The Need for Diversity Education as Perceived by Preservice Teachers
This study investigated whether undergraduate teacher education students were prepared to teach their students in both an academically stimulating and culturally sensitive way. During the fall of 2003, student teachers were asked to complete two open-ended questions about diversity. The students were working on certificates in either the preschool through grades 4 generalist or bilingual programs. A total of 56 students completed the questionnaire. We identified 16 categories of ideas, experiences and/or activities that the preservice teachers said they would use to create diverse opportunities in their classrooms. Multicultural books were mentioned most followed by visual aids. Most of the responses were brief and not fully developed. While Banks' levels of multicultural awareness were not evident or mentioned, students had some of their own ideas on how to integrate diversity in the classroom that at least met Banks' contributions levels and, in some cases, the additive levels (Banks, 2003).