Assessing Preservice Teachers' Dispositions about Diversity

Understanding Preservice Teachers' Perspectives about Diversity

Kimberly Rombach

ABSTRACT

Recent research in education has documented the increasing disparity between the population demographics of teachers and the students they educate. Specifically, research has shown that the majority of teachers are Caucasian and often have monocultural perspectives and experiences while the students who are being educated in their classrooms are increasingly diverse regarding ability, race, culture and language (Johnson, 2002; Zollers, Albert, & Cochran-Smith, 2000). The differences between teachers and students suggest that teachers may not teach students who are demographically like themselves. Therefore, it is important that we understand teachers' perspectives of teaching heterogeneous populations of students. The purpose of this proposed research is to study preservice teachers dispositions about diversity. Using qualitative methods of research, I plan to use semi-structured, audiotaped interviews supplemented with reflective writing inquiries throughout a five-phase data collection period. All interviews will be transcribed and I will conduct on-going analyses of teacher narratives to understand their perspectives and beliefs about diversity and difference. This research is meant to serve as a pilot study that will be evaluated and modified to inform the design of a larger study to identify how teacher preparation programs may be designed to better prepare teachers to teach in diverse classrooms.

"In the event that this proposal results in an award, I hereby authorize the State University of New York College at Cortland to release this abstract for college publicity and/or educational purposes."

Signed _____________________________________ Date __________________

Specific Research Question

Recent research has documented the increasingly diverse student population in found in schools today (Allen & Porter, 2002; Johnson, 2002; Zollers, Albert & Cochran-Smith, 2000; Zeichner, 2003). Many researchers argue that teachers should be culturally aware and be well prepared to teach the diverse population of students they are assigned to educate (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Sleeter & Grant, 1999; Zeichner, 1997). What is currently problematic, however, is that many preservice teachers may be completing teacher preparation programs without being prepared to teach the diverse populations of students who will be placed in their classrooms. The intent of this proposed study is to understand preservice teachers' perspectives about diversity. Understanding such information will provide insight into how preservice teachers conceptualize differences and shed light on directions for future research in this area. The specific research question for this study is: What are preservice teachers' perspectives about diversity?

Significance of the Project

Few recent studies have begun to explore preservice teachers' perspectives of diversity (Dee & Henken, 2002; Lewis, 2001; Middleton, 2002) and much information is still needed to learn how to prepare preservice teachers to effectively teach in culturally pluralistic classrooms (Lewis, 2001). Findings of this study will be significant to teacher educators, preservice teachers, education policy makers and students who are educated in classrooms today.

Teacher educators can benefit because findings about how preservice teachers perceive diversity can inform future preservice teacher preparation courses and programs. Results of this study could also inform the collaboration efforts of school-university partnerships that prepare preservice teachers during field placement experiences. Undoubtedly, discussing predispositions about diversity in on-campus classrooms may have little impact and knowledge transfer into school settings. Therefore, creating opportunities for preservice teachers to explore their preconceived notions of difference during field placement experiences would provide a larger context for conceptualizing their notions of diversity and ways that their belief system impacts students. If teacher preparation programs are intending to prepare preservice teachers to be competent in the field of education, then it is important that university and college professors create teacher preparation curricula that facilitates the growth of competencies necessary for teaching diverse populations of students (Zollers, Albert & Cochran-Smith, 2000). As such, findings from this study can inform future coursework and field experiences for preservice teachers.

Preservice teachers can gain insight into their own predispositions about difference. Results from this study can assist preservice teachers with identifying their own beliefs about diversity and help to begin a self-inquiry into their own notions of difference. Research has shown that generally preservice teachers have few opportunities to reflect on their own belief systems and how their viewpoints relate to teaching and schooling (Zollers, Albert & Cochran-Smith, 2000). Findings from this study could be used to provide preservice teachers with a way to identify their own preconceived notions of diversity and realize the impact that their beliefs could have on students that they will soon educate.

Education policy makers could also benefit from the findings of this study. Since preservice teachers' notions about diversity may be unknown to policy makers, findings from this study may inform future policies that affect teacher preparation and teacher in-service programs.

Of all who may benefit from this study's findings, students being taught in classrooms today may indeed have the opportunity to benefit the most. Many studies have revealed that there is an urgent need to be cognizant of the increasingly diverse classrooms in our nation (Allen & Porter, 2002). Many scholars have advocated for the need to have teachers educate their students about the importance of appreciating and celebrating diversity and being culturally responsive to the needs of all students (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Villegas, 1991). If the majority of preservice teachers are culturally different from the students that they educate, the disparity between the two may have students' learning be compromised. Therefore, this study's findings can greatly benefit all students.

Literature and Background

Recent research has stressed the importance of understanding the widening demographic divide between teachers and the students they educate (Gay & Howard, 2001). Throughout the past decade, researchers have studied various facets of the cultural differences that exist between teachers and students and how to prepare prospective teachers to attend to this issue. Specifically, when reviewing the literature on this topic, three main areas of research emerge including (a) the historical progression of the cultural and demographical gap that has become prevalent between teachers and their students; (b) the theoretical beliefs and pedagogical practices that have emerged as scholars have worked to prepare prospective teachers to teach all students; and (c) how to facilitate preservice teachers to begin to explore the notions of difference/diversity while completing teacher preparation programs.

The historical progression of understanding the cultural and demographic gap between teachers has often been rooted in the conceptual paradigm of constructivism. Constructivism suggests that people understand the world by interpreting it through their own life's experiences; beliefs, values, attitudes and opinions are often formulated based on the particular experiences people have had (Allen & Porter, 2002; Anderson, Reder, & Simon, 1998). From this perspective, if we have not had experiences similar to others, our understanding of how they view the world may be limited. Population statistics have shown that the United States is currently encountering its "largest in-flux of immigrants, along with an increasing number of U.S. born ethnic minorities" (Howard, 2003, pg. 195). Additionally, more than 90% of teachers throughout the United States identify as white and middle-class while they are increasingly assuming teaching positions in high-poverty urban neighborhoods where nearly 70% of the total enrollment comprises students of color (Johnson, 2002). Viewing statistics such as these through the lens of constructivism, concern has focused on the likelihood of teachers having different experiences than their students and possibly having different ways of interpreting the world and of learning. The levels of concern has heightened as researchers have suggested that preservice and inservice teachers may be unaware of this difference, identifying a potentially detrimental invisible barrier to minority students' achievement (Capella-Santana, 2003).

Educational literature has identified theoretical beliefs and pedagogical practices that are being used to prepare prospective teachers to educate a diverse population of students. Terms such as multicultural education (Capella-Santana, 2003), culturally responsive classrooms (Ladson-Billings, 1994) and culturally relevant pedagogy (Gay, 20003; Howard, 2003; Shade, Kelly & Oberg, 1997) have all added to the knowledge base of preparing teachers to educate a diverse student body. Findings from Capella-Santana (1998), Diaz, Moll & Mehan (1992) and Heath (1983) have suggested that minority students' academic success can improve when teachers are conscious about students' diversity and use multicultural pedagogical practices. Similarly, Jordan-Irvine (1992), Ladson-Billings (1994) and Villegas & Lucas (2002) have identified teachers' practices that seem to effectively meet the needs of diverse students. Paralleling this work, Gay (2000) and Howard (2003) have studied ways that teachers can implement "culturally relevant" pedagogy into their teaching practice to effectively meet the needs of all students they educate (Howard, 2003).

Many studies have been conducted on ways to have preservice teachers be prepared to teach the diverse population of students that is in schools today and have included preservice teachers self-reflecting on their preconceived notions of difference as greatest in importance. For example, Allen and Porter (2002) had preservice teachers reflect on their perspectives of difference by participating in various unfamiliar cultural experiences while enrolled in a teacher preparation course. Findings showed that students developed more positive attitudes about differences after having experienced interacting with those that the preservice teachers identified as different than themselves and critically reflecting on their attitudes about differences. Similarly, Howard (2003) suggested that self-reflection may assist preservice teachers to begin to understand their own cultural identities and to examine one's personal beliefs about difference. Howard takes this a step further than Allen and Porter (2002) however, by identifying a need for teaching how to critically reflect on such issues.

Rationale

This research has been planned to serve as a pilot study to access preservice teachers' perspectives about differences because findings from some recent, small-scale studies have suggested that preservice teachers are leaving their preparation programs with little knowledge about how to teach their future diverse population of students (Capella-Santana, 2003; Lewis, 2001; Middleton, 2002). Findings such as these point to an urgent need to address the potential learning inequities of different cultural groups of students. Ultimately, findings from this study can inform teacher educators about effectively preparing preservice teachers to use socially just educational practices to teach all students.

Research Design and Methods

Despite an increase in the literature on the need for preservice teachers to understand the cultural differences that they and their students may have, there is little representation of preservice teachers' own voices in prior studies. While survey tools allow accessibility to a large sample size, perceptions of participants are often limited with such a design (Shultz, Neyhart, Reck, & Easter, 1996). Qualitative methods, on the other hand, help to understand the perceptions, perspectives and beliefs of participants by asking them to share personal stories and experiences. For this study, I plan to use qualitative research methods. I plan to send invitational letters to 50 preservice teachers and from their responses; I intend to randomly select 10 preservice teachers to participate in this study. I will interview the preservice teachers during various stages of their student teaching placement because previous research by Gay and Kirkland (2003) points to the importance of having preservice teachers reflect on their notions about diversity while they are in concrete, real-life situations. Criteria for selecting participants will be twofold: (a) Participants will need to be enrolled in a childhood or early childhood teacher preparation program and beginning their student teaching experience and (b) Participants will need to be willing to participate in a five phase semi-structured interview and reflective writing inquiry. For a description of the five phases of data collection, please see figure 1. All interviews will be audiotaped and transcribed by myself. During transcriptions, I will begin initial data analysis to find patterns in experiences and perspectives between and within participants' narratives and identify overarching themes that identify such experiences. I will continue to collect data until it shows repetition and then I will conclude the data collection. I will utilize three steps to validate the accuracy of my analysis. First, I will audiotape and transcribe all interviews verbatim. Second, I will collect a series of written reflection narratives from participants to serve as a second way to check for data accuracy. Third and perhaps most important, I will provide participants with an opportunity to review the themes that emerge to validate the findings of this study. Using this "member check" strategy will help to ensure that the findings were congruent with participants' perceptions, beliefs and opinions (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998).

Evaluation of Project

The evaluation of the project will be ongoing. Throughout the initial stages of data collection, I will continually assess the effectiveness of the interview questions and modify them if needed. The semi-structured interview questions have been developed by utilizing questions that previous researchers have identified (see figure 1). However, it will be necessary to determine if the questions are sufficient and effective for the data collection of this proposed study. I will know that the goals and objectives of this study will be met when the preservice teachers validate my findings about their perspectives on diversity during the final phase of data collection.

Dissemination and Potential for Future Funding

I plan use the findings from this study to build on the knowledge base of research on preservice teachers' preparation to understand human diversity. Previous research in this area has recently been published in peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of Educational Research (Capella-Santana, 2003), Theory into Practice (Gay and Kirkland, 2003), Urban Education (Dee & Henkin, 2002), and Urban Review (Middleton, 2002). Therefore, these journals have been initially targeted as potential places for publication. In addition, there are some professional organizations that provide conferences that are frequented by presenters specializing in the areas of diversity awareness and social justice education. Zeichner (2003) has identified the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and the National Association of Multicultural Education (NAME) as places where researchers have discussed the work of preparing teachers for culturally diverse students. For that reason, I have targeted these two organizations as potential places to present findings from this study.

I have targeted two future funding opportunities to continue this project. The first is the Summer Research fellowship Program (SRF) so I can devote concentrated time to completing a thorough literature review on this topic. While literature abounds on the topic of preparing teachers for diverse populations of students, no comprehensive literature review has synthesized the previous studies' findings. I would also like to seek outside funding for this program. Ultimately, I would like to create a Social Justice Center for Teaching, Research and Service at SUNY Cortland to serve both preservice and inservice teachers and the students they educate. I will need outside funding for such a project and this small pilot study is one step toward reaching that objective.

Figure 1.

Phases of the Research Design

Data Analysis	Data Collection	Inquiry During Phases
	Phase 1	Provide participants with information on length of study (four audiotaped interviews), two reflective writing journal entries, and ensure that participants meet the predetermined criteria for participating in the study. Collect data on educational background information and identified demographics.
On-going, open coding for data analysis	Phase 2	Collect data on early experiences of difference. Questions will be semi-structured within the following context: What types of interactions did you have with individuals who you perceive to be different than you? Can you tell a specific story from your life that describes your early experiences? (Questions modified from Howard, 2003)
On-going, open coding for data analysis	Phase 3	Continue to collect data on early experiences of difference and begin to gather information about early perspectives of diversity. Questions will be semi-structured within the following context: Who were the primary persons that helped to shape your beliefs of people whom were/are different than you? How did you become aware of their opinions? *The reflective writing activity will be introduced to participants and asked to complete it prior to the next interview. The guiding question will be: Describe your thoughts regarding the prospect of teaching students who may be culturally different than you (Question modified from Shultz, Neyhart, Reck & Easter, 1996).
Review open coding and establish preliminary themes and findings	Phase 4	Continue with data collection by reviewing the reflective writing activity with participants. Then semi-structure the following questions into the interview: What effect does a child's cultural background have on his or her education? What has informed your beliefs on your answer to this question? (Schultz, Neyhart, Reck & Easter, 1996). *The participants will be asked to complete one last reflective writing activity and asked to complete it prior to the next interview. The guiding question will be: Describe what is needed to be a successful teacher of a classroom with culturally diverse students (Question modified from Schultz, Neyhart, Reck & Easter, 1996).
	Phase 5	Meet with participants to review the last reflective writing activity. Then determine whether the data collected during the above four phases were accurate by using the member-check system (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998). Participants will be asked to provide additional details on topics that may need further clarification.

References

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