An exploration of preservice teachers' multicultural self-efficacy and awareness of white privilege

<p>Currently, in the United States there is incongruence between student demographics in public schools and the characteristics of American K-12 teachers. More specifically, there are growing numbers of students of color, while the majority of teachers are White, middle-class females. Given the increasing pluralism in U.S. schools, it is imperative that teachers have multicultural self-efficacy as well as an awareness of White privilege in order to be prepared to teach in a culturally competent manner. Educators and students must be prepared to live and work effectively in a social system as well as a global environment where they will need to be able to work with people of different races and cultural practices. This necessitates a change in the way schools and teachers traditionally have functioned as well as the preparation of preservice teachers entering the field. It is negligent to enter preservice teachers into the field of education without taking proper measures to increase their level of multicultural self-efficacy and awareness of White privilege. This study will examine preservice teachers' multicultural self-efficacy and awareness of White privilege. The current literature on cultural competence is robust in the field of counseling/social work and healthcare; however, it does not explore multicultural self-efficacy and white privilege in depth and certainly does not extend to the field of education. Herein lies the gap in the current research. Critical Race Theory, Critical White Studies, and Self-efficacy Theory are the lens for multicultural self-efficacy and awareness of White privilege in this study.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Leadership and Counseling

Year dc:date.available

2013

Author dc:creator

• Jefferson, Angela Paige

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher, Chair
• Dr. David Anderson
• Dr. David Bair

• Critical race theory
• multicultural education
• student teachers
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.emich.edu/theses/591

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.emich.edu:theses-1967