Transforming the Multicultural Education of Teachers

Recognizing the responsibility institutions have to prepare teachers for today’s diverse classrooms, Vavrus shows us how to incorporate transformative multicultural education into teacher education curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation. Placing race, racism, anti-racism, and democracy at the center of his analyses and recommendations, this volume provides:

• Concrete structural suggestions for including transformative multicultural education in higher education and K–12 in-service programs.
• A multicultural critique of new NCATE accreditation standards for teacher education programs that offers re-conceptualized assessment procedures.
• The historical roots of transformative multicultural education that incorporates issues of white privilege and racialized color blindness, anti-racist pedagogy, racial identity among teachers, and critical race theory.
• A discussion of globalization that emphasizes its contemporary economic effects on social and educational inequities.

Michael Vavrus is a past president of the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education and a past president of the Washington state chapter of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. He is now teaching full-time at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

“Michael Vavrus provides theoretical perspectives and practical considerations to guide teacher education programs in transforming how they educate teachers. In these pages, multicultural education becomes a lived experience rather than simply an unrealized ideal.”
—Sonia Nieto, School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“This is theory with heart and broad social vision. Teacher educators who care about equity and justice should pay close attention to Vavrus's important insights.”
— Bill Bigelow, co-editor of Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World

“Michael Vavrus has created an essential guide for any educator or policymaker seeking to transform traditional paradigms for teacher preparation and multicultural education.”;;
—Diana Lam, Superintendent, Providence (RI) Public School District

“Vavrus not only knows what is necessary to make multicultural education a reality in our schools, but he offers insights into ways of deepening multicultural education’s project of social justice….an indispensable book.”
—Peter McLaren, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles