Promoting Teacher Efficacy for Working With Culturally Diverse Students

Abstract

Teachers exert a potent influence over the achievement of all students, low-income culturally diverse students in particular. Although recent research has confirmed that teacher involvement is critical for promoting academic engagement of low-income and ethnically diverse students, other literature suggests that teachers have lower expectations for and fewer interactions with these children. These findings have prompted calls for promoting teacher self-efficacy for working with children from diverse backgrounds. The purposes of this article are (a) to summarize briefly the literature that examines the effect of teacher efficacy on academic and behavioral outcomes of students, especially culturally diverse students; (b) to disseminate the findings of a teacher-training program designed to promote teacher efficacy in relation to culturally diverse students; and (c) to provide teachers, administrators, and teacher trainers with methods to increase teacher efficacy when working with culturally diverse learners.