What Really Happens? Community Service Learning for Multicultural Teacher Education.

Overview & Synopsis

A qualitative, interpretive case study utilized ethnographic techniques to discover what happens, and what preservice teachers think about what happens, within a credited community service learning component for a multicultural education course. Subjects were 24 preservice teachers studied as one case. Three roles and perspectives that emerged from fieldwork are described and analyzed. Although preservice teachers tended to "play it too safe" for multicultural education, the study concluded that community service learning augments teacher preparation for culturally diverse contexts. Ways in which community service learning can be intensified or redirected to further undergird and augment multicultural education need to be considered. (Contains 28 references.) (BT)