PREPARING PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN A DIVERSE WORLD

Critique of
PREPARING PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN A DIVERSE WORLD
Author: Josephine Chen

Preparing Preservice Teachers in Diverse World was a research conducted to

address the culture diversity of presesrvice teachers in United State. It was conducted
by Lenski, S.D. (Portland State University), Crawford, K. (Wayne State University),
Crumpler, T. and Sallworth, C. (Illinois State University) in 2005. The percentage of
preservice teachers of diverse races ranges from 7% to 68% per state, while White
teachers remain over 90% (Hodgkinson, 2002). There is a trend of having more

PREPARING PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN A DIVERSE WORLD

culture diverse teachers in the future. Since students are influenced by the way
teachers address cultural differences, the researchers believed it is important that the
preservice teachers learn to become culturally conscious to students from different
ethnic backgrounds.
The five-year research was conducted in Midwestern University involving
twenty-eight preservice teachers participated in Professional Development School
(PDS). And ethnographically informed approach to data collection was used.
However, this article only involved the data from the second year. During the PDS
year, the preservice teachers spent two or three days each week in schools of different
communities and observed their diverse cultures. Six participants were chosen
eventually to represent the large group of preservice teachers and were interviewed.
The data sources included neighborhood observations, reflections of a school bus
ride, observations of school sites, observational field notes and reflections of
community sites, interviews of six preservice teachers during the project, student
papers describing ways to address cultural issues in classrooms, and final
ethnographic papers. The interviews spanned the year and included three formal and
five informal interviews.
The important aim of this study was for the preservice teachers to view
themselves as cultural beings. In order to understand the differences in cultures of
their students, the preservice teachers needed to examine their own cultures. An
effective way was for the preservice teachers to confront their assumptions of
different cultures and to find ways in which they could be challenged to new thinking.
After putting preservice teachers in different scenarios mentioned above to
observe their students, the researchers identified the assumptions the preservice
teachers made about their students and examined those assumptions. The researchers

PREPARING PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN A DIVERSE WORLD

then held discussions with the preservice teachers and emphasized that ethnography
was not intended to have investigators draw conclusions quite as rapidly as they
seemed to do. The preservice teachers were also taught to reassess their previous
beliefs. This study was an ethnographic qualitative research in which there was a
study of cultural pattern and perspective of participants in their cultural settings.
All six preservice teachers concluded that by participating, their understanding
about different cultures was improved. They became more culturally sensitive. The
preservice teachers were able to discuss in their final papers ways to connect curricula
to students lives, to help students apply their background knowledge, and to
differentiate instructions. Therefore the researchers concluded that by including
participant observation and ethnographically informed approaches in teacher
preparation courses, the preservice teachers would be able to address culture and
cultural diversity in teacher education.
As this was a qualitative research, it involved only twenty-eight preservice
teachers. The advantage of this research was that researchers were able to interpret
data collected in a comprehensive and narrative way so that I was able to see a
complete picture of how the preservice teachers progressed and learned throughout
the study. As there was also no specific hypothesis, I felt excited to see what the
conclusion would be without any presumption. However, I am concerned about the
quality of this research in terms of data collection and sample size. It was a selfselected study, meaning the preservice teachers volunteered to join and were fully
aware of the nature of the study. Could it be that those twenty-eight preservice
teachers already were more conscious about the importance of understanding diversity
of the cultures (compared with their fellow preservice teachers), that was why they
decided to participate in the project voluntarily? The sample size may be too small to

PREPARING PRESERVICE TEACHERS IN A DIVERSE WORLD

represent the country and the PDS year may not be long enough to draw conclusions.
Could this research be conducted in a less biased way quantitatively? Preservice
teachers were randomly assigned into groups of curriculum with participant
observation and ethnographically informed approaches and curriculum without?
While both groups were blinded (not knowing if this new curriculum was introduced
or not), the researchers then allow the participants to be exposed to different
communities. Interviews were then conducted with a standardized survey to
objectively observe to see if their understanding has improved in the group with the
new curriculum compared with the group without.

References
Barab, S., Thomas, M., Dodge, T., Carteaux, R. & Tuzun, H. (2005). Making
Learning Fun: Quest Atlantis, A Game Without Guns. Educational Technology
Research and Development, 53(1), 86-107.