Culturally responsive teaching: beliefs of pre-service teachers in the Viennese context

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Singh S. S., AKAR H.

INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION, vol.32, no.1, pp.46-61, 2021 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 32 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2021
  • Doi Number: 10.1080/14675986.2020.1844533
  • Journal Name: INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, ASSIA, IBZ Online, EBSCO Education Source, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Public Affairs Index
  • Page Numbers: pp.46-61
  • Keywords: Multicultural education, multicultural teacher education, pre-service teacher education, culturally responsive teaching, pre-service teacher beliefs
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This study aims to contribute to the discussion of culturally responsive teacher education by asking pre-service teachers' beliefs about their readiness, strengths and needs to teach in culturally diverse classrooms. Participants were pre-service teachers (N = 453) studying in three different teacher education institutions in Vienna via a questionnaire including both open-ended and close-ended questions as the data collection instrument. Quantitative findings show that pre-serviceteachers holda fair level ofreadiness in several skills for responding to culturally diverse classrooms, while qualitative findings present the pre-service teachers' deep trust in their characteristics and their personal attitude to cultural diversity as their strengths. Findings also show that pre-service teachers are challenged with two issues: anxiety about their own poor cross-cultural knowledge and their prospective students' poor language skills. The study also reaches the suggestions of pre-service teachers to teacher education programs about how to become more culturally responsive.