 romoting Responsibility
Teacher Preparation and Professional Development
Classroom teachers cannot be effective teachers if they are not effective students themselves. It is up to them to pursue whatever resources they need to find out what they should know about equity.
—Joyce Harris, Director
Center for National Origin, Sex and Race Equity, Oregon
With teachers at the heart of educational efforts, providing equitable and effective learning opportunities for students is dependent on meeting teachers' needs for serving increasingly diverse students, which may include the gifted and disadvantaged, students with limited English skills, students in need of special education, and students of multiracial, multiethnic, and other orientations. Equity training and multicultural curriculum are necessary components of teacher preparation, certification, and ongoing professional development opportunities, and must be implemented in an instructional approach that extends from kindergarten through 12th grade.
A primary area to facilitate change is professional development opportunities geared to helping teachers expand their knowledge, attitudes, and skills. This requires shifting educators' paradigms to include positive attitudes about different groups. Equity must not only be an integral component of professional development, but of curriculum and learning, staff collaboration, school-home and school-community communication, classroom practices, student-teacher relationships, and student to student dynamics. It is only when educators become multicultural people themselves can they then become multicultural teachers who promote equitable opportunities to students.
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