ABSTRACT
The goals of equal educational opportunity, equal rights, social justice and democratic schooling for millions of students in inner cities, urban and rural areas, and on Native American reservations have not yet been realized. Teacher educators can play a pivotal role in the process of preparing new teachers to bring these goals to fruition. To teach from a multicultural and anti-racist perspective is inherently controversial in a society which to a considerable degree pretends there is no privilege growing up white, middle class and male, nor any oppression growing up poor, or a male or female of color (Brandt, 1986). Whether unconscious or conscious, intentional or unintentional, prospective teachers find it difficult to accept that whites have benefited economically, socially and psychologically from institutional and interactional racism, and males have benefited from sexism. Teaching a multicultural curriculum from an anti-racist perspective can help prospective teachers understand how existing power and economic structures promote inequity and injustice. Hopefully this knowledge will be used in the interests of social justice and equality in their classrooms.
