Fostering Cross-Cultural Competence in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Learners

Student populations in Unites States schools have changed and continue to do so. Educators have had to adapt in order to be effective and equitable. Bilingual/immersion teachers, specifically, are experiencing difficulties in fostering cross-cultural competence. This creates myriad issues for students concerning diversity, cultural conflicts, and racial tensions. The purpose of this chapter is to provide context and a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of bilingual/immersion teachers. This will be accomplished by a thorough review of recent literature, an analysis of the discovered themes within the literature, and a discussion of practical recommendations to provide support to teachers, administrators, and district stakeholders.

Supporting secondary pre-service teacher identity development as culturally responsive and sustaining teachers

In Aotearoa New Zealand, as in many pluralistic democracies, the continuing disparity in educational outcomes has resulted in a growing call for changes in teacher preparation to better support culturally diverse learners in ways that are responsive to the particular national and cultural contexts. This paper presents findings from a teacher education program specifically designed to address this need within the national context of

“What Do You Need a Course Like That for?” Conceptualizing Diverse Ruralities in Rural Teacher Education

This article examined preservice teachers discourse models of diversity in a rural context. We explored the perceptions of diversity among preservice teachers at a rural university as they were asked to problematize simplistic notions of rurality in a semester-long diversity course titled “Teaching Culturally Diverse Learners” in teacher education. Considering the complexities of preparing preservice teachers to address the needs of all students, we argue that preservice teachers must engage rurality as dynamic, rather than homogeneous, White, and nondiverse. Data from student coursework and post-course interviews were analyzed using grounded theory. Findings suggest that rural preservice teachers discourse models of diversity have the potential to shift from dominant to counter-hegemonic when given context-sensitive opportunities to unpack identity and diversity beyond Whiteness. Implications propose the development of pedagogies reflective of complex diverse ruralities offers critical opportunity to prepare future teachers to embrace equity across geographies in their future profession.

Technology-Based Employability Curriculum and Culturally Diverse Learners With Disabilities

As technology continues to permeate our culture and society, K–12 educators search for strategies to build student capacity and engagement with technology. Although the digital divide around access to technology has been decreasing, there is still a significant gap in the utilization of technology for educational purposes by culturally diverse learners. Even more vulnerable to unequal access to technology for educational use are culturally diverse students with a documented disability. TechNow is a promising transition-focused technology training class for high school students with disabilities. A three-factor analysis of variance revealed significant improvements in perceptions of technology skill acquisition and use of software by Latino and Native American high school students with disabilities enrolled in TechNow compared to the control group. Implications of these results suggest acquisition of critical transition skills for culturally diverse learners are enhanced through the TechNow program.

Preparing Teachers to be Effective in Cross-Cultural Learning Environments

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 18.9 percent of elementary and middle school teachers are from diverse backgrounds. Only 15 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers are minority (“Household Data Annual Averages,” 2008). The current teacher workforce remains predominantly white, middle class (Hughes & Kwok, 2007), and female (Kearney, 2008; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clark & Curran, 2004; Garmon, 2005; Thomas & Kearney, 2008). Another problem that affects teacher workforce is that half of new teachers leave their jobs within their first five years of teaching (Kearney, 2008). Because of high burn out due to improper working conditions and lack of support, teachers are leaving schools with a high minority rate (Horng, 2009). Therefore, this chapter is intended to stimulate reflections on strategies to deal with the increasing diversity in the national teacher educator workforce. Further, since diversity is a complex issue, issues that teachers of all ethnicities (including white) come across in working with culturally diverse learners are also examined.

Creating Taxonomies to Improve School–Home Connections With Families of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners

Families of culturally and linguistically diverse pupils often do not participate fully in their children’s school-based education. The purpose of this article is to introduce taxonomies as a means to examine and improve school practices and levels of responsiveness to families whose home language is not English, so that families feel more comfortable connecting with their child’s school community. Taxonomies can provide a vital framework, and tool that schools can use to evaluate and improve the school–home contacts that take place. The taxonomies introduced in this article are based on a compilation of a variety of theoretical premises concerning parent involvement and the education of linguistically and culturally diverse learners.