Preservice teachers' attitudes about and awareness of multicultural teaching and learning

Abstract This study examined preservice teachers' ( N = 73) attitudes about and awareness of aspects of multicultural teaching and learning. Subjects provided background information and responded to 43 statements about multicultural education. Results indicate that most respondents are aware of many issues related to multicultural education and anticipate having culturally diverse students in their classrooms. While aware of the need to be able to work with students from diverse cultures, teacher education students are undecided as to just how well their teacher preparation has developed their abilities to teach children from cultural and religious backgrounds that differ from their own, or to communicate with children and families from diverse backgrounds. The authors recommend that teacher training programs address both theory and practice in multicultural education throughout the curriculum in a comprehensive, long-term manner, so that students can acquire the knowledge and confidence necessary to deal with multicultural issues in education with intelligence, professionalism, and understanding.