ABSTRACT
The case study described in this chapter explored what preservice teachers take away from bilingual learner-focused teacher education reform efforts, addressing specifically the challenge of revising a course and other experiences that encourage students to take up the knowledge, dispositions, and practices that instructors seek to promote. Research increasingly addresses the impact of diversity-focused courses and field experiences on pre-professional educators’ developing competence in teaching for diversity. Studies focus on the role of multicultural education courses in preservice teachers’ conceptual understandings of cultural and racial diversity, including beliefs about other cultures and students of diverse backgrounds and their abilities to engage in culturally responsive teaching (e.g., Brown, 2004; Hill-Jackson, 2007; Milner, 2005, 2006; Thomas & Vanderhaar, 2008). The impact of such courses has been mixed. Some researchers report that preservice teachers enter and exit stand-alone cultural diversity courses relatively unchanged (Banks, 1991; Brown, 2004), whereas others find that students’ attitudes and beliefs changed positively as a result of participation (Cho & DeCastro-Ambrosetti, 2005; Milner, 2005, 2006). This suggests that diversity coursework may positively influence preservice teachers’ attitudes toward students of diverse backgrounds and their understanding of other cultures; however, research that examines the influence of such courses after the semester ends is extremely limited.
