White Preservice and Inservice Teachers' Engagement with Multicultural Content in Online Courses

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the 2014-2015 academic year marked the turning point of a major shift in student demographics (Hussar & Bailey, 2013). For the first time, students of color (50.3%)--largely Asian and Hispanic students--outnumbered their White peers (49.7%) in public schools in the United States. This trend is expected to continue. By 2022, White students are expected to comprise 45% of public school students. Unfortunately, the teacher demographics are not keeping pace. White teachers comprise 82% of public school educators (Hussar & Bailey, 2013). This raises important questions about teacher preparation and professional development to effectively educate the students of color in our classrooms. This article presents the findings from a collaborative practitioner inquiry project that investigated student learning in three asynchronous, online teacher education courses about issues of diversity that explored the following question: How do preservice and inservice teachers "make sense of" and reflect upon issues of diversity in online teacher education courses? The authors examined White preservice and inservice teachers' engagement with multicultural content. The findings from this study offer implications for online multicultural education courses in promoting preservice and inservice teacher learning and understanding of issues of diversity and social justice.