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The process of becoming multicultural: A phenomenological interview study of White, middle class teachers
Abstract
Multicultural education focuses on the educational experience of diverse children who attend the nation's public schools. Statistics show that the majority of teachers in American schools are White, middle class women. Previous research has raised the question of whether this population of teachers can be trained to effectively teach students of color, or can utilize strategies that engage non-traditional learners, children of the poor, special needs and linguistic minority students. The purpose of this qualitative study of ten White, middle-class public school teachers was to discover how members of the dominant culture understand the concept of multicultural education, where they learned this interpretation of the concept and how they apply their insights to their pedagogy. The study looked for significant connections between teachers' personal and professional lives, and their understanding of diverse populations. By viewing teachers as people involved in a lifelong process of becoming multicultural, this research looks for insight from classroom teachers themselves. Recent studies demonstrate positive connections when participants are not only involved in the research question, but locate the source of information and interpretation among the teachers themselves. The methodology was phenomenological interviewing: three ninety-minute interviews with each participant. The first interview asked participants to reconstruct their personal background, issues related to diversity as well as events affecting their decision to become a teacher. The second interview focused on the details of curriculum, daily schedule, goals and pedagogy. The third interview included reflections on individual understanding of multicultural education, connecting methodological decisions with diversity in their classrooms. The major finding is that teachers have individual socially-constructed ideas about what multicultural education is, based on both professional and personal exposure to people and perspectives from different cultural backgrounds. Other findings include the importance of experiential education, particularly extended immersion in communities requiring participants adapt to different cultural and linguistic norms. Friendships with people of different cultural backgrounds, and experience standing up to issues of injustice also were important. Community and professional education factors are discussed. The final chapter summarizes participant ideas about support and training teachers in the process of becoming multicultural.
Subject Area
Bilingual education|Multicultural education|Teacher education
Recommended Citation
Barrett, Marilyn Bean, "The process of becoming multicultural: A phenomenological interview study of White, middle class teachers" (1994). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9434452.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9434452