The development of multicultural practices in the elementary classroom by student teachers and the role of the university supervisor in this process

The purpose of this study was to assist student teachers in the development of their own multicultural views and practices in the classroom. While the student teachers/participants were all students in a teacher education program with multicultural principles woven throughout the coursework, this researcher wanted to find out how the student teachers would be able to translate and develop this knowledge into their own practice in the classroom. In order to frame this study the following three questions were used as a guideline: (1) How did student teachers comprehend and identify with multicultural education? (2) How did student teachers practice multicultural education in the classroom? (3) How did the university supervisor facilitate or impede this process?; This study was framed by the paradigm of naturalistic inquiry thus the use of qualitative research. Four different methods of data collection were utilized: interviews, observations, post-observation conferences with the participants and other ethnographic data collection. Informal data included reflective journals, notes and participant work at the student teaching seminar and conversations in the hallways at school.; From these data, three cases studies were constructed, each representing the story of a separate student teacher. Since each student teacher is unique, they were not compared with one another for the purposes of generalization. At the end of the five month qualitative study, the student teachers had begun to practice multiculturalism in the classroom but at different levels due to several factors including the context of the room as well as their own understandings and personal viewpoints of multicultural education.