Multicultural Education in a Teacher Preparation Program: Perspectives from

Three Graduates

Muhammad Abd Hadi Bunyamin

University of Minnesota-USA

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Multicultural Education in a Teacher Preparation Program

Abstract: Teacher preparation program plays a vital role to prepare future teachers with multicultural teaching and learning. This study aims to reveal perspectives of three graduates from a teacher preparation program in one public university in Malaysia. I used the interview method to collect the data about the graduates’ perspectives on the teaching internship, the curriculum of the program, and the program’s endeavor to teach the preservice physics teachers about multicultural education. The primary finding revealed that all graduates agreed that the program puts little emphasis on the multicultural education elements. The program needs to prepare their preservice teachers to teach physics by considering the multicultural dimension of teaching and to provide the model of teaching with diversity in education courses or in the teaching internship program.

Overview Teacher preparation program (TPP) is a vital stage for future teachers to be

trained wisely in order to teach effectively for diverse students.

According to Banks (2004), multicultural education could be perceived using five dimensions: (1) content integration (2) the knowledge construction processes (3) an equity pedagogy (4) prejudice reduction (5) an empowering school culture and cultural groups.

Research Questions How did the graduates perceive the teaching internship as the platform to

learn diversity and equity in physics teaching?

How did the graduates link the curriculum of the TPP with the elements of multicultural education?

What would be the future steps to be taken in order to improve the TPP regarding the multicultural education elements in physics?

Literature Review Tobias (1999) revealed that the teacher preparation programs (TPPs) gave

greater emphasis on the idea of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) established by Shulman (1986).

Nonetheless, the scholars had always debated the scope of the PCK, but lastly, they agreed that two knowledge construct the PCK: (1) content knowledge (2) teaching strategy knowledge (Van Driel, Verlop & Vos, 1998).

Literature ReviewIf we discard the contextual knowledge of teaching, how can we expect preservice teachers to teach students by considering students’ diverse background?

AND

Should we reconceptualize the PCK?

Research Methodology This study is interpretive in nature.

I employed the interview method to collect the data from the graduates’ perspective on the teacher preparation program that they had been going.

I got three graduates who studied in the same program, but at different cohorts.

The first participants, Aisha (not her real name) graduate from the program in June 2013. She is now waiting to be placed at a public high school to teach physics.

Research methodology The second participant is Awani. She graduated from the program in May

2010 and is now teaching at a public high school in the physics subject. She also has a master’s degree qualification in the physics education area since May 2014.

The third participant (Fahani) is now a doctor of philosophy (PhD) student who graduated from the program in May 2010. She has a master’s degree qualification in the physics education area since June 2013.

Limitations The participants are all female. I tried my best to get male participants, but I

cannot reach them due to the limited number of male graduates of the program.

All participants are Malay. The numbers of graduates among other races are very limited. It is difficult to get even one graduate. The Malay graduates form the majority of the program.

The interview was the only method I used. Using other methods like document analysis or survey could enrich the data of this study.

Data analysis Aisha:

To Aisha, generally, the professors who taught her during the teacher preparation program had mainly focused on the aspect of approaches and methods of teaching. Aisha stated that the program, however, gave less emphasis on diversity in education or the multicultural education domain of knowledge. To her, none of the education subjects taught her about the diversity in education. Aisha said that the internship of teaching at schools could be a powerful platform to prepare preservice physics teachers with the diversity in education. She suggested the internship to be made two semesters at different schools. She suggested for adding the high school physics syllabus into the current curriculum. The courses on pedagogy should be enriched with the knowledge on how to facilitate the students’ diverse attitudes.

Data analysis Awani:

To her, the teacher preparation program failed to prepare their preservice physics teachers to really master the content knowledge of physics at the high school level. She stated that the most helpful course is the Teaching and Learning in Science and Mathematics. In terms of teaching internship, she believed that the internship was very good and should be maintained. she suggested to the administers of the teacher preparation program and the internship program to carefully select the appropriate schools for the preservice teachers where the schools with diverse students (like different races and family’s socioeconomic status) should be primarily selected. She recommended the teacher preparation program to give more emphasis on the education course, likes psychology in education in order to prepare preservice teachers with the up-to-date issues of education, likes the diversity and the multicultural issues.

Data analysis Fahani:

To her, the teacher preparation program had mainly prepared her to be a highly positive and credible physics teacher through the courses in psychology, sociology, and pedagogy. She, however, found that the program faced the tension between university physics knowledge and education knowledge. The preservice physics teachers failed to relate the education theories with the real context of education at schools. She, nevertheless, states that she gained experience of going to school during the teacher preparation period through the course of sociology. She suggested the program to provide preservice teachers with several models of teaching with diversity to serve the future teachers on teaching in multicultural settings. Regarding the teaching internship program, she stated that the internship was a good experience for her. Through this internship, she found that there is still the issue of the gap of races like Malay, Chinese, and Indian.

Data analysisFour themes emerged:

All of them agreed that the program gave less emphasis on the multicultural aspects of the teaching and learning with little endeavors to expose them with the issues of race, socioeconomic status and the contextual knowledge of teaching.

The program gave more emphasis on how to teach for specific subject matter likes physics by largely looking at the idea of PCK.

The teaching internship program is a promising platform for the preservice physics teacher to understand and realize the diversity and equity in the education.

The assignments provided by education professors play significant roles to educate the preservice physics teachers about multicultural dimensions in the education.

Discussion The primary finding is the reality that the TPP of those three graduates put

less emphasis on the multicultural aspects in the physics education area. Instead, the TPP gave more emphasis on the teaching approach to the science and physics in particular, and in the education in general.

The large focus that was given to the teaching approach to science is actually related to the notion of PCK (Shulman, 1986).

Then, this finding is parallel with a statement made by Tobias (1999).

Discussion According to Fahani, the participant of this study, some physics teachers

perceived the knowledge of the surrounding or the contextual knowledge (likes students’ background and diversity) as a burden.

The equity teaching is one of the five dimensions advocated by Banks (2004), which is equity pedagogy. The equity pedagogy should cover as many as possible the aspects of multicultural dimension to ensure that every student gains an equal opportunity in the learning process.

Discussion Regarding the teaching internship program, all participants believed that it is

a great opportunity to realize and learn about the multicultural phenomena in schools and classrooms.

From this finding, I have one question: Should we give more time for the preservice teachers to stay at schools compared to learning in the college of education?

Discussion The time given to the preservice physics teachers to stay at schools may

increase their knowledge and experience on the multicultural education, but is there any alternative to implement the objective?

Discussion I think that the alternative is to provide the preservice physics teachers with

more culturally relevant assignments during their study in the college!

The assignments given by education professors should put more multicultural elements, including the task to relate the connection between race, culture, language, and social class with the physics and science achievement among students. This idea aligns with the notion of funds of knowledge (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992)

Conclusion This study divulged that the teacher preparation program (TPP) puts greater

emphasis on the aspects of the subject matter knowledge and the teaching strategies for the science and physics. It is not a wrong approach, but it should be enriched with multicultural elements in each part of the TPP.

Recommendation-1 Education professors and science teacher educators should give useful

assignments to the preservice physics teachers on the topic of multicultural elements in the physics teaching area. The tasks should encourage the preservice physics teachers to go to schools or students’ home to investigate the impact of contextual knowledge to the approach of teaching. The data like students’ family backgrounds, social class, race, religion, and language should be collected.

Recommendation-2 There is no crucial need to extend the period of teaching internship of one

semester. However, the administrators of the TPP should select the schools which are multicultural in nature, like diverse race, various religions, two genders, and schools with students with diverse social class.

Recommendation-3 The professors of the TPP should come out with several models and

guidelines of equity and diversity teaching approach for the preservice physics teachers. This is to assist the preservice physics teachers to teach considering the students’ diverse backgrounds.

Thank you ! ;)

MUHAMMAD ABD HADI BUNYAMIN

Email: bunya002@umn.edu

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia