Community Service Learning for Multicultural Teacher Education.

Overview & Synopsis

Teacher preparation for multicultural education centers around learning about cultural diversity, examining relations of power and inequality, and responding affirmatively to sociocultural differences in schools and classrooms. This paper suggests that community-based service learning is an important part of this process. The document explains that service learning complements the community-based approach, presents opportunities for interaction with diverse socio-cultural groups, and emphasizes reflection, which prods analysis of community-based concerns. Finding that the popularity of community service learning belies research, the paper contends that there is a strong need for research-based practice, especially at the college level. The paper considers three related questions fundamental to community-based service learning for multicultural education: (1) why is community-based learning important to multicultural teacher education?; (2) how can it be combined with service learning in the preparation of teachers?; and (3) how do preservice teachers interpret community-based service learning in the context of their preparation to teach? Responses of 117 prospective teachers to community-based service learning develops a conceptual framework that describes these responses, and discusses implications for multicultural teacher education. Contains 35 references. (Author/BT)