International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
RESULTS
Activities promoting incorporation of cultural diversity in teacher education
Data from teacher educators and students indicated that miscellaneous activities and strategies were
employed to equip students with theoretical and practical knowledge and skills of dealing with cultural diversity
in class. Dr Pampallis, a subject didactics educator, cited assignments as one strategy he used to expand his
students’ repertoire of theoretical and practical knowledge of cultural diversity. He gave the following example
to illustrate how he challenged his students to incorporate cultural diversity in their classrooms, using theoretical
knowledge acquired from his subject:
After teaching them about Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory, I give my students an assignment to plan,
develop and teach a lesson using scaffolding in their respective areas of specialisation. The main
criterion of the assignment is the extent to which it addresses learners’ cultural diversity. This is good
as we find that learners don’t learn the same way, so differentiation should occur and the teacher
should understand how to handle slow learners and those who may come from disadvantaged
backgrounds.
Ms Peers reported that she approached cultural diversity differently by incorporating it as a module in her
subject. She explained that the module prepared students to teach diverse South African learners in a variety of
learning contexts, as stipulated in the various TEP policies. She further mentioned that students’ evaluations of
her module demonstrated that they had undergone perspective transformation and that they were well-prepared
to face diversity-related challenges in schools. Nevertheless, she acknowledged the criticism that she said some
of her critics levelled against this module, that teaching it to final-year students was too little too late.
Teacher educators were not the only ones to comment on the efforts made to equip students with knowledge
and skills in this area. Students echoed their educators, explaining that they studied inclusive education from
which they learnt about dealing with different disabilities in class. They further explained that the practical
component that helped them to link theory and practice, included placements in inclusive classroom contexts in
which were learners with disabilities. These placements are similar to the one reported by Doody and Connor
(2012) in their study in which a student reflected on his experiences of being placed in a school of learners with
intellectual disabilities. In this study, the student teacher reported to have found the experience “worthwhile,
enlightening, rewarding and educational” (p. 117), as well as “rewarding and beneficial” (p. 116) to his growth,
development, and attitudes towards teaching learners with disabilities. Similarly, Melanie, one of the participants
in the current study, described her experiences of being placed in a school of learners with disabilities as having:
… helped me to deal effectively with disability in the school classrooms. Even when I do teaching
practice with ‘ordinary’ learners I can handle those few with disabilities such as ADHD and slow
learners well.
The approach to cultural diversity employed by Prof. van Jaarsveldt, a mathematics educator, appeared to be
relevant to the context of South Africa in which some teachers in impoverished schools are either unqualified or
under-qualified. He described his approach thus:
Before students go out to teach to schools, I highlight the plight of disadvantaged schools, such as
impoverished schools and those with unqualified or underqualified teachers. It is important for
lecturers to equip student teachers with the knowledge and skills of dealing with teaching and learning
in these environments. I also explain the classroom realities of disadvantaged schools to the student
teachers, such as poor mathematics content knowledge among teachers, lack of resources in these
classroom contexts and rote learning, which is a common phenomenon in disadvantaged mathematics
classrooms.
As can be seen above, teacher educators made efforts to incorporate cultural diversity in the teacher education
curriculum in question. Nonetheless, concerted efforts appear not to exist in the teacher educators’ approach to
this subject. Based on the contentions raised earlier about White student’s resistance towards being placed in
Black schools for teaching practice, I contend that teaching practice should be used as the main vehicle for
strengthening incorporation of cultural diversity in teacher education curriculums.
Barriers to incorporation of cultural diversity
Internationally, placements of students in schools are hailed as an integral component in initial teacher
education; as it is in teaching practice that students get an opportunity to link the theory they learnt in university
with practical experiences in real classroom contexts. However, as stated earlier, before students can be in a
position to put theories into practice, they must have a sound theoretical background. The analysis above has
focused on what happens in university classrooms in terms of incorporating cultural diversity in the teacher
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