Revathy Kumar

Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Student Diversity and Proposed Instructional Practices A Sequential Design Study

This study draws on insights from achievement goal theory and multicultural education to examine the interrelated nature of preservice teachers’ biases and beliefs regarding culturally diverse students and the kind of instructional practices they are likely to pursue. Cluster analysis of cross-sectional data (n = 784) suggests that approximately 25% of preservice teachers explicitly endorsed some stereotypic beliefs about poor and minority students and expressed some discomfort with student diversity. Analyses of variance results provide evidence that preservice teachers were significantly less biased and prejudiced and more likely to endorse adaptive instructional practices by the time they were ready to graduate from the teacher education program than they were during their 1st year in the program. Paired t-test results based on longitudinal data (n = 79) suggest that some gains preservice teachers accrued midway through the program were lost when they were close to graduation. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Weaving Cultural Relevance and Achievement Motivation Into Inclusive Classroom Cultures

Despite shifting demographic trends, research on motivation generally remains focused on European American, middle-class, educated samples, calling into question its utility and overall generalizability. Thus, the overarching purpose of this article is to increase the practical and cultural relevance of motivational research. Specifically, we review four key principles of motivation—meaningfulness, competence, autonomy, and relatedness—and unpack how they align with the research on culturally responsive and relevant education. Ultimately our goal is to emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary research and to demonstrate how the principles of culturally responsive education are instantiated in motivationally supportive classrooms where teachers are more culturally sensitive and create an environment where cultural differences are appreciated and valued.

Creating Productive Learning Environments in Culturally Pluralistic Classrooms

Recent technological advances and changing economic conditions have prompted significant population shifts from developing countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East to Western nations – including the United States. The receiving nations’ resultant increase in demographic heterogeneity has raised serious concerns regarding how such immigration affects the schools and institutions of higher education, since it is these institutions that face the challenging task of preparing individuals to adapt to more culturally and socially complex societies (Cushner, 1998). In this chapter we examine the current status of multicultural education – a response of Western countries in general, and of the United States in particular – to meeting the needs of culturally diverse student populations. We then draw on social identity theory as a framework for understanding inter-group interactions in schools. Finally, we examine achievement goal theory, a social cognitive approach to motivation, which suggests ways to transform school and classroom cultures so that they promote inter-group harmony and support the learning and development of all students. We begin by acknowledging that, due to their unique social, cultural and economic circumstances, countries differ in their respective conceptions of cultural diversity. In western European countries, for example, recent trends toward cultural diversity stem largely from major immigrations from Asian, African, and Micronesian countries that had been colonized by Europeans. Diversity in the United States, however, stems from a blend of indigenous populations and immigrants, voluntary and involuntary, from around the world. In European countries, cultural differences are understood mostly in terms of language and religion; in the United States and United Kingdom, cultural differences are understood primarily in terms of race. Furthermore, unlike European countries, in which immigrants represent but a small percentage of the total population, the United States’ population consists predominantly of immigrants (Eldering, 1996). This population difference may account for multicultural education’s relatively long history and strong emphasis in the United States, as compared to CREATING PRODUCTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IN CULTURALLY PLURALISTIC CLASSROOMS

Introduction to the Special Issue: Critical Reflections and Future Directions in the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Motivation

This article introduces the special issue titled “Critical Reflections and Future Direction in the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Motivation.” We begin by framing the importance of research that considers the changing demographic landscape of the United States. Specifically, we note the increasing racial and ethnic diversity in our schools, as well as the accompanying trend of racial segregation. We discuss the two aims of the special issue, which focus on the identification of constructs that are important to understanding the schooling experiences of racially and ethnic minority youth, as well as on culturally grounded methods that can improve the operationalization of constructs such as race, ethnicity, and culture. We conclude with an overview of the four main articles and commentary that compose the special issue.

Risk and Resilience in Adolescents’ Transnational School Transitions: Academic Motivation and Psychological Well-Being

This chapter examines immigrant adolescents’ personal vulnerabilities and strengths that combine in complex ways with environmental adversities and affordances to determine their post-immigration developmental pathways. The challenges associated with immigrant adolescents’ transition to a U.S. school are examined within the framework of risk-protective additive, challenge and susceptibility, and the risk-protective interactive models. This transition is much more than a change of schools. It involves several transitions: (a) the cultural, relational, and physical context the adolescent leaves behind; (b) the circumstances of exit from the home country and of entry into the host country including voluntary and involuntary immigration; (c) the reception accorded to the immigrant adolescent’s family upon immigration; (d) the first place of settlement after immigration; and (e) entry into a new school with a new set of peers, teachers, behavioral norms, and school rules and expectations. The chapter addresses the various forms of immigrant adolescents’ acculturation upon relocation to the United States. These include the role of immigrant group’s social distance from mainstream society, downward assimilation, and selective acculturation. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between immigrant adolescents’ identity negotiations, their need to belong in the new context, and the acculturation patterns they manifest. While acknowledging the importance of family resources pre- and post-immigration and the role of community resources in the United States that may ease this transition, the crucial role of schools in creating respectful, culturally responsive spaces that foster inclusion, engagement, and learning for immigrant adolescents’ successful adjustment in the new context is highlighted.