Chapter One An Introduction to the Topic of Cultural Diversity - NAGC

awareness of the nature and needs of CLED students, the ability to address student
preferences, learning, cognitive and behavioral styles, and the ability to employ
multicultural materials and resources into higher-level thinking and questioning
techniques. Exemplary multicultural teachers seek opportunities to increase their own
cultural awareness, infuse multicultural education into the traditional curriculum, and
scaffold student learning.
Environmental Scaffolding for Student Success
The U.S. Congress has mandated that colleges and universities complete a report
card profiling teacher preparation programs and the students who graduate from them as
part of an effort to hold teacher education programs accountable for the quality and
diversity of the teachers graduating from their programs. While criticism and concerns
about this process have been made, an opportunity to open communication about the
subject matter in education courses is created by responses (Blair, 2001). With the
changing demographics of our schools, future teachers may be able to pass an exam, but
whether they know how to teach in a culturally responsive manner may depend upon the
conditions, suggested by Ginsberg and Wlodkowski (2000), such as their ability to
establish inclusion, develop positive attitudes, offer challenging and engaging learning
that matters to students and has social merit, and their ability to engender competence in
their students.
Teaching Strategies
The use of "one size fits all curriculum" helps to produce a uniform type of
learning for all students and the impact may be anti-individual and anti-multicultural
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