Transactions, transformation, and transcendence: multicultural service-learning experience of preservice teachers.(Research)(Report)

Introduction

Using U.S. Census Bureau data from 2000, Cochran-Smith (2004) reported that it was "estimated that people of color made up 28% of the nation's population in 2000, and predicted that they would make up 38% in 2025, and 47% in 2050" (p. vii). When one examines only the school-age population (i.e., K-12 school population), the demographic imperative is even more dramatic. Hodgkinson (2002) notes that student enrollments are becoming increasingly racially diverse at about 40% which is a rough estimate. Quite obviously, students of color represent a significant if not majority population in many of the nation's public schools.

However, the nation's teaching force does not reflect the same proportional racial and ethnic diversity that is found in student populations. The latest data suggests that the nation's teaching force is becoming increasingly White (86%) and that teachers of color are actually declining but estimated to be at about (14%) (Cochran-Smith, Davis, & Fries, 2004). Additionally, most White teachers are female, middleclass, and monolingual (Cruz-Janzen & Taylor, 2000; Howard, 1999) while many students of color bring a different cultural biography into the class: their own cultural and ethnic traditions, a non-middle class orientation (i.e., possibly one of poverty), and a language other than English (i.e., sometimes two or three languages other than English).

As a result, these extremely different cultural frames of reference make it difficult, if not impossible, for such teachers who are not multiculturally literate to teach and work effectively with minority students. More importantly, by not having the proper knowledge, skills, and dispositions to teach in culturally responsive ways and act as cultural brokers between the mainstream educational institutions and home cultures of their students, these teachers might be denying their students significant educational opportunities.

Theoretical Framework

Numerous researchers (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Gay 2000; Ladson-Billings, 2001; Nieto 1996; Sleeter, 1995; Villegas & Lucas, 2002) have stressed the critical need for preservice teachers, especially White middle-class teachers, to be educated in strategies and philosophies that are culturally responsive to an increasingly diverse K-12 student population. To this end, Geneva Gay's (2000) framework of culturally responsive pedagogy, which includes caring, communication, curriculum and instruction, informed this study. Each of these topics was addressed through the preservice teachers' service-learning experiences of tutoring an English Language Learner (ELL) student.

In addition to culturally responsive pedagogy, this study also drew on the body of research known as White identity formation (Helms, 1990; Tatum 1997). Essentially, White identity formation theories rest on the assumption that many individuals who self identify themselves as White do not see themselves in racial terms. With respect to diversity or multicultural education, the focus is about "others" and does not take into account their own racial/ethnic identity.