Chapter 8: The Changing Face of Diversity Through the Eyes of Urban Teachers: Promoting Democratic Schools and Classrooms

This chapter focuses on diversity issues facing PreK–12 teachers working in large urban school districts who have seen their own understanding of diversity shift over time. It is based on action research conducted by the author for the purpose of modifying a multicultural course she has taught for three years. The multicultural course is a requirement for fulfilling California Commission of Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) Program Standard 6: Advanced Study of Supporting Equity, Diversity, and Access to the Core Curriculum. This course allows PreK–12 teachers to expand on the knowledge, skills and abilities acquired during their preliminary credential preparation for creating equitable classroom environments to enable all students to experience academic success and attain educational excellence.

The goal of the research is threefold. First, the research was conducted to assess how a group of urban PreK–12 teachers perceived the value of this multicultural course in preparing them to promote a pluralistic democracy in their schools. Secondly, the research was conducted to gain insight on how to modify the course and activities based upon student reflections, as well as a review of related literature. A final goal was to determine whether the course is meeting its original objective of supporting students with strategies to understand, and promote pluralistic democracies in their schools and classrooms. The methodology focused on a critical investigation of selected assignments which required structured reflections on how the urban teachers were able to apply the course content to their individual lives and school settings. Assignments were reviewed for:

• underlying themes or patterns

• changes or transformations in perceptions

• lessons learned

• relevance and applications of course content

The specific course assignments that were selected for analysis were:

1. Collaborative Book Club—Critical Inquiry of self-selected text

2. Outcome Assessment—Reflection on overall growth as a result of the course

3. Final Narratives—Autobiographical reflections on concepts of diversity

4. Ethnographic Community Profile—Individual case studies of current school site with a focus on diversity. (Taylor & Whittaker, 2009)

Student reflections overwhelmingly indicated that the course content and related material were relevant to them. Even though most students had had prior courses in multicultural education, this advanced study provided an expanded definition and exposure to the elements of diversity (Terrell & Lindsey, 2009; Gollnick & Chinn, 2008) as well as practical activities to investigate these elements in their Pre K–12 urban school communities. Students revealed that writing autobiographical narratives along with collaboratively conducting a critical analysis of the course texts in large and small groups helped them to gain multiple perspectives on addressing issues of diversity. Students were able to investigate best practices in multicultural education through course discussions, video documentaries and compiling cross-cultural case studies of their school settings. Students were able to apply course content in their lesson plans, in their interactions with Pre K–12 students and colleagues, and in the additional resources they brought to their schools.