What is Cultural Competency

This chapter shares an Authentic and Culturally Engaging (ACE) Service-Learning framework as a pedagogical approach in equipping teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be successful in-service teachers in diverse PK-12 school environments. As PK-12 schools become more racially and culturally diverse, there is a need to better prepare teacher candidates for diverse school environments, especially given that many teachers have asserted that they do not know how to teach diverse students. The chapter highlights components of the ACE framework and suggests practical strategies that teacher educators can use in integrating this framework into their courses. The end of the chapter focuses on teacher educators and how they can engage in a relearning process to unpack their previous knowledge regarding social justice and multicultural education in an effort to prepare their teacher candidates for diverse schools followed by a suggested checklist applicable to any teacher preparation course.