Draw a circle. Then, create a pie chart illustrating what societal groups most influence your character. If you're a middle-class, white male, for example, what role does gender play in how you act and behave?
This exercise, explained Pat Van Leuvan, of Pennsylvania State University-Delaware, is used to help education students "begin to consider their own ethnicity"—a necessity, she said, if they are interested in teaching a racially and culturally diverse student population.
"I discovered," said one white, male participant, "that I have these 'gender imprints' that I constantly have to consider in order to deal with others; I constantly have to watch my terminology and the roles I put girls and other students into."
Cultural sensitivity is just one of the skills and attitudes that will be developed through a new teacher education program at Penn State-Delaware designed to prepare their mostly white, middle-class students to teach diverse learners effectively. The program will be offered to students for the first time this fall; when students graduate from this four-year program, they'll receive a Bachelor's degree and will be certified to teach K–6, with an emphasis on urban elementary schools.
"This kind of teacher preparation is immensely important if improvement is going to occur in urban schools," explained Grace Cureton Stanford, an education professor who helped design the degree program. In addition to a focus on multiculturalism, students in this program will learn: how the family and community can be tapped to enrich the education of urban students; about the role schools have played "in perpetuating inequity in society"; and how to develop the teaching strategies they'll need to engage students in active learning. Students will also spend much of their time in real classrooms, being mentored by the best urban teachers.
"We thought it important that the program not become disconnected from the reality in the schools," said Stanford. Course work and clinical experience will occur in tandem, she explained, because students should be able to "integrate theory with what's happening in schools."
Van Leuvan added that the clinical experience will also help students develop the ability to reach out to other teachers for help. "So many new teachers don't make it through the first three years," Van Leuvan explained, in part because they don't have time to talk with other teachers. "We want to teach students to build networks, to talk with each other," she said. If they do develop such support structures, she explained, they increase their odds for success and longevity in an urban school setting. And we can't afford, insisted Stanford, anything but success in urban schools.