Due to poor school performance among significant numbers of minority students in U.S. schools, many parents, educators, and policymakers now look to teacher education programs (TEPs) to prepare preservice teachers more effectively for student diversity. Unfortunately, although multicultural TEPs and courses have been in existence for quite some time, we know very little about the nature of teacher learning and development and the conditions that promote teacher learning for student diversity in both preservice courses and field experiences. Moreover, we know little about what program components improve learning experiences for culturally and linguistically diverse students. In this article, we propose a reconceptualization of multicultural teacher education. For this purpose, we summarize basic principles of cultural-historical theory that must be considered by teacher educators who prepare preservice teachers for student diversity. We also discuss how cultural-historical theory can inform research designs as teacher educators attempt to assess preservice teacher learning. Through preliminary analysis of a study conducted in a preservice teacher education course, we provide examples of how constructs from cultural-historical theory are being used to assess teacher learning about teaching and learning in multicultural contexts.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Artiles, A.J., Hoffman-Kipp, P., & López-Torres, C.L. (1999, April). Becoming social justice educators: A sociocultural study of bilingual teachers' emerging understandings of culture and learning. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Ontario, Canada.
2.
Artiles, A.J., & McClafferty, K. (1998). Learning to teach culturally diverse learners: Charting change in preservice teacher thinking about effective teaching. Elementary School Journal, 98, 189-220.
3.
Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
4.
Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
5.
Blanton, W.E., Moorman, G., & Trathen, W. (1998). Telecommunications and teacher education: A social constructivist review. Review of Research in Education, 23, 235-275.
6.
Cazden, C. (1993). Vygotsky, Hymes, and Bakhtin: From word to utterance and voice. In E. A. Forman, N. Minick, & C. A. Stone (Eds.), Context for learning: Sociocultural dynamics in children's development (pp. 197-212). New York: Oxford University Press.
7.
Cole, M. (1996). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
Cole, M. (1998). Can cultural psychology help us think about diversity?Mind, Culture, and Activity, 5, 291-304.
9.
Coulter, D. (1999). The epic and the novel: Dialogism and teacher research. Educational Researcher, 28(3), 4-13.
10.
Engestrom, Y. (1993). Developmental studies of work as a testbench of activity theory: The case of primary care medical practice. In S. Chaiklin & J. Lave (Eds.), Understanding practice: Perspectives of activity and context (pp. 64-103). New York: Cambridge University Press.
11.
Engestrom, Y. (1994). Teachers as collaborative thinkers: Activity-theoretical study of an innovative teacher team. In I. Carlgren, G. Handal, & S. Vaage (Eds.), Teachers' minds and actions: Research on teachers' thinking and practice (pp. 43-61). Washington, DC: Falmer.
12.
Freire, P. (1996). Letters to Cristina: Reflections on my life and work. New York: Routledge.
13.
Haberman, M., & Post, L. (1992). Does direct experience change education students' perceptions of low-income minority children? MidwesternEducational Researcher, 5, 29-31.
14.
Hedegaard, M. (1998). Situated learning and cognition: Theoretical learning and cognition. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 5, 114-126.
15.
Herrenkohl, L.R., & Wertsch, J.V. (1996, April). The use of cultural tools: Mastery and appropriation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York .
16.
Hodges, D.C. (1998). Participation as dis-identification with/in a community of practice. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 5, 272-290.
17.
Holland, D., & Cole, M. (1995). Between discourse and schema: Reformulating a cultural-historical approach to culture and mind. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 26, 475-490.
18.
Howey, K. (1996). Designing coherent and effective teacher education programs. In J. Sikula, T. Buttery, & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 143-170). New York: Macmillan.
19.
Hubert, J., & Whelan, K. (1999). A marginal story as a place of possibility: Negotiating self on the professional knowledge landscape. Teaching and Teacher Education, 15, 381-396.
20.
John-Steiner, V., & Mahn, H. (1996). Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskian framework. Educational Psychologist, 31, 191-206.
21.
Karpov, Y.V., & Haywood, H.C. (1998). Two ways to elaborate Vygotsky's concept of mediation: Implications for instruction. American Psychologist, 53, 27-36.
22.
Lave, J. (1996). Teaching, as learning, in practice. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3, 149-164.
23.
Leont'ev, A.N. (1981). The problem of activity in psychology. In J. V. Wertsch (Ed.), The concept of activity in Soviet psychology (p. 37-71). Armonk, NY: Sharpe.
24.
Martin, L.M. (1990). Detecting and defining science problems: A study of video-mediated lessons. In L. C. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp. 372-402). New York: Cambridge University Press.
25.
Matusov, E. (1999). How does a community of learners maintain itself? Ecology of an innovative school. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 30, 161-186.
26.
Nelson, K. (1995). From spontaneous to scientific concepts: Continuities and discontinuities from childhood to adulthood. In L. M. Martin, K. Nelson, & E. Tobach (Eds.), Sociocultural psychology: Theory and practice of doing and knowing (pp. 229-249). New York: Cambridge University Press.
27.
Nicolopoulou, A., & Cole, M. (1993). Generation and transmission of shared knowledge in the culture of collaborative learning: The Fifth Dimension, its playworld, and its institutional contexts. In E. A. Forman, N. Minick, & C. A. Stone (Eds.), Contexts for learning: Sociocultural dynamics in children's development (pp. 283-314). New York: Oxford University Press.
28.
Panofsky, C.P., John-Steiner, V., & Blackwell, P.J. (1990). The development of scientific concepts and discourse. In L. C. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp. 251-267). New York: Cambridge University Press.
29.
Penuel, W.R., & Wertsch, J.V. (1995). Vygotsky and identity formation: A sociocultural approach. Educational Psychologist, 30, 83-92.
30.
Rogoff, B. (1997). Evaluating development in the process of participation: Theory, methods, and practice building on each other. In E. Amsel & K. A. Renninger (Eds.), Change and development: Issues of theory, application, and method (pp. 265-285). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
31.
Rogoff, B., & Chavajay, P. (1995). What's become of research on the cultural basis of cognitive development?American Psychologist, 50, 859-877.
32.
Rogoff, B., Radziszewska, B., & Masiello, T. (1995). Analysis of developmental processes in sociocultural activity. In L. M. Martin, K. Nelson, & E. Tobach (Eds.), Sociocultural psychology: Theory and practice of doing and knowing (pp. 125-149). New York: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Stone, C.A. (1993). What is missing in the metaphor of scaffolding? In E. A. Forman, N. Minick, & C. A. Stone (Eds.), Context for learning: Sociocultural dynamics in children's development (pp. 169-181). New York: Oxford University Press.
34.
Trent, S. C., & Artiles, A. J. (Eds.). (1998). Multicultural teacher education in special education: Multiple measures for tracing conceptual change [Special issue]. Remedial and Special Education, 19(1).
35.
Trent, S.C., Artiles, A.J., & Englert, C.S. (1998). From deficit thinking to social constructivism: A review of theory, research, and practice in special education. Review of Research in Education, 23, 277-307.
36.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
37.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1986). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
38.
Wertsch, J.V. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
39.
Wertsch, J.V., Hagstrom, F., & Kikas, E. (1995). Voices of thinking and speaking. In L. M. Martin, K. Nelson , & E. Tobach (Eds.), Sociocultural
40.
psychology: Theory and practice of doing and knowing (pp. 276-290). New York: Cambridge University Press.
41.
Wertsch, J.V., Tulviste, P., & Hagstrom, F. (1993). A sociocultural approach to agency. In E. A. Forman, N. Minick , & C. A. Stone (Eds.), Context for learning: Sociocultural dynamics in children's development (pp. 336-356). New York: Oxford University Press.
42.
Zeichner, K., Grant, C., Gay, G., Gillette, M., Valli, L., & Villegas, A.M. (1996, February). A research informed vision of good practice in multicultural preservice teacher education . Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Chicago.
