Teacher Education
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
1997
Publisher
Teachers College Press
Abstract
Historically the cultures of certain ethnic groups in the United States have been rendered invisible in school pedagogy. New stipulations for credentialing in California, however, require teachers to reflect critically upon the meaning of cultural difference, including their own thinking and lived experience as well as the lives, backgrounds, and cultural history ofthe children they teach. To be effective in culturally diverse classrooms, teachers must confront certain contradictions in their own identity. Most teacher candidates have shaped their identity according to a set of mainstream values and beliefs that has denigrated cultural difference. The personal confrontation with difference and self-identity during the professional development process can be frustrating and painful ifpreservice teachers have never questioned their social position from the perspective of a belief system that values diversity and the cultural agency of ethnic communities.
Chapter of
Preparing Teachers for Cultural Diversity
Editor
Joyce E. King
Etta R. Hollins
Warren C. Hyman
Recommended Citation
Garcia, S. (1997). Self Narrative and the Process of Inquiry in Teacher Development: Living and Working in Just Institutions., Preparing Teachers for Cultural Diversity, Edited by Joyce E. King, Etta R. Hollins, and Warren C. Hyman, Teachers College Press.
Comments
Reprinted by permission of the Publisher. From Joyce E. King, Etta R. Hollins, and Warren C. Hyman, eds., Preparing Teachers for Cultural Diversity, New York Teachers College Press. Copyright© 1997 by Teachers College, Columbia University. All rights reserved.