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 DOI: 10.3102/0013189X10363819

2010 39: 198EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHERAntonio J. Castro

Researching Millennial Preservice TeachersThemes in the Research on Preservice Teachers' Views of Cultural Diversity: Implications for

  

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Educational Researcher, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 198–210DOI: 10.3102/0013189X10363819

© 2010 AERA. http://er.aera.net

This article traces themes found in the research on preservice teach-

ers’ views of cultural diversity published in peer-reviewed journals

from 1985 to 2007. The article seeks to draw insights that inform

education researchers interested in interrogating and unpacking

views about diversity expressed by today’s millennial college students.

Findings suggest that although recent studies report a shift toward

more positive attitudes about teaching culturally diverse students,

persistent issues plague preservice teachers’ understanding of cul-

tural diversity. Implications for future research are discussed.

Keywords: diversity; multicultural education; social justice;

teacher education/development

As today’s public schools become more culturally and economically diverse, the demographic divide between teachers and students deepens. Preservice teachers gen-

erally come from middle-class, Anglo-American backgrounds (Zumwalt & Craig, 2005) and prefer to teach in suburban and more affluent school contexts (Darling-Hammond & Cobb, 1996), perpetuating existing inequities in access to qualified teachers for urban and high-needs schoolchildren (Darling-Hammond, 2007; Ladson-Billings & Brown, 2008). Furthermore, teachers in diverse schools may hold lower expecta-tions, resulting in a pedagogy of poverty that undermines the potential inherent to a public school education (Haberman, 1991, 1996). Preparing culturally responsive teachers with the willingness and abilities to teach in these more diverse school contexts represents, perhaps, the most daunting task facing teacher educators today (Gay, 2002; Villegas, 2008).

Much of the research on promoting culturally responsive teaching addresses gaps and deficits in preservice teachers’ experi-ences, attitudes, and perceptions. For example, Sleeter (2008) outlined four interrelated issues affecting many White preservice teachers. First, White preservice teachers failed to recognize the pervasiveness of racial inequity. Second, White preservice teach-ers held deficit views about and lower expectations for students of color. Third, these preservice teachers adopted a colorblind approach to teaching, denying the very significance of race in

their practices. Finally, White preservice teachers lacked a sense of themselves as cultural beings, resulting in their assumptions that their own cultural lenses represent the norm for all other students.

However, despite the persistence of these findings, recent reports about today’s millennial-generation college students—those born in or since 1985—highlight their greater acceptance of cultural diversity, increased civic participation, and advocacy for social justice issues (Broido, 2004; Howe & Strauss, 2000; Kiesa et al., 2007; Ousley, 2006). Scholars investigating the millennial generation suggest that the “historical location” of millennial col-lege students is dramatically different from that of previous gen-erations, stressing the influence of factors such as the rise of the Internet and interconnectivity, globalization, and demographic diversity (Coomes, 2004; Howe & Strauss, 2000; Marker, 2006). These factors may contribute to greater acceptance of and appre-ciation for cultural diversity (Broido, 2004; Ousley, 2006).

This article investigates the contradiction between the prom-ise of college students of the millennial generation and persistent findings about preservice teachers’ views on cultural diversity by presenting a change-over-time analysis of the research literature on preservice teachers’ views of cultural diversity, multicultural education, and social justice since 1985. Although teacher educa-tion researchers have already conducted syntheses of preservice teachers and cultural diversity (Cochran-Smith, Davis, & Fries, 2003; Grant & Secada, 1990; Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Sleeter, 2008; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996), this article investigates not only the continuities, the themes that permeate the literature, but also the discontinuities. An analysis of the changes over time in the reported findings in the research literature may provide insights about today’s millennial-generation preservice teachers that do not emerge from a traditional synthesis. My central purpose is to discern whether research findings suggest a trend among preser-vice teachers toward greater acceptance of and appreciation for multicultural education and teaching in culturally diverse con-texts. More specifically, I aim to address the following questions:

• What themes in the research on preservice teachers’ views of cultural diversity, social justice, and multicultural education have remained stable or constant since 1985?

• What themes in this research have shifted or changed since 1985?

Themes in the Research on Preservice Teachers’ Views of Cultural Diversity: Implications for Researching Millennial Preservice TeachersAntonio J. Castro

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As this inquiry reveals, the research over time offers both problems and possibilities that make more complex our further examinations of millennial preservice teachers and their beliefs about cultural diversity.

Critical Multiculturalism and Preservice Teachers’ Views on Cultural Diversity

As I began this synthesis, I relied on aspects of critical multicul-turalism to inform my interpretation of these studies. Critical multiculturalism draws inspiration from critical theory, sharing “essentially the same ethics, spirit, values, principles, and actions” (Gay, 1995, p. 180). Critical multiculturalism strives to bring about the transformation of society to accomplish the goals of social justice by confronting and disrupting institutions and the structures of power that maintain disparities across race, class, and gender (May, 1998; Sleeter & Grant, 2007; Sleeter & McLaren, 1995; Steinberg, 1995; Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2001). Critical multiculturalism also challenges the essentializing of cul-tural groups and “romanticizing the curriculum” with images of “brown heroes” or mystical pasts (McCarthy, 1993; McLaren, 1995; Nieto, 1995).

Applying ideas of critical multiculturalism to preservice teach-ers’ views on cultural diversity, multicultural education, and social justice led me to explore two specific concepts. First, I bor-rowed from Freire’s (1999) descriptions of conscientizção. Freire argued that the first stage in promoting an antioppressive, humanist pedagogy required both the oppressor and oppressed to “take into account their behavior, their view of the world, and their ethics” (p. 37). This idea of conscious reflection on one’s self and situation mirrors the concept of sociocultural consciousness espoused by Villegas and Lucas (2002), which they define as “awareness that one’s worldview is not universal but is profoundly shaped by one’s life experiences, as mediated by a variety of fac-tors, chief among them race/ethnicity, social class, and gender” (p. 27). This awareness, according to Villegas and Lucas, can assist preservice teachers in becoming culturally responsive in the classroom.

Second, critical multiculturalism asserts that inequities occur at the level of institutional practices and structures and are often masked by common sets of ideologies and beliefs—what Freire referred to as the “myths which deform us” (Shor & Freire, 1986/2003, p. 481). Bartolomé (1994) lamented that beginning teachers often believe in these myths, assuming that their teach-ing practices are “fine” and need no further interrogation and that schools as institutions are “fair and democratic sites where all students are provided with similar, if not equal, treatment and learning conditions” (p. 174). Therefore, critical multicultural-ism fosters the types of knowledge that “help us understand how social relationships are distorted and manipulated by relations of power and privilege” (McLaren, 2003, p. 197). Teachers who achieve a sense of critical consciousness (Freire, 1999) or socio-cultural consciousness (Villegas & Lucas, 2002) recognize that teaching is always a political act, and they develop political clar-ity, which is essential for realizing the transformative aims of critical multiculturalism (Bartolomé, 1994).

Using critical multiculturalism as a framework for this change-over-time analysis, I sought to investigate the findings of preser-vice teachers’ views on cultural diversity, multicultural education,

and social justice and whether the research literature suggests greater critical awareness of multicultural issues.

Method

Born in or since 1985, many of today’s undergraduate seniors belong to the first cohort of millennials to earn a college degree. This article tracks and synthesizes the research discourse about preservice teachers’ views on cultural diversity throughout much of the millennial generation’s life span; however, it does not con-tain an exhaustive review of the literature. I used the following criteria to choose articles appropriate to this endeavor. First, all the selected articles describe research findings for qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods studies that involved traditional undergraduate students, usually ranging from 19 to 23 years of age, who were enrolled in teacher education programs. The scope of this synthesis includes possible generational trends in the research findings over time and excludes studies focused on alter-native certification or postbaccalaureate programs, which attract older teacher education students (Zumwalt & Craig, 2005).

Second, all articles included in the synthesis present findings related to views on cultural diversity, social justice, or multicul-tural education that the preservice teacher possessed prior to any intervention or educational experience. These findings offer a measure by which to draw comparisons across the literature over time. Descriptions of programs or courses that did not utilize a specific research methodology and/or failed to report on stu-dents’ incoming views were not included.

I began first by identifying key research articles published from 1985 to 1999. I defined a “key” study as one that either was cited in a review of literature on preservice teachers’ views on cultural diversity, social justice, and/or multicultural education or appeared as a chapter in a handbook of research on teacher education and/or multicultural education or in Cochran-Smith and Zeichner’s Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education (2005; also see Cochran-Smith et al., 2003; Grant & Secada, 1990; Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Sleeter, 2008; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996). These review chapters synthesize the research literature usually over a span of 10 or more years and serve as a guide for future research in the field. In addi-tion, I located research articles that were cited by one or more of the articles included in this synthesis. I wanted to ensure that I included as many peer-reviewed studies as possible that had been identified as contributing to the field of research in this area.

Next, because most of the syntheses already published do not review recently published research, I conducted a hand search of peer-reviewed journals that address issues in teacher education, diversity, and urban education; I looked for research studies pub-lished from 2000 to 2007 that fit my selection criteria, discussed above. These journals included Action in Teacher Education; Education and Urban Society; Equity and Excellence; Journal of Teacher Education; Teacher Education Quarterly; Teaching and Teacher Education; Urban Education; and Urban Review.

Using my selection process, I identified 36 articles published from 1986 to 1999 and 19 articles published from 2000 to 2007, a total of 55 research studies. To facilitate a change-over-time analysis of the research, I distributed the articles into three time periods based on specific trends that I identified within the lit-erature: 1986–1994 (13 articles), 1995–1999 (23 articles), and

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2000–2007 (19 articles). As I read each article, I took extensive notes on the influences and challenges associated with preparing teachers for culturally diverse student populations. I organized these notes into a grid and categorized them into themes for each specific time period, a process known as open coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Finally, I compared themes across the three time periods to determine which themes had remained constant and which had shifted over time.

In this synthesis, I focus on general trends across the research literature concerning preservice teachers’ views about cultural diversity, social justice, and/or multicultural education; therefore, this synthesis does not present a meta-analysis of quantitative or qualitative data. Furthermore, as Montecinos (2004) pointed out, several of these articles failed to disaggregate data specifically for their culturally diverse participants. As a result, the findings of this synthesis represent research on mostly middle-class, Anglo-American preservice teachers.

Changes in Preservice Teachers’ Views About Diversity

I separated the research on preservice teachers’ perspectives on cultural diversity into three general time periods. The first time period (1986–1994) consisted of 13 articles mostly published after 1990. The second time period (1995–1999) represented an expansion phase of research on preservice teachers’ views on cul-tural diversity. Finally, articles written since 2000 indicate a movement of research toward uncovering not only the ways in which preservice teachers view cultural diversity but also the methods with which teacher education programs can promote multicultural education and social justice agendas. The themes across each of these three time periods illuminate the continuing tensions in the research findings on preservice teachers’ orienta-tions to diversity (see Table 1). These findings offer both endur-ing problems and new possibilities for preparing preservice teachers to work in culturally diverse contexts.

Time Period 1: The Initial Phase of Research (1986–1994)

Between 1986 and 1994, teacher education researchers focused on documenting problems associated with preservice teachers’ conceptions of multicultural issues, general intolerance among

the mostly Anglo-American preservice teachers toward ethnic minorities, and gaps in course work in multicultural education and teaching strategies.

A lack of complexity in understanding multicultural issues. The studies during this time period revealed that preservice teachers held uncritical, shallow, and inaccurate perspectives on impor-tant societal issues, akin to what King (1991) termed “dyscon-sciousness,” or the “uncritical habit of mind (including perceptions, attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs) that justifies inequity and exploitation by accepting the existing order of things as given” (p. 135). Researchers discovered that many preservice teachers failed to look critically at systems of inequity, White privilege, teaching in diverse contexts, and the goals of multicultural education.

Two research studies demonstrated that preservice teachers held shallow and vague notions of socioeconomic and educational disparities for minority populations. First, King (1991) asked the 57 students enrolled in her Foundations of Education course to offer explanations for the high infant mortality rate among African Americans; she discovered that her students held a “blame the victim” mentality, finding fault within the African American community or with poverty in general. In a similar study, Avery and Walker (1993) surveyed 152 preservice teachers about the achievement gap between Whites, Hispanics, and African Africans. They found the “simplicity of responses” given by par-ticipants to be “surprising” (p. 35), indicating that participants had “only vague understandings of the relationship between social structures and schooling and of the extent to which inequality is perpetuated through schools” (p. 35). These studies point to the lack of critical consciousness necessary to engage in critical mul-ticulturalism. Indeed, participants tended to hold individuals and communities personally responsible for these disparities.

Additional studies in this time period reported that partici-pants held narrow, individualistic, or distorted notions of multi-cultural education. Both Grant and Koskela (1986) and Goodwin (1994) found that their participants associated multicultural education with teaching only those who are culturally different from the dominant group. Grant and Koskela reported that many of the 23 preservice teachers they interviewed subscribed to an “exemption syndrome,” a belief that multicultural education

Table 1Themes Across the Research on Preservice Teachers’ Beliefs on Diversity in Each Time Period

Time Period 1 (1986–1994) Time Period 2 (1995–1999) Time Period 3 (2000–2007)

A lack of complexity in understanding multicultural issues.

A lack of tolerance for different cultural groups

Gaps in learning how to teach in multicultural contexts.

A lack of complexity in understanding multicultural issues.

Deficit views/prejudice regarding students of color.

Importance of personal background on attitudes, beliefs, and multicultural concepts.

A lack of complexity in understanding multicultural issues.

Contradictory attitudes/perceptions concerning diverse populations and social justice.

Importance of personal background on attitudes, beliefs, and multicultural concepts.

Instructional practices that foster changes in preservice teachers’ beliefs about diversity, social justice, or multicultural education.

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did not apply to teaching in White schools. Likewise, the major-ity of respondents to Goodwin’s questionnaire felt that multicul-tural education should only promote tolerance of culturally diverse others. In their case study of two White teacher education students, Ross and Smith (1992) concluded that these students associated multicultural education with individualized instruc-tion, ignoring race and culture as significant factors in learning. These studies revealed that participants failed to grasp important aspects of critical multiculturalism, seeing multicultural educa-tion as boosting the self-esteem of culturally diverse students, ensuring toleration of minority students, and practicing indi-vidualized instruction. Participants failed to be aware of institu-tional racism and the impact of privilege on the potential life outcomes of students from marginalized groups.

A lack of tolerance for different cultural groups. In this time period, preservice teachers expressed distaste for interacting with differ-ent racial and ethnic groups. Several studies utilized some version of the Bogardus Social Distance Scale to determine the degree of acceptance participants had for culturally different others (Bennett, Niggle, & Stage, 1990; Law & Lane, 1987; Martin & Williams-Dixon, 1994; Reed, 1993). This scale “measures a per-son’s willingness to recognize, live near, or be associated with people from different groups” (Law & Lane, 1987, p. 4). Overall, these findings demonstrated that preservice teachers during this time period were intolerant of minority groups.

Several studies revealed that participants held negative views about interacting with minority cultural groups. First, Law and Lane (1987) compared their survey results for 141 preservice teachers on the Bogardus Social Distance Scale with archival test data, and they concluded that their participants were “no more accepting of various ethnic groups than the national samples spanning six decades” (p. 5). In a second study, Bennett et al. (1990) administered a modified version of the Bogardus Social Distance Scale and a test for intellectual development to 178 students enrolled in a multicultural education class, finding that those who were unwilling to interact with culturally different others also exhibited simplistic and dualistic thinking. Later, Martin and Williams-Dixon (1994) presented a version of the Bogardus Social Distance Scale to 226 preservice teachers in the spring of 1991. Findings showed that respondents were less will-ing to interact in school settings with culturally diverse families than with White families. Finally, Reed (1993) gave 13 preservice teachers an open-ended survey based on the Bogardus Social Distance Scale and reported that respondents attributed emo-tional and aggressive behaviors to African American children and still felt uncomfortable interacting socially with culturally differ-ent others.

Two studies by Larke and colleagues (Larke, 1990; Larke, Wiseman, & Bradley, 1990) confirmed the negative views of cul-turally diverse others held by preservice teachers. First, Larke (1990) administered the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory to 51 preservice elementary teachers, discovering that 68.6% of the participants reported feeling uncomfortable associating with people who had different cultural values than they did. Second, Larke et al. (1990) administered the Personality Characteristics Inventory to preservice teachers, who were each to mentor a child in a diverse school, to ascertain their preconceptions about their

mentees prior to meeting them. The researchers realized that “the majority of the mentors had negative perceptions and/or poor attitudes about the personalities of their African-American or Mexican American mentees” (p. 7). These findings reflect the kinds of discomfort and stereotypical thinking measured by the Bogardus Scale in the studies discussed previously.

Only one study by Hlebowitsh and Tellez (1993), reported positively about preservice teachers’ views on diverse student populations. The researchers provided 235 participants with character sketches (leader, athlete, bully, slow learner). Although the character sketches were the same, the race and gender of the student described varied on different instruments. Overall, stu-dents marked higher indications of respect for diverse students. The researchers cautioned that participants, who generally hold minority populations in lower esteem, might report greater levels of respect when presented with sketches of them as leaders or athletes. When given a negative description of a minority student (as a bully or slow learner), participants might see this as natural and thus report more positive values for these scenarios. The researchers suggested that more in-depth, qualitative research be conducted to explore the reasoning made by preservice teachers about diverse student types.

Generally, these studies reveal deep stereotypes and miscon-ceptions held by White preservice teachers about different cul-tural groups, reinforcing racial superiority and intolerance. Racial distance and discrimination make impossible the realization of critical multiculturalism. Only when White preservice teachers confront their misguided assumptions about culturally different others and interrogate their own sense of cultural privilege can progress truly be made.

Gaps in learning to teach in multicultural contexts. Two studies in this time period documented gaps in learning how to teach in culturally diverse contexts. Hadaway and Florez (1987) discov-ered that more than half of the 125 teacher education students responding to their survey on multicultural education had not taken courses in multicultural education, felt unprepared to teach in a culturally diverse context, and stated that if offered they would attend a multicultural training institute. Likewise, Grant and Koskela (1986) found that most of the 23 participants in their study (discussed earlier) indicated that they were taught some ideas of multicultural education but were not given guid-ance on how to incorporate these ideas during their student teaching semester. The findings of Hadaway and Florez and of Grant and Koskela suggest that a coherent approach to teaching multicultural education can best promote critical multicultural awareness.

In the first time period, findings about the lack of understand-ing of multicultural issues, the general intolerance held by preser-vice teachers for cultural diversity, and gaps in multicultural education justify the need for expanding multicultural education in teacher education programs. Most of these studies uncovered the attitudes of preservice teachers toward culturally diverse stu-dents but did not account for the root of these attitudes and per-ceptions. King (1991) pinpointed “culturally sanctioned assumptions, beliefs, and myths” (p. 135) and Ross and Smith (1992) discussed how an individualistic orientation to diversity enabled two participants to hold deficit views on minority and

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low-income students. Yet these studies did not explore these issues at length. Promoting the aims of critical multiculturalism will require teacher educators to help preservice teachers to interrogate their prior experiences, cultural assumptions, and racial ideologies.

Time Period 2: Expansion of Research on Preservice Teachers’ Views (1995–1999)

The research published from 1995 to 1999 elaborated on the lack of complexity of preservice teachers’ engagement with multicul-tural ideas. In addition, these studies explored dimensions of stu-dents’ prejudices and stereotypes. Finally, the notion that a person’s prior experiences influenced her or his interactions in culturally diverse settings emerged across several research studies.

A lack of complexity in understanding multicultural issues. The findings of this time period pointed to three dominant trends in preservice teachers’ views. First, preservice teachers adopted highly individualistic approaches to diversity. For example, Montecinos and Rios (1999) asked 79 preservice teachers to pro-vide arguments for or against different approaches to multicul-tural education. According to Montecinos and Rios, students adopted a “logic of individual differences” that saw cultural dif-ferences as individualistic, ignoring aspects of racism and institu-tional inequity. Likewise, Ross and Yeager (1999) found participants to hold individualistic views concerning democracy. They determined that 18 of the 29 elementary preservice teachers who submitted papers on their definitions of democracy expressed “a narrow conception of democracy” (p. 265), emphasizing democracy as individualistic actions, such as voting, and failing to acknowledge important aspects of pluralism and cultural diversity. These participants saw diversity merely as a product of individual differences, without regard to systems of inequity that pervade institutions such as schools that often favor Anglo-American and middle-class cultural norms.

Second, preservice teachers equated multicultural teaching with individualized instruction. For example, from a survey of 73 preservice teachers, Barry and Lechner (1995) determined that preservice teachers relegated teaching of multicultural education to specific classroom teaching techniques meant to help the child accommodate to the classroom rather than to address underlying assumptions about diverse students or to acknowledge the unique cultural contributions these students brought to the classroom. Likewise, in a case study of how one African American student teacher taught culturally diverse populations, Rodriguez and Sjostrom (1995) discovered that the student teacher concen-trated primarily on selecting materials and organizing instruc-tional content around different learning styles to meet the needs of the students, rather than on including cultural knowledge in the curriculum. Finally, Easter Shultz, Neyhart, and Reck (1999) reported that respondents to a survey about attitudes and beliefs on teaching diverse students viewed multicultural teaching as implementing instructional techniques and listed being a “good communicator, good listener, and good classroom manager” (p. 212) as qualities necessary for the multicultural teacher. Hence the enactment of multicultural teaching mirrored a technical approach to teaching in which multicultural education becomes nothing more than implementing a set of teaching technologies in the classroom.

Third, this individualistic orientation to multicultural educa-tion allowed preservice teachers to maintain a myth of meritoc-racy from which they could blame minorities and underachieving students for their lack of success in the public schools. In a case study of 31 student teachers in Saskatchewan, Canada, Finney and Orr (1995) concluded that participants held students “as responsible for their fates in a morally neutral and open, unstrat-ified society” (p. 329). Likewise, Davis (1995) discovered a simi-lar trend in her 2-year ethnographic study of 30 preservice teachers; she reported that participants suggested that individual factors, such as ability or genetics, and a lack of familial values were root causes for the low academic performance of minority children, seeing schools as “meritocratic systems” and assuming that all students “have an equal opportunity to succeed in school” (p. 558). This myth of meritocracy blinded preservice teachers to their own White and/or socioeconomic privileges.

A “logic of individual difference” (Montecinos & Rios, 1999, p. 21), which reigned dominant across these studies, represents one of the “culturally sanctioned assumptions” that maintains a system of inequity, assumptions identified by King (1991) in the previous time period. As an ideology, the belief that individuals determine their own experiences, successes, and failures disre-gards the influence of racial and structural inequity. Adopting ideologies of individualism and meritocracy, participants viewed multicultural education as a problem of meeting the psychologi-cal learning needs of each student rather than addressing aspects of injustice in society (Apple, 2004).

Deficit views and stereotypes. Researchers also wrote about ways in which preservice teachers communicated stereotypes about cul-turally diverse students and about teaching in urban settings. First, stereotypes and prejudice affected the judgments made by preservice teachers about culturally diverse students. In a study by Richman, Bovelsky, Kroovand, Vacca, and West (1997), 20 European American preservice teachers estimated the IQ and grade point average for two elementary students (one boy, one girl) based solely on one photograph of each student. The group that received photographs of African American students marked these students as “less ambitious, less self-confident, and to have little initiative when compared with European-American stu-dents” (p. 381). Thus stereotypical beliefs influenced initial judg-ments about the abilities of students of color. After administering the Oklahoma Racial Attitude Scale and the Teachable Pupil Survey, Tettegah (1996) found that participants thought of Latino and African American students as less capable and teach-able than their White peers, while rating Asian-American stu-dents as more capable. These findings acknowledge both traditional stereotypes and notions of the “model” minority. These two studies demonstrate how stereotypes affect the judg-ments made by these future teachers about their students’ aca-demic abilities.

Second, studies depicted stereotypes held by preservice teach-ers about students in urban schools. Aaronsohn, Carter, and Howell (1995) reported that most of 80 students in their study described urban students as disruptive, inattentive, rude, and delinquent. Shultz, Neyhart, and Reck’s (1996) 300 participants provided these descriptors: “‘lackadaisical,’ ‘unmotivated,’ ‘screw-you attitude,’ ‘rougher,’ ‘violent,’ ‘more streetwise,’ ‘emotionally

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unstable,’ and ‘concerned with survival’” (p. 4). Such findings stress the deficit and negative views that preservice teachers asso-ciated with students in the urban schools.

Third, preservice teachers viewed teaching in urban and cul-turally diverse schools as more challenging and difficult. After administering the Multicultural Teaching Concerns Survey to 103 preservice teachers, Marshall (1996) concluded that respon-dents felt that teaching culturally diverse students in urban schools would add anxiety and stress, which would be an “imped-iment” to their growth as first-year teachers (p. 376). In fact, one participant in Tiezzi and Cross’s (1997) case study of 48 prospec-tive teachers’ attitudes about teaching in urban schools declared, “I wanted to teach White children because it is rumored that they are the smartest and easiest to teach” (p. 120). Tiezzi and Cross reported that most of their participants expressed unfounded fears about teaching urban students.

As a result of these fears and stereotypes, preservice teachers lacked interest in teaching in an urban school. Many of the 345 respondents to an open-ended survey about teaching in urban schools likened urban teachers to “heroines and heroes in a war against a dangerous urban environment” (Gilbert, 1997, p. 92) and shunned the idea of teaching in an urban school. Fry and McKinney (1997) found that 6 of 10 White female preservice teachers who completed an urban-based field experience stated they would teach in an urban school only if they could not find another job elsewhere. Likewise, Gilbert (1995) found that most of 193 prospective teachers in a rural university who completed a demographic survey with open-ended items about urban schools would teach in an urban school only if they had to find a job. The pervasiveness of deficit views and stereotypes greatly affects the willingness of teacher candidates to teach in culturally diverse and urban contexts.

Deficit views and stereotypes about minority groups influence the initial judgments made by teachers about students. Such views run counter to the critical awareness necessary for critical multiculturalism and must be interrogated before real change can occur.

The importance of background experiences. Investigating back-ground experiences became a new category during this time period. First, two quantitative studies connected prior experi-ences with attitudes about cultural diversity. Using measurements on beliefs about diversity with 492 preservice teachers, Pohan (1996) established that personal and professional beliefs were positively correlated with participants’ multicultural knowledge, especially cross-cultural experiences or course work in multicul-tural education. Likewise, Wiggins and Follo (1999) determined from a questionnaire on multicultural knowledge that only 33% of the 123 respondents had any prior experiences in culturally diverse settings and that the most experienced felt more comfort-able teaching in culturally diverse contexts.

Second, researchers determined that prior experiences inter-acting with culturally diverse others influenced how preservice teachers responded to notions of multicultural education. McCall (1995b) conducted a case study of 3 participants in her social studies methods class and determined that preservice teachers’ prior experiences influenced their acceptance of multicultural ideas. For example, the student who had the “least awareness and

experience with discrimination” was the one to reject ideas of multiculturalism. Lawrence and Bunche (1996) also reported that 1 of the 5 participants in their case study refused to abandon her racist views; this participant clung to beliefs of individualism and had the least experiences interacting with culturally diverse others. Cockrell, Placier, Cockrell, and Middleton (1999), in their analysis of 25 preservice teachers, noted that participants with limited experiences interacting with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds believed that schools should either assimi-late diverse groups or teach tolerance, rather than infuse multi-cultural education into the curriculum.

On the other hand, students who either had experienced oppression or discrimination or had cross-cultural interactions embraced concepts of multiculturalism (McCall, 1995a). Smith, Moallem, and Sherrill (1997) identified the kinds of experiences that were associated with their students’ greater openness to cul-tural diversity, which included having multicultural friendships; multicultural education; travel, as in moving or vacationing; and personal experiences with discrimination as a child or an adult. Overall, the research in this category suggests that preservice teachers with greater exposure to culturally diverse others and per-sonal experiences with discrimination are more open to multicul-tural ideas. Indeed, Smith et al. proposed that those who resist multiculturalism may simply lack cross-cultural experiences.

Research published from 1995 to 1999 points to the contin-ued racist and uncritical demeanor of mostly Anglo-American preservice teachers. Only in a few studies did participants exhibit a general acceptance of and appreciation for cultural diversity; however, these studies also revealed that preservice teachers held “generic” (Montecinos & Rios, 1999) views of cultural diversity, relegating multiculturalism to a set of mere teaching strategies and techniques. The underlying cultural assumptions of individu-alism and meritocracy continued to limit the ways preservice teachers thought about student achievement (Davis, 1995; Finney & Orr, 1995) and even the nature of democracy (Ross & Yeager, 1999). Despite a few studies highlighting the positive effects of prior experiences with cultural diversity, the lack of complexity and deficit notions held by preservice teachers inhibits their criti-cal consciousness. In particular, participants failed to recognize institutional inequity and did not see how their own biases and stereotypes as future teachers perpetuated these inequities.

Time Period 3: Contemporary Research (2000–2007)

Since the millennium, the research on preservice teachers’ per-spectives on cultural diversity, social justice, and multicultural education has taken two pathways. First, studies document the ongoing struggle with the lack of complexity in preservice teach-ers’ conceptions of multicultural issues and perceptions on diverse populations. Second, researchers now question which kinds of personal experiences and what types of instructional techniques best foster openness to diversity.

A lack of complexity in understanding multicultural issues. Preservice teachers continued to demonstrate a lack of understanding of multicultural education and the processes of institutionalized racism and oppression. After analyzing the results from a mixed-method study of 86 students enrolled in diversity courses, Middleton (2002) concluded that although participants “identified

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a willingness to teach from a multicultural perspective,” they also exhibited “misunderstanding and misinterpretation of multicul-tural education, diversity, and the attitudes and skills needed for successful cross-cultural teaching” (p. 348). Thus these teachers held a very generic view of multicultural education, one with-out a sense of critical consciousness surrounding privilege and inequity.

Other researchers also documented this lack of critical con-sciousness. For example, after administering to 141 students enrolled in multicultural education classes a questionnaire about whether students saw themselves as privileged or oppressed, Chizhik and Chizhik (2005) concluded that students could not identify multiple forms of oppression, especially institutionalized oppression. In a second study, Chizhik and Chizhik added 55 more participants to the first sample. Here, participants read four scenarios about individuals and were asked to determine whether each individual was privileged or oppressed. Overall, those with less complex views of oppression (mostly White males) favored individualistic orientations on each scenario, whereas those with more complex views (mostly African American females) recog-nized structural and institutional barriers inherent in the scenar-ios. These studies documented how preservice teachers failed to see structural or institutional barriers that affect marginalized groups.

Beliefs in individualism and meritocracy are associated with a lack of critical consciousness. Weisman and Garza (2002) observed that most of the 158 respondents to a multicultural education survey were completely unaware of the “inequities embedded in the structures of society and schooling” (p. 32). Even after completing a multicultural education course, partici-pants still “attribute[d] educational problems [the achievement gap] to the individual rather than oppressive factors” (p. 32), clinging to an ideology of individualism. Mueller and O’ Connor (2007) discovered that beliefs in meritocracy can be deeply entrenched. Fifteen students who were enrolled in their class on race, class, and gender each interviewed a person from a different cultural or socioeconomic background and wrote that person’s educational biography, emphasizing “hard work” and meritoc-racy. In comparing the biographies against interview transcripts, Mueller and O’Connor realized that participants “silenced and muted interview data that contradicted their assumptions” that schools represent meritocracies with equal opportunities for all students (p. 852). These findings suggest that cultural assump-tions of individualism and meritocracy are strongly embedded in preservice teachers. The studies from this and previous time peri-ods provide evidence that these “culturally sanctioned assump-tions, myths, and beliefs” (King, 1991, p. 135) are indeed a major root of “dysconscious” racism.

Contradictory perceptions concerning diverse populations and social justice. Research studies in this time period revealed contradic-tions in the reports on preservice teachers’ views of cultural diver-sity. First, three studies depicted continued stereotypical and deficit thinking among preservice teachers, consistent with find-ings from the previous time periods. Terrill and Mark (2000) distributed a questionnaire to 97 respondents about their expec-tations for students in three imaginary school settings (a White suburban school, a Native American rural school, and an African

American urban school). Participants held lower expectations for Native American and African American students and only wanted to teach in the White suburban school. Likewise, Baldwin, Buchanan, and Rudisill (2007) found that most of their 41 students participating in an urban-based service learning proj-ect held “stereotypical beliefs that children of color are difficult [to teach] or unmotivated toward school” (p. 325). Finally, Bakari (2003) distributed the Willingness to Teach African American Students and the Cultural Sensitivity to African American Students scales to 415 students coming from three different uni-versity settings—public university students (87% White), his-torically Black colleges (90% African American), and private universities (88% White). Findings indicated that White preser-vice teachers were less willing to teach African American students. These studies suggest that preservice teachers still hold stereo-types and deficit thinking about culturally diverse students.

On the other hand, two studies reported that preservice teachers felt positive about teaching in diverse settings. First, Siwatu (2007) administered the Culturally Responsive Teaching Efficacy Scale (a measure of how effective culturally responsive teaching is for student outcomes) and the Culturally Responsive Teaching Outcome Expectancy Scale (a measure of beliefs in the ability to enact culturally responsive teaching) to 275 respon-dents. Siwatu’s findings suggest that preservice teachers hold more positive attitudes about culturally diverse populations and accept general notions of culturally responsive teaching. Second, Dee and Henkin (2002) also reported positive findings about cultural diversity from the 150 students who completed the Pluralism and Diversity Attitude Assessment. Using a factor analysis of the data, Dee and Henkin identified multicultural teaching practices favored by these preservice teachers: imple-menting diversity into the curriculum, giving equal opportunity in education, interacting with culturally different others, and recognizing the positive effects of diversity for society. These studies indicate more positive orientations to cultural diversity among preservice teachers.

Two studies reported contradictory findings concerning social justice and teaching in culturally diverse settings. First, Chizhik and Chizhik (2002) distributed a questionnaire about who was responsible for the offset of social inequality (the privileged or the oppressed) to 160 education students. One group of respondents saw the privileged classes as being more able to stop inequity in society but placed the burden for ending injustice on the oppressed classes. The second group placed the burden for end-ing injustice on the privileged classes, but also felt that the mem-bers of the privileged classes had less power to change society. Both groups demonstrated internal contradictions about who has the power to change society versus who has the responsibility to enact that change. Second, Song (2006) also noted contradic-tions in her findings concerning the ability of urban students to learn intellectual skills and perform cognitively challenging tasks. She administered a variation of the Teacher Expectation and Deficit Assumption Survey to 28 preservice teachers. Participants felt that the school could help students achieve and perform dif-ficult academic tasks, but at the same time participants suggested that a child’s intellectual abilities were learned only at home. Hence these teachers exhibited contradictory views about learn-ing and achievement.

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Unlike the previous time periods, a consistent theme of ste-reotypical and deficit thinking does not emerge from these stud-ies. Instead, these studies appear to offer contradictory findings about how preservice teachers view culturally diverse popula-tions, suggesting the need for further research in this area.

The importance of background experiences. Studies during this time period demonstrated a link between preservice teachers’ prior experiences interacting with culturally diverse others and their support for multicultural education and teaching. First, Dee and Henkin (2002) explored characteristics of the 150 partici-pants (study described earlier in this article) and reasoned that having experiences interacting with culturally diverse others “may be associated with attitudes favoring cultural diversity in education” (p. 35). Key factors included living in culturally diverse neighborhoods and having cross-cultural friendships. Likewise, Adams, Bondy, and Kuhel (2005) investigated atti-tudes of 18 participants who participated in a service-learning tutoring project in an urban school. Students who reported posi-tive feelings about working with minority students had prior knowledge or experience working with diverse peers, children, or families. These experiences included having had friends and social interactions with culturally diverse others, prior commu-nity volunteering and/or activism, and positive family attitudes about issues of social justice when growing up. These studies sug-gest that prior experiences with cultural diversity may predispose preservice teachers to greater acceptance of and appreciation for cultural diversity.

Two case studies show the importance of learning to reflect on prior experiences with culturally diverse others. Smith (2000) traced the personal biographies of two White student teachers. The participant who embraced concepts of multicultural educa-tion had grown up in a working-class home and had experienced feeling marginalized as a White student in a predominantly Black middle school and as an American student in a Guam high school. Through her experiences, she reflected on cultural diver-sity and institutional inequity, dismissing the myths of meritoc-racy and individualism. In a similar vein, Garmon (2004) explored the personal biography of a 22-year-old White female preservice teacher who exhibited openness, readiness to accept that people are different, self-awareness/self-reflectiveness, and commitment to social justice. This student had maintained inter-cultural friendships, participated in service activities in diverse communities, and reflected deeply on diversity and social justice. Smith and Garmon each identify the capacity for reflection as significant in developing multicultural awareness, harkening back to the notion of critical consciousness necessary for critical multicultural awareness.

Instructional practices that foster changes in beliefs about diversity. Researchers explored ways in which teacher education programs can foster positive change in beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions about cultural diversity, specifically through field-based experiences and university course work. First, three studies demonstrated that field-based experiences could foster improvement in how preser-vice teachers define cultural diversity. Conaway, Browning, and Purdum-Cassidy (2007) conducted a 4-year longitudinal study of 218 preservice teachers, tracking their concerns with teaching

in an urban school from their freshman year to their senior year. Although participants initially held stereotypes and lowered expectations for urban students, over time these concerns faded. According to researchers, the decline indicated that participants had become “accustomed to the ethnic and cultural diversity” as a result of field experiences. Likewise, Bell, Horn, and Roxas (2007) assessed changes in attitudes regarding teaching in a cul-turally diverse school of 30 preservice teachers participating in a tutoring or mentoring project. They found that by the end of the experience, tutors and mentors adopted more advanced views of cultural diversity. Finally, Causey, Thomas, and Armento (2000) concluded that participating in a cross-cultural experience had a positive impact on the multicultural disposition of the 22 preser-vice teachers involved in an urban-based internship. They stressed the importance of reflection in the multicultural development of participants, claiming that participants “who display a disposi-tion to thoughtfulness and reflection are most likely candidates for such cognitive restructuring and new learning” (p. 43). These studies allude to the potential benefits of fieldwork in fostering greater multicultural awareness.

Second, three studies focused on the impact of multicultural course work and teaching. Torok and Aguilar (2000) studied 33 undergraduates who significantly improved their scores on the Professional Beliefs About Diversity Scale and the Personal Beliefs About Diversity Scale at the end of a multicultural course. Students reported appreciating the following strategies employed by their instructor: “creating a safe environment, promoting mutual respect, learning to listen to others, recognizing multiple perspectives/different realities, being willing to unlearn, and increasing self-awareness” (p. 29). Likewise, Brown (2004) con-cluded that the methods by which a multicultural education course is taught may have a greater affect on preservice teachers’ attitudes about diversity than the content of the course does. Brown administered the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory to 109 undergraduate students enrolled in one of six sections; participants were divided into two groups. In the first group, the instructor modeled notions of cultural respect by creating a safe and reflective environment. In the second group, the instructor presented the information through direct instruction. Group 1 increased at higher levels across more of the subscales of the pre- and posttests than did Group 2. Finally, Middleton (2002) high-lighted the importance of reflection in a multicultural course. The instructor—who used a reflective technique in which stu-dents described the experience, reacted to it on a personal level, compared the experience with theory or practice, and applied the learning to their roles as educators—helped preservice teachers to adopt notions of multicultural education.

These studies suggest the importance of field-based experi-ences and instructional practices that support critical reflection. Unfortunately, researchers failed to identify specific components of field-based experiences that fostered changes in the beliefs and attitudes of preservice teachers. However, the research on teach-ing methodology did stress providing a safe, risk-free environ-ment (Brown, 2004; Middleton, 2002; Torok & Aguilar, 2000); fostering mutual respect for all students (Middleton, 2002; Torok & Aguilar, 2000); and promoting reflection on self and others (Brown, 2004; Middleton, 2002; Torok & Aguilar, 2000).

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In the contemporary time period (2000–2007), the problem of the lack of complexity reached across several research studies. Preservice teachers expressed very positive views about cultural diversity but still held minimal understandings of what cultural diversity means and requires (Middleton, 2002; Weisman & Garza, 2002). This tendency toward oversimplification can make multicultural ideas less threatening, less political. Preservice teachers may readily advocate and clamor for multicultural edu-cation that supports a tolerance approach to diversity (Sleeter & Grant, 2007) without achieving the critical consciousness neces-sary to dismantle structural inequity and interrogate dominant cultural assumptions embedded in these structural arrangements.

When compared with early research on the lack of tolerance and social interaction with culturally diverse others (Bennett et al., 1990; Law & Lane, 1987; Martin & Williams-Dixon, 1994), studies in the contemporary period suggest that preservice teachers today may be more open to cultural diversity than were their predecessors 22 years prior. These studies point to the greater openness to cultural diversity found in preservice teachers at the onset of the study (Brown, 2004; Dee & Henkin, 2002; Siwatu, 2007), the possibility that preservice teachers may have increased experiences interacting with culturally diverse others (Adams et al., 2005; Garmon, 2004; Smith, 2000), and the pos-sibility that preservice teachers are capable of changing their per-spectives on cultural diversity as a result of instructional and field experiences (Bell et al., 2007; Brown, 2004; Causey et al., 2000; Conaway et al., 2007; Torok & Aguilar, 2000; Weisman & Garza, 2002). This can be read as “progress” in the realm of pre-service teachers’ reactions to cultural diversity or can be seen as indicative of the kinds of studies that have been conducted and published during this time period. Researchers may have been more concerned with exploring nuanced reasons for why and how preservice teachers advocate for or resist multicultural edu-cation than with getting a pulse on how attitudes on diversity have shifted over time.

Discussion and Implications for Researching Millennial Generation Preservice Teachers

The central purpose of this inquiry was to discern whether research findings from 1985 to 2007 indicate a trend toward greater acceptance of and appreciation for multicultural educa-tion and teaching in culturally diverse contexts. An analysis of the research fails to render a simple answer to this question. Instead, this synthesis of preservice teachers’ views on diversity points to both possibilities and persistent problems.

The Promise of the Millennial Generation

A series of websites, blogs, newsletters, and the like focusing on the characteristics of the millennial generation can be accessed easily on any Internet search engine, attesting to the popularity and public fascination with this new generation. Indeed, several recent books present the promise of millennial youth for both universities and workplaces (Howe & Strauss, 2000, 2003; Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007; Zemke, Raines, & Filipczack, 2003). One characteristic cited frequently is that millennial generation college students are more demographically diverse and accepting of cultural diversity (Broido, 2004; Howe & Strauss, 2000; Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007; Marker, 2006; Ousley, 2006; Sandfort &

Haworth, 2002). Referring to data from the Higher Education Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, Raines (2002) reported that “kids grew up in the 90s and 00s with more daily interaction with other ethnicities and cultures than ever before.” Based on the sentiments of these popular texts, the mil-lennial generation promises to embrace concepts of critical mul-ticultural education.

Broido (2004) cautioned that much is still unclear concerning millennial students and attitudes about diversity. She wrote, “Most indicators point toward Millennials having more open attitudes toward issues of diversity and social justice, although there are a number of trends challenging that perspective” (p. 76), such as racial segregation in some high schools and neighbor-hoods. Residing in a diverse neighborhood or attending a diverse high school does not always equate to increased contact with cul-turally diverse others.

Findings from this synthesis reveal that preservice teachers often support only minimal levels of multicultural education. Montecinos and Rios (1999) found that “the generic idea that schools need to provide an education that is multicultural is a belief well entrenched among these preservice teachers” (p. 20). Causey et al. (2000) labeled preservice teachers’ attitudes as naïve egalitarianism in that “they believe each person is created equal, should have access to equal resources, and should be treated equally” (p. 34). These seemingly positive attitudes may in fact mask a lack of real understanding of multicultural issues, White privilege, and structural inequities (Mueller & O’Connor, 2007). Even worse, some researchers might argue that these findings indicate that today’s preservice teachers have become more sophisticated in their use of racial etiquette, especially when per-forming the role of participant in a research study.

If today’s college students actually do interact with culturally diverse others through travel, intercultural friendships, and activ-ism and community service—several of the key life experiences identified as fostering openness to diversity (Dee & Henkin, 2002; McCall, 1995a; Smith, 2000; Smith et al., 1997)—other issues exist. First, researchers warn against exceptionalism, whereby “stereotypes were proven false by a single case but those cases did not support systematic examination of the preservice teachers’ ste-reotypes” (Bell et al., 2007, p. 130). Second, just participating in multicultural communities may have limitations. Gilbert (1997) stated, “Simply ‘being there,’ without careful analysis of multicul-tural and socio-economic issues in the community in relation to the individual’s personal constructs and the community at large, may not provide the positive results expected from direct experi-ences” (p. 93). Mere exposure to culturally diverse situations may reinforce stereotypical thinking, especially in the absence of criti-cal reflection (Bell et al., 2007; Garmon, 2004).

Despite these concerns and limitations, the possibility that millennial college students enter institutions of higher learning with experiences that may predispose them to greater acceptance of and appreciation for cultural diversity cannot be ignored by researchers and teacher educators.

The Problem of the Lack of Complexity

The findings of this synthesis also pose the problem of the lack of complexity associated with preservice teachers’ views on cultural diversity. The problem of the lack of complexity stems from the

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uncritical adoption of cultural assumptions that limit one’s criti-cal consciousness of structural and institutional inequity and White privilege.

Beliefs in individualism and meritocracy work hand-in-hand to construct a myth of equality. The concept of individualism assumes that every person controls her or his own destiny, outside of any structural or institutional barriers. A belief in meritocracy supports the view that success in society and schooling depends solely on one’s own merit or hard work. The cultural myth of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps still thrives in mainstream American popular culture. These beliefs allow individuals to blame oppressed peoples for their “failure” in the system of schooling rather than to recognize the system of failure embed-ded in institutional practices that disfavors and disenfranchises minority groups. Preservice teachers may feel that their achieve-ments resulted from their hard work, without being aware that they have been beneficiaries of institutional and social systems and offered more resources from which to participate in school-ing (Davis, 1995; Mueller & O’Connor, 2007). Only when pre-service teachers confront beliefs in individualism and meritocracy can they envision real social change.

Universal claims that preservice teachers are more open to cul-tural diversity are challenged by the persistent problem of the lack of complexity in their understandings of multiculturalism. At the heart of the issue is whether preservice teachers have the critical consciousness necessary to decipher the cultural logic that rein-forces the systems of inequity that exist in our public schools. Millennial generation college students who uphold “generic” ide-als of multicultural education and who lack critical awareness may still be as blind to oppression as their less tolerant predeces-sors 20 years ago.

Implications for Future Research

Future research must diligently unpack the nature of millennial generation preservice teachers’ perspectives on cultural diversity, social justice, and multiculturalism. Research studies will need to address three key areas. First, future studies ought to explore the influence of prior experiences and social interactions with cultur-ally diverse others on preservice teachers’ openness to diversity. If millennial college students actually do maintain intercultural relationships and have multicultural experiences, how do these preservice teachers reflect upon and internalize these experiences? Do these experiences create opportunities to challenge stereo-types or only to foster exceptionalism? Future research ought to begin with the beliefs, attitudes, and prior experiences that pre-service teachers already possess.

Research should also focus on the specific teaching practices and curricular components that foster changes in the beliefs and attitudes of preservice teachers. These studies will need to account for the influence of incoming beliefs before tracing the changes and development of the preservice teachers’ views. In addition, such studies should explore ways in which preservice teachers can gain a sense of critical awareness about issues of inequity.

Third, few studies investigated the ways in which preservice teachers of color interacted with notions of critical multicultural-ism. Researchers have suggested that preservice teachers are alien-ated or silenced in multicultural education classes (Delpit, 1995; Villegas & Davis, 2008). Some studies included in this synthesis

imply that participants of color hold more complex and advanced views of multicultural education (Chizhik & Chizhik, 2005; Cockrell et al., 1999; Dee & Henkin, 2002), whereas other stud-ies (Bakari, 2003; Lawrence & Bunche, 1996; Rodriguez & Sjostrom, 1998; Song, 2006) show that students of color may be “as susceptible to the same resistance or ignorance as White pre-service teachers [are]” (Bakari, 2003, p. 651). Future research must address students of color as subjects, actors in critical mul-ticultural education, rather than as the objects of multicultural education (Montecinos, 2004).

As millennial generation students come of age, we can only hope that they bring new ways of seeing the world and connect-ing with others. We hope that as teacher educators we can build upon our students’ experiences to create deeper avenues for criti-cal dialogue and reflection in our classrooms (Howard & Aleman, 2008) so as to promote their critical and democratic participation in society, to promote a more just world.

NoTe

I would like to thank Keffrelyn and Anthony Brown for helpful com-ments on this article, as well as the Educational Researcher editors and reviewers for their support on this piece.

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AUTHoR

ANTONIO J. CASTRO is an assistant professor in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum, University of Missouri, Columbia, 211F Townsend, Columbia, MO 65211; castroaj@missouri.edu. His research focuses on the recruitment, preparation, and retention of teach-ers for culturally diverse contexts and urban schools.

Manuscript received August 17, 2008Revisions received January 13, 2009,

May 4, 2009, and August 2, 2009 Accepted August 11, 2009

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AERA Nominating Committee Seeks Recommendations for Nominees

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2010 AERA Election Results. (2010). Educational Researcher, 39(3), 248–252. (Original DOI: 10.3102/0013189X10368382)

The name of Marlene J. Darwin, who was elected to the office of Chair of the School Turnaround and Reform SIG, was misspelled.

Erratum

Educational Researcher, Vol. 39, No. 4, p. 357DOI: 10.3102/0013189X10373064

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