Cultural Experiences of Early Childhood Teachers and the Relationship to Self-Reported Multicultural Teaching Competencies

Introduction

There is no doubt that the demographic landscape of America has changed tremendously and will continue to do so. The percentage of racial/ethnic minorities continues to increase. According to the 2018 population estimates, about 42% of the American population will be minority. Hispanics will be nearly one-fourth of the U.S. population. Blacks, Asians, and American Indians together will make up close to one-fourth of the population (Population Reference Bureau, 2018). It is projected that out of the 50.7 million students who were enrolled in public schools prekindergarten to 12 grade, 26.6 million of them were non-white. The percentage of students who are Hispanic, Asian, and two or more races are also projected to increase. (National Center for Education Statistics, 2018).

There is continual pressure and emphasis on teachers to understand how to work with these diverse groups of cultures. For example for most teacher education programs to be accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Education Preparation, they must demonstrate that they have included an element or course on multicultural education into their education program as one of the standard requirements (Council for Accreditation of Education Preparation, 2018). In this similar tone, other multicultural scholars have continued to argue from the past that teachers need to be knowledgeable and develop skills for working with students from different backgrounds (Banks & Banks, 2004; Brown, 2002; Cochran-Smith, 2004; Dilworth, 1992; Irvine, 2003). The challenge has always been how this can be possible. Various education programs approach this differently. Many colleges have tried to meet these needs by including multicultural education courses in there training programs. We have seen a tremendous increase of such courses across many teacher training colleges in the U.S. However the question still lingers as to whether teachers have the multicultural teaching competency skills to work with the diverse learners. What really impacts teacher’s knowledge of working with children from diverse backgrounds?

Thus promoting the development of multicultural competence continues to be a focus and a critical issue in teacher training programs/teacher education and K-12 schools as U.S. classrooms continue to be more and more diverse (Vracar, 2015). According to the US Department of Education report (2016) white students will represent 46 percent of public school students in 2024. Hispanic public school students will represent 29 percent of total enrollment in 2024 and Asian/ Pacific Islander students are projected to represent 6 percent of total enrollment in 2024. Black students are projected to be 15 percent of all public school students in 2024.