amounts of time in general education classrooms taught by nonspecialists.

As the school population has become increasingly diverse, there has been unprecedented emphasis on teacher quality, with the expectation that teachers should be able to teach all students to world-class standards and also meet new social goals related to equality and diversity. Based on the twin assumptions that the quality of a nation's educational system and the health of its economy are tightly linked and that students' educational opportunities and life prospects are closely related, it is now assumed that teachers are critical factors in reducing societal inequities while at the same time producing a well-qualified labor force.

The result of these developments is that questions about how teachers are recruited, selected, and prepared are now an extremely high priority. In the United States, however, there is a stark difference between the demographic profiles and life experiences of the student population and the relatively homogeneous teacher population. As the school population has become increasingly diverse, the teacher population has remained primarily female, White European American, middle-class, and monolingual. The result is that, unless they are specifically prepared to do otherwise, many teachers have difficulty functioning as role models for students different from themselves, helping them bridge home–school differences, and providing culturally appropriate instruction and assessment. In addition, many teachers have lower expectations for students who are different from themselves and may see diversity as a deficit rather than an asset.

Strategies for Preparing Teachers for Diversity

In the United States, there are five main strategies—described as follows—for preparing teachers for diversity. These strategies may or may not be present in any single preparation program or pathway, depending on specific missions as well as varying institutional and policy contexts.