The Work of Multicultural Teacher Education: Reconceptualizing White Teacher Candidates as Learners

Source: Review of Educational Research. Volume 79, Issue 1;
p. 163-166. (March 2009).

The article examines and challenges a widely held and often unexamined conception of White teacher candidates as learners about issues of diversity and equity in teacher education. This conception suggests that most White teacher candidates are deficient learners who lack resources or who have deficient knowledge or experience from which to build when it comes to learning about diversity.

This review reframes this conception through an examination of three bigger pictures of White teacher candidates, of the lack of research regarding pedagogies for multicultural teacher education, and of insights from those who describe pedagogies that build on what students bring. Ultimately, if teacher educators hope that teacher candidates view their future K-12 students as having resources and capabilities for learning, then teacher educators must critically examine and dialogue about what they model through their own pedagogies.