ABSTRACT
For decades, we have witnessed the differences in achievement between students within the cultural mainstream and students who are culturally and/or linguistically distinct (Jacob & Jordon, 1987). Among the many reasons for this educational inequity, one continues to surface which is particularly problematic: a significant number of White European American teachers are unable and/or unwilling to provide equal access to meaningful educational experiences for children whose culture is different from their own (Nel, 1995; Finney & Orr, 1995; Fuller, 1992, 1994; Hilliard, 1974; Macintosh, 1989; McDiarmid, 1990). This problem increases in importance as the nation’s demographics change. While over 85% of U.S. teachers are White, the percentage of European American students is decreasing; the “majority” is becoming the minority (National Education Association, 1992; Smith, Rogers, Alsalam, Perie, Mahoney, & Martin, 1994). White preservice teachers, “situated as they are in a racist, stratified society, are isolated from a significant part of the population they are likely to teach” (Finney & Orr, 1995, p. 328). Culturally encapsulated, (Bennett, 1995; Gay, 1977) European American teachers have developed entrenched, ethnocentric identities with little, if any, knowledge about or experience with children whose culture is different from their own; children whom they are ill-prepared to teach (Delpit, 1988; Fuller, 1992, 1994; Hilliard, 1974; McDiarmid, 1990; Nel, 1995).
