NCATE and most teacher preparation institutions include "diversity" as a necessary component of pre-service training. But in looking at how these are implemented - through casual conversations, hence the request for reserach :) - these tend to simply teach about cultural differences.
In other words, they seem to define "Native Americans", "LGBT Americans", "African Americans" and other minorities by their skin color or sexual orientation and recommend strategies for dealing with this.
My interest is if these promote positive affects on student learning or if they create a negative externality where teacher candidates engage in implicit racism (such as: I have a Native student so I need to use cooperative learning for him, e.g. - defining him by his race)
Hi Kevin,
I don't know how it works in other places but Canada generally employs a strategy of voluntary self-declaration which means that if people choose not to self-declare you don't have any reliable data with which to conduct research. Anecdotally, many people have said that they do not self-declare because of concerns of stigmatization based on the self-declaration.
It is tough to find an exact line, and not to go far, or not to pass the line in these comparatively several variables and definitions of this line in different cultures, and not to be considered the recist one. The reason is that (1). The intensity of recism is different from one generation to another. (2). it is a very different matter in each single religious belief;e.g. in Islamic belief, Allah created everybody equal, and racism is an acting agaist will of God (this issue is totally different from their belief regarding other religions). (3). In Post Word Wars eras, the petriatic sense made the nationalism and racesim have overlaped in this regard. (4). The level of self-analyzing and self-decelaration among females are different from males in various culture, based on their sense of social dominancy. (5). The impact of historical background of family in migrants and multiculture individuals are compavatively flexible than other, for most.
This might not directly answer your question, but I do teach diversity/multicultural courses for school psychology. This issue of "color by number" diversity pedagogy (which I would argue is completely different from implicit racism) can likely be mitigated through a more substantive instruction in multicultural practice and exposure to diverse individuals.
In my courses we start of with becoming aware of our own uniqueness, biases, stereotypes, etc. Then we learn about what really is race and historical racial relations in the US and around the world. Subsequently, we learn about how the brain works and cognitive theories that explain our biases and stereotypes. Lastly, we will briefly talk about stereotypical racial/cultural characteristics. Throughout the course we also seek to increase our exposure to diverse individuals through in person interviews and presentations.
My goal is to create future professionals who have an understanding and an appreciation for diversity and is willing to advocate and seek knowledge that is specific to the population that they work with.
I am unaware of any colleague that uses a color by number approach to multicultural training.
Kevin:
From research in the U.S., I think the diversity mandates may be missing the mark. In one study, it was revealed that the "majority" seldom attend the diversity training workshops on campus, so they are not able to really impact the diversity in the classroom (online and F2F):
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275963351_Workforce_Education_and_Development_%28WED%29_Graduate_Students%27_Perceptions_of_Cultural_Insensitivity_in_Classroom_Teaching_-_A_Mixed_Methods_Study?ev=prf_pub
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263045869_Curriculum_Inclusiveness_Challenge_Responding_to_Multiculturalism_among_Workforce_Education_and_Development_Graduate_Students?ev=prf_pub
Best regards,
Debra
Data Curriculum Inclusiveness Challenge: Responding to Multicultu...
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