Developing Teacher Candidates’ Multicultural Lenses through Disciplinary Writing Assignments

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of providing scaffolded disciplinary writing assignments to develop teacher candidates’ multicultural lenses. This study was set in a secondary education program at one mid-Atlantic university. Faculty in this program focused on five dimensions of multicultural education (ME) to better serve teacher candidates within their program through the development of ME-focused disciplinary writing assignments. In required courses within the program, teacher candidates (TCs) completed assignments such as a student shadow experience, infographic, journal, community mapping activity, and practitioner journal article. Qualitative data were collected to explore TCs’ understanding of the ME dimensions through reflections and focus group transcripts and provide insight on TCs’ understanding of multicultural education and pedagogical strategies, as well as their perceptions of the generated disciplinary writing assignments. The researchers found TCs focused on some dimensions of ME more than others, such as content integration and prejudice reduction. We make recommendations for practice based on these findings.