CASE STUDY:

PREPARING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS TO BE MORE EQUIPPED TO

TEACH IN A DIVERSE MULTICULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

ALLIE ZOE BLOOM (0524246)

MARGARITA NIAVI (0526126)
EMILIA MARIA TATU (0524730)
THU MAI THI (0520499)
YING XU (0520234)

2016-2017

Amount of words: 7,197 19 pages

Psychology & Educational Sciences

 Contents

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. 4
Introduction and Objectives ...................................................................................................................... 4
Context and Setting..................................................................................................................................... 5
Traditional Challenges to Change ............................................................................................................. 6
Diverse pupils in Flemish schools ............................................................................................................ 7
Potential Levers and Processes of Change ................................................................................................ 8
Literature Review ....................................................................................................................................... 9
The situation of multicultural education worldwide ................................................................................. 9
Inclusion of multiculturalism in the University Curriculum ................................................................... 10
Methods and Skills for Preservice Teachers ........................................................................................... 12
Engaged School ...................................................................................................................................... 12
Self-Reflective and Service Learning ..................................................................................................... 13
Awareness of the whole student.............................................................................................................. 14
Differentiation ......................................................................................................................................... 15
Mentoring................................................................................................................................................ 16
Research Methodology and design .......................................................................................................... 17
Research Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 17
Research Design.............................................................................................................................. 17
Sampling ......................................................................................................................................... 18
Data collection procedure ............................................................................................................... 18
Findings and Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 18
The concept in PXL, a University college in Flanders ........................................................................... 18
Prepare student teachers to teach in multicultural classrooms ................................................................ 19
Motivating vocational education students............................................................................................... 19
Resistance to diverse teaching ................................................................................................................ 20
Examples ................................................................................................................................................. 20
Community of teachers ........................................................................................................................... 20
The perceptions of “otherness” ............................................................................................................... 21
Recommendations ..................................................................................................................................... 21
The mindset............................................................................................................................................. 21
“Teach as you preach” and Teacher educator ......................................................................................... 22
Integration of theory and practice ........................................................................................................... 22

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REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 23
Appendix 1: Interview transcripts.......................................................................................................... 27
Appendix 2: Individual Contributions ................................................................................................... 37

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 ABSTRACT
This is a case study presenting the need for multicultural education for pre-service teachers
in the Flanders area of Belgium. Pre-service teachers need to learn about their diverse students,
ways to differentiate their teaching, how to motivate their students, and ways to reflect on their
own learning and teaching. With these tools and by working in a collaborative environment pre-
service teachers can learn to better serve their students especially as today’s classrooms become
more diverse.

Introduction and Objectives

As more students from diverse backgrounds populate the modern classroom, there is a need
for educational approaches that are multi-culturally responsive. Richards, Brown and Forde (2007)
state “a culturally responsive instructional environment minimizes the students’ alienation as they
attempt to adjust to the different world of school.” This pertains to the multicultural students in the
school. With the world changing and people moving countries and an increase in immigration,
schools even outside of major cities have a diverse student population. All students need the help
and opportunity for an equal education. However multicultural education not only benefits the
minority population, the needs of all students are addressed. Banks et al., (2001) explains that
“diversity in the nation’s schools is both an opportunity and a challenge. A nation is enriched by
the ethnic, cultural, and language diversity of its citizens.” This enrichment needs to be recognized
by all. Banks (1993) cites this is a common misconception of multicultural education, which is it
is only for the diverse students. It is not. It is important for everyone, even the students who belong
to the more main-stream majority. Because the world is so culturally and ethnically diverse, all
students need the awareness, knowledge, abilities and outlook to succeed and to be social citizens.
(Banks, 1993)
The analytical report (VLOR, 2013) presents that due to the educational priority policy and
the equal opportunities policy there is considerable progress in dealing with diversity in Flemish
schools and their teachers. However, the curriculum does not take the existing diversity enough
into account, schools still punish pupils when they speak their home language (non-Dutch) at
school, and teachers seem not focus the diverse pupils enough (VLOR, 2013). The objective of the
current study will look at implementing an innovation in pre-service teacher education, in Flanders.

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We will focus on preparing pre-service teachers during their pedagogical and didactical academic
preparation, to be better multicultural teachers. A change innovation will be enacted during
training and help preservice teachers become more equipped and develop skills in order to teach
in a diverse multicultural environment. Preservice teachers will learn how to create a more
inclusive and responsive school environment that can help reduces their student's alienation. Also
they will learn that teaching subjects is not their only job, they will become more equipped at
enabling all their students to have the awareness, knowledge, abilities and outlook to succeed and
to be social citizens.

Context and Setting

To assist in gathering information and inside knowledge about the pre-service teacher
program in Flanders, two interviews were conducted. The main interview was conducted with one
teacher educator who is specialized to work with pre-service teacher for vocational high schools.
The college the educational expert works for is PXL, it is located in Flanders and is focusing on
preparing future students for teaching in diverse environments of vocational high schools. The
second interviewee was with a Master’s student of the Education Sciences department of VUB.
The student conducted an internship with the preservice teachers where she was their mentor and
assisted them in creating a multicultural workshop. These interviews helped with insights into the
current situation in the Flanders area; the makeup of the student population, what is done currently
to prepare preservice teachers to work in a diverse atmosphere, if there is any resistance from
different stakeholders (pre-service teachers, teacher educators) towards strategies of implementing
a multiculturalist orientated curriculum and if they have any ideas about how to improve the
preservice teacher program.
More specifically, the first interviewee, Inge Plackle is an expert in the field of Teacher
Education for preparing pre-service teachers for secondary vocational education. She is doing her
PhD in PXL[1] college where she also teaches. PXL is a university college for teacher education.
She is also the Chair of the Association for teacher educators in Flanders which makes her an
excellent choice for an interview. Through the interview with Inge Plackle we gained a detailed
insight into the situation of pre-service teacher education in Flanders.
Our second interviewee, Alexandra Sarrigeorgiou, is a Master’s student at the VUB
department of Psychology and Education Sciences. Her academic background is in pre-school

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education and she also has some working experience in pre-school education. In the framework
of her studies, Alexandra is doing her internship also at PXL College for pre-service teachers.
Her role there was to observe, analyze and mentor the student teachers while they are preparing
to teach in a real classroom context. Since PXL is preparing students teacher for teaching in
vocational education, they are paying attention to diversity in the classroom. This means that they
try to prepare the student teachers to teach in such multicultural environments, which is very often
the case in vocational training schools. Alexandra participated in a project where student teachers
had to prepare material in order to introduce it further to a class of secondary school students who
would travel to Gambia for two weeks. The purpose of their trip was to transfer knowledge to
their peers in a school in Gambia. More specifically, the Belgian vocational secondary students
had to teach their peers in Gambia several skills such as carpentry, sewing and mechanical skills
in order for them to be able to improve their lives by fixing appliances such as fridges and washing
machines and sewing their own clothes. From the pre-service teachers’ point of interest, the
concept of this project was focused on how the Belgian students could get well prepared to adapt
easily in the new environment in Gambia and teach their peers in Gambia, skills and knowledge
that would be useful for them.

Traditional Challenges to Change

As resulted from our survey, multiculturalism as a whole is mostly challenging for the
teachers and for the students. Over the next decade, studies show that preservice teachers will
become more homogeneous (Cuellar &Huling-Austin, 1991; Jordan, 1995; Zimpher& Ashburn,
1989) while the student population will continue to diversify (Hill, 1989; Hodgkinson, 1991;
Protheroe&Barsdate, 1991). One factor that makes the task of influencing attitudes about diversity
difficult, is the tenacity with which pre-service teachers cling to prior knowledge and beliefs about
other people.
At the same time, many pre-service students enter teacher education programs believing
strongly in an optimistic individualism, the inevitability of triumph over any obstacle through hard
work and individual efforts (Ahlquist, 1992; Finney & Orr, 1995; McCall, 1995; Nieto, 1998). On
the opinion that harmony between different racial groups is important, there is an emphasis on
unity in diversity. Various strategies are used to ensure that such harmony is maintained, such as
emphasizing the positive, fostering mutual understanding and avoiding sensitive issues or dealing
with them in a careful manner.

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Diverse pupils in Flemish schools
As a metropolitan area in Belgium, The Flemish Community has diverse pupils in schools.
Pupils come from families having different background, cultures and languages (VLOR, 2013). In
the Flemish Community, the official language and language of learning and teaching in school is
Dutch. However, there are still pupils that speak French or other languages at home instead of
Dutch. There was from around 6% to more than 20% non-Dutch home languages in all level of
education from nursery to secondary schools in the school year 2010/11 (Table 1). This shows the
diversity of languages in classrooms in Flemish schools. The difference of foreign nationality
contributes to the cultural diversity in classroom as well.
Table 1: Pupils with a foreign nationality and non-Dutch home language 2010-2011
Type/level of education Foreign nationality Non Dutch home
language

Mainstream nursery education 6.2% 17.7%

Special nursery education 5.5 % Not available

Mainstream primary education 6.7 % 14.6%

Special primary education 7% Not available

First degree secondary education 6% 11.1%

General secondary education 3.1% 7.6%

Technical secondary education 4.0% 7.1%

Arts secondary education 5.3% 5.8%

Vocational secondary education 8.6% 14.2%

Special secondary education 9.4% Not available

Part time vocational secondary 18.3% 22.4%

education

In Flanders, various educational policies have been implemented to increase the quality of
teacher education programs such as the Decree on teacher education in 2006 (Gheyssens et al.,
2014). The Decree presented some innovations about teacher education in Flanders such as strong
relations and shared responsibility of faculty in schools and teacher education institutions, the
introduction of ‘mentor coaches’ at schools to support students and novice teachers during their
induction period, and building capacity of teacher trainers (Gheyssens et al., 2014).

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Potential Levers and Processes of Change
The training of the educator starts mainly with the theoretical framework the student is
integrated in and continues with pre-service education. This is important for the international and
intercultural environment since it influences the students and could make the attendance of the
educational environment attractive, in providing a way to incorporate elements of a foreign culture
into the own. The need of professional pre-service preparation of teachers is urgently required to
integrate students of different backgrounds and help them adapt to the society. The influence of
the pre-service teacher is in this case crucial for the students and even more for the pre-service
teacher themselves, which after graduating takes the role of a change actor in the process of change
and teaches students the needed cultural competencies, so that they in turn will have no problem
crossing any cultural or racial boundaries they might encounter. In the international community
there is the growing need to learn more about other cultures integrating, without giving up the own
culture.

Research Questions and Boundaries

Our research questions are dealing with the setting of Flanders in the north of Belgium. We
tried to investigate the strategies used in teacher education programs in Flanders to prepare teachers
for teaching in a multicultural classroom. Moreover, we focused on what should be done further
by the institutions to prepare pre-service teachers for the diverse reality of schools nowadays.
Another focus of our survey was any resistance against multicultural teaching coming from
different stakeholders in teacher education.

What should be done to prepare the pre-service teachers to teach in diverse classrooms?
In practice how does the pre-service teaching program prepare their students to teach in a
multicultural, diverse setting?
What, if any, is the resistance to teaching preservice teachers ways to differentiate for their
students?

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 Literature Review
The situation of multicultural education worldwide
According to Richards, et al., (2007) “students need the skills to relate to each other
positively, regardless of cultural and linguistic differences.” All students, those in the majority and
those in the minority, need to be treated fairly and be respected so that they can achieve success
(Richards, et al., 2007). Banks (2004) also pointed out that knowledge needs to be viewed from a
diverse array of perspectives, in order to change the injustices of the world (Banks, 2004). With
multicultural education, students can develop more positive feelings and attitudes about different
racial and cultural groups (Banks, 1993). There is great indication that there is a high demand to
include multicultural education when preparing pre-service teachers so that they get familiar with
this type of education and are able to apply it during their career as teachers. (Krummel 2013)
It has been reported that pre-service teachers are not comfortable discussing topics about
race so it is the responsibility of the Universities to prepare them by including and encouraging
conversations about multiculturalism in their courses. According to Gollick& Chinn (2009)
indicates in 2020, 50% of the student population in education university departments will be
students of color, that translates into an increase in teachers of colors as well. This result means
that the Universities should start adapting their pedagogy in a way that the perspective of
multiculturalism will be introduced to all the students during their studies in the lecture halls and
later in the classroom in order to better equip future teachers to deal with diversity within the
university and later within the classroom. (Gollick& Chinn, 2009)
The ethnic and cultural diversity in schools is increasing and educators are in front of a
new challenge: to be productive as teachers in this new multicultural environment. (Nieto, 2004)
From Razik& Swanson’s (2001) research, the success of a multicultural school depends on
teachers, administrators and the State. That means that teachers need to be prepared for working
in a multicultural environment by having an understanding and an open attitude towards the
different cultures of their classroom. The administrators from the other side should get the
necessary measures to adapt the curriculum in a way that it would lead to the preparation of the
pre-service teachers. It is known that students with different cultural backgrounds bring different
ideas into class and the different cultural norms influence the cohesion of the class but also the
academic success of each student. Not to mention in the article, Diversity within Unity ( ), a panel
met to find solutions for schools to help students increase academic achievement and improve their

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intergroup skills. They created guidelines to help schools meet challenges and to benefit from
diversity. They believe public schools are essential in ensuring a democratic society (Banks et al.,
2001). Students also need to be taught about the values that are shared by all. Banks et al., (2001)
writes: “teaching students about the values that virtually all groups share, such as those described
in the UN Universal Bill of Rights, can provide a basis for perceived similarity that can promote
favorable intergroup relations.” Students need to know shared values but can only do so once they
value and can accept their own cultural. Teachers need to be aware of their student’s cultural
development. Through this the teachers can help their marginalized students, also their mainstream
students, develop their own identity. (Banks, 2004) Therefore it is important for the teachers to
have the ability and pedagogical background to work in diverse classrooms without excluding any
student from education (Bradford Smith, 2009). Teachers need to obtain knowledge about different
ways of teaching for particular students to meet the student’s needs. This interaction should not be
a problem due to possible misperceptions or prejudices that teachers have for students of different
cultures (Bradford Smith, 2009).
In culturally responsive teaching, the unique culture of the minority students is supported.
Individual strengths of multicultural students are used to increase their achievements (Richards,
Brown & Forde, 2007). Teachers show inequality in the distribution of power and privilege to
multicultural students and they teach them “cultural competence about themselves and each other.”
(Gay & Kirkland, 2003) Gay (2002) describes culturally responsive teaching “as using the cultural
characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for
teaching them more effectively.” This should involve a knowledge base about diversity, including
diverse content in the curriculum, the use of instruction that is geared toward the diversity, and to
be caring and use good communication with diverse students. (Gay, 2002) Pre-service teachers
need to be equipped to deal with the different needs of a diverse classroom.

Inclusion of multiculturalism in the University Curriculum

It seems that there is a need for investigating into whether the pre-service teacher education
is addressing those needs for multicultural education or not. So far there is evidence that pre-
services teachers are not properly prepared to work with minorities or to apply differentiated
instruction when it comes to students of different racees, cultures, or religions (Metcalf-Turner,
2009). Nowadays, universities need to provide transformative learning to future teachers which
can provoke the critical reflection and prepare the pre-service teachers to accept a diverse working

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environment and challenge their own assumptions, beliefs and attitudes regarding
multiculturalism. (Moule, 2004) Researches have shown that Universities tend to prepare
individuals coming from the dominant culture for the teaching profession (mostly white pre-
service teachers) but this has to change if we want to ensure the inclusion of all children in
education (Swartz, 2003; Sleeter, 2001). To achieve the goal of multicultural education,
universities should try to engage students in critical reflection which preferably takes place in a
realistic context, guided by experts, (Swartz, 2003, Gay, 2000, and Ladson-Billings, 2001). An
alternative is to provide pre-service teachers with opportunities for authentic learning experiences
in diverse settings (Moule, 2004). As Moule (2004) further states, teacher candidates should
develop a lifelong learning attitude and continue to develop their knowledge and their ability to
teach with a cultural-positive attitude. Furthermore, by gaining experiences into the urban school
environment pre-service teachers have the opportunity to learn students’ culture and pedagogy and
be more equipped to teach such students on a daily basis.
As already mentioned, an important factor that is defining the success of pre-service
education regarding the inclusion of multicultural education is the pre-service teachers’ beliefs and
attitudes. In the case of the United States, where pre-service teachers are mostly white females,
their idea about diversity is really poor. (Liggett & Finely, 2009; Silverman, 2010) There are some
surveys conducted regarding the pre-service teachers of color but there are not that many. Studying
the beliefs and experiences of pre-service teachers of color could help the curriculum designers of
university programs to create courses for better educating their diverse students and prepare them
to teach in a diverse environment. The results of the research of Amos (2010) showed that pre-
service teachers of color are more willing to use multicultural teaching and open discussions about
social justice and social diversity. Another research conducted by Silverman (2010) in order to
investigate the beliefs of pre-service teachers showed that they do not feel that they are responsible
for multiculturalism in the classroom. Some of them even express fear and stress in case of working
with students that are totally different from their background (Ford & Quinn, 2010; He & Cooper,
2009). Additionally to those researches a qualitative research had been conducted by Mosley and
Rogers (2011) where the participants were white pre-service teachers. This study showed that
teachers chose not to react when the issue of multiculturalism and social diversity arose. This result
are in accordance with the results of the research conducted by Silverman (2010) which showed
that this silence is covering the attitude of pre-service teachers that someone else will take the

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responsibility to introduce the topic of multiculturalism to the students. Vetter and Reynolds
(2012) conducted a case study based on a pre-service teacher, James, who had a black father, white
mother and an Indian grandfather. The results showed that James could not answer to questions
regarding his origin and race in the classroom with his own students. Jame’s lack of experience on
how to approach multicultural issues inside the classroom reflects: a. the lack of such courses in
the curriculum of the university he studied and b. the need for including courses about
multiculturalism in the curriculum of pre-service teacher university programs.

Methods and Skills for Preservice Teachers

Sleeter (2001) suggests that in order in incorporate multicultural education in the
curriculum of universities three elements are important: (a) a philosophical framework, understood
and accepted by everyone as the basis to start, (b) a model that is corresponding to this
philosophical framework and which teachers could implement it in the classroom and (c) a
fieldwork which creates the best opportunities for pre-service teachers to observe a real teaching
environment where they can apply and recreate what they have learned.
Attitudes towards diversity are in direct connection to facts that are in direct connection
with the readiness to teach in culturally diverse classrooms, in this concern there are mainly factors
that foster, factors that constrain, and experiences that contribute to successfully teaching
culturally diverse groups of students (Wiggins et al.2007). Factors that foster or constrain readiness
concern dispositions associated with the level of acceptance and appreciation of cultural
differences that may impact the learning environment. Experiences that contribute to successful
teaching are those that provide students with opportunities to gain understanding and become
familiar with a culture, other than their own. Consistent with other research on this issue (c.f.Grant,
1994; Ladson-Billings, 2000; Sleeter, 2001) we could deduct that experiences which do not
prepare the preservice student teachers accordingly to develop the necessary skills and teach in a
diverse class, might do more harm than good if they reinforce existing negative stereotypes rather
than dispel them.

Engaged School
Preservice teachers need to be equipped with the understanding that there is a place in all
subjects for cultural diversity. Gay (2002) comments, “culturally responsive teaching deals as
much with using multicultural instructional strategies as with adding multicultural content to the

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curriculum.” The school also needs to provide a caring learning environment, where decision
making is shared and where the learning community has collaborative skills (Banks et al., 2001).
The school should be more engaged with the diverse parents and the student’s community. There
should be a mutual respect and contribution from all the different parents (Richards, et al., 2007).
Schools must have equal opportunity for all student to learn and to achieve. It has been found that
students who have a more intensive curriculum and experience high expectations from the
teachers, do better than peers who have a less rigorous curriculum. (Richards, et al., 2007).

Self-Reflective and Service Learning

Banks et al., (2001) states, “professional development programs help teachers understand
complex characteristic of ethnic groups in society and how race, ethnicity, language, and social
class interact to influence student behavior.” In order for teachers to be culturally responsive, they
should self-reflect and engage in their own reasoning and emotional process about themselves and
multicultural students (Richards, et al., 2007). Often teachers have their own ideas about the way
things are. In order for them to best serve diverse students, they need to look at ‘just the way things
are’ as a standard determined by the dominant culture. Teachers need to reflect and be more
culturally aware that students from diverse cultural, ethnic and social backgrounds have a different
determined standard. According to Gay & Kirkland (2003), once they realize this, the cultural and
ethnic gap between teachers and students can decrease. Banks et al. (2001), argue that they must
be honest about their own values and prejudices. Richards, et al., (2007) comments that teachers
need to “acknowledge that their views of the world are not the only views.” Once they honestly
look at their own experiences and histories, they can get rid of any biases towards any particular
group of people (Richards, et al., 2007).
Different researches agree on the fact that university programs for pre-service teachers
need to prepare the future teachers in many different aspects in order for them to be able to adapt,
cooperate with colleagues and teach students in diverse environments. Some common methods
that different universities are starting to use are the self-reflection and the service learning (Chang,
Anagnostopoulos, &Omae, 2011). Firstly, the self-reflection is used among preservice and in-
service teachers. In order to criticize, re-think some own experiences and challenge some own
thoughts. During the reflection conversations, the trigger to start can be a book, an article about
multiculturalism or a personal experience related to diversity.

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 Another type of reflection is according to Bleicher (2011), He & Cooper (2009), Kang &
Hyatt (2010), the use of narratives which seems to be a good method because it helps pre-service
teachers explore and deepen the idea of multiculturalism and diversity. From the professor's’
perspective, reflection is an excellent method to find out the ideas and conceptions of pre-service
teachers when entering university and adapt the curriculum to a better way in order to prepare them
for teaching in multicultural environments (Ford & Quinn, 2010). Several surveys revealed that
any type of self-reflection helps pre-service teachers to develop multicultural knowledge and a
positive attitude towards diversity (Bell et all, 2007; Johnson &Alkins, 2009; Lowenstein, 2009;
Zozakiewicsz, 2010).
As regards to service-learning method, some courses in pre-service university programs
are exposing students to diverse classrooms in order to familiarize them with such an environment
and also captivate the pre-service teachers’ interest (Chang et al., 2011). These courses, also known
as “Multicultural Service Learning (MSL)”, are crucial in preparing the pre-service teachers to
become ready to work in multicultural environments. According to Wade (2006) these fields, as
part of a university course for pre-service teachers, represents different opportunities to all parties
involved. Mainly, it helps students develop and cooperate, in order to achieve important goals for
a diverse society. As Carter (2009) reports “service learning seems to be very beneficial for pre-
service teachers (both white and African American), especially since the African American
students had poor experiences with urban schools due to their individual background”. The
combination of service learning with self-reflection helped African American students to realize
more about the urban school environment (Carter, 2009).

Awareness of the whole student

As mentioned before, it would be beneficial if teachers learn more about the experiences,
attitudes and viewpoints of different groups of people. When they become acquainted with the
different perspectives that exist in different communities, they can better serve the children of
those communities (Banks et al., 2001). This will greatly enhance their appreciation of diversity
in others. According to Richards, et al.(2007), teachers need to gain information about the personal
and cultural knowledge of their diverse students. All students have different personal and cultural
knowledge that they bring to the classroom, and it can be in conflict with the knowledge of the
teachers. Students need to use the knowledge they bring to the classroom to help them understand
the curriculum. The teachers need to be aware of this knowledge. (Banks, 1993).

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 Studies have shown that diversity among the teachers have also a huge impact on their
students outcome and development. For instance teachers in diverse schools may hold lower
expectations, resulting in a pedagogy of poverty that undermines the potential inherent to a public
school education (Haberman,1991, 1996). A lack of understanding of cultural diversity on the part
of teachers can inhibit the growth of students whereas an appreciation of these differences
promotes an optimal learning environment (Wiggins et al.2007). Much of the research on
promoting culturally responsive teaching addresses gaps and deficits in pre-service teachers’
experiences, attitudes and perceptions. Preparing culturally responsive teachers with the
willingness and abilities to teach in these more diverse school contexts represents, perhaps, the
most daunting task facing teacher educators today (Gay, 2002; Villegas, 2008).

Differentiation
Teachers need to acquire skills and knowledge to implement a pedagogy with equality.
This is defined by Banks et al., (2004a) “as instruction that provides all students with an equal
opportunity to attain academic and social success in school.” Multicultural representations and
curriculum that is more responsive to diversity will help connect with what students already know
and what they are being taught (Banks et al., 2001). Teachers in all subjects also need to develop
a knowledge base about diverse people who have made contributions to their subject area. This
information needs to be put into their classes so all students can see that a multitude of different
people have made contributions to humankind (Gay, 2002).
There is altered pedagogical approaches that have a different impact on the success of
different groups. Teachers need to learn about how different approaches affect different students.
This also applies to curriculum, instructional practices, and assessment, all of which can be
detrimental to the achievement of multicultural students if not adjusted (Richards, et al., 2001).
Cultural scaffolding also needs to be used to help diverse students succeed. The students’ own
culture and their unique experiences need to be used to add to their intelligence (Gay, 2002).
The differentiation depends on many factors and the outcome of the studies are mostly
related with issues like nationality, socioeconomically background, race of individuals and gender
inequality. In order to prove the above mentioned matters concerning multiculturality, one
perception identified during the interviews sessions is linked to the perception of critical
multiculturalism. According to Gay (1995), this draws inspiration from critical theory, sharing
“essentially the same ethics, spirit, values, principles, and actions”. It is argued that critical

15
multiculturalism struggles to bring about the transformation of society to accomplish the goals of
social justice by confronting and disrupting institutions and the structures of power that maintain
disparities across race, class, and gender (May, 1998; Sleeter& Grant, 2007; Sleeter& McLaren,
1995; Steinberg, 1995; Steinberg &Kincheloe, 2001). Secondly, authors mention that critical
multiculturalism challenges the essential cultural groups and “romanticizing the curriculum” with
images of “mythical pasts (McCarthy, 1993; McLaren, 1995; Nieto, 1995).

Mentoring
An efficient method that universities use for preparing future teachers to work in
multicultural environments is mentoring. Mentoring is a way where teacher-educators and
cooperating teachers are helping pre-service teachers to find their way through different issues that
they face while teaching. This is implemented through fruitful feedback given to pre-service
teachers, discussions about possible problems and thoughts that they have. During mentoring
stereotypes that pre-service teachers have about a diverse classroom can be challenged, even
proven false and the mentor can show them the different aspects of a situation (Watson, 2011).
This fact shows how important mentoring is as a technique to foster pre-services students open-
minded, towards multiculturalism in the classroom. Researchers encourage pre-service teachers
observe their mentor teachers using several multicultural practices and consider it very beneficial
for them because it is enabling a more positive attitude towards multiculturalism and diversity as
future teachers (Liggett & Finley, 2009). Observing this as a long term educative perspective, this
will further contribute to better pedagogical decisions on behalf of future teaches and better
academic achievements for more students (Metcalf-Turner, 2009).
Secondly, emphasizing on communicative competences and language acquisition is a
major part of understanding diversity. Obviously by gaining knowledge and trying to understand
another culture, the integrative educational purpose of pre-service education is more intense than
otherwise. Teachers’ views act as filters and affect the way in which they perceive their current
teaching situation and the way in which they can accommodate new teaching goals (Pajares, 1992).
Research into these issues has similarly revealed that a reasonably clear relationship exists between
teacher beliefs and teaching practice (Nespor, 1987; Knowles & Holt-Reynolds, 1991; Carter &
Doyle, 1995).

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 Research Methodology and design
This research is for preparing pre-service teachers to be more equipped to teach in a diverse
multicultural environment. It aims to explore strategies that can help and meet the needs of all
students from diverse backgrounds for the purpose of maximizing their capabilities. In order to do
so, this research will conduct in two stages: firstly with secondary research then with primary
research.

Research Methodology
Secondary Research:
Secondary research refers to the summary or collation of existing researches in which data is
collected. (Hox and Boeije, 2005) Regarding the methodology, a comprehensive literature review
was done on the basis of different criteria. The source of data for this paper has been selected from
a variety of previous research, it includes books as well as articles from online journals. For
example: by taking advantage of VUB library, and other different reliable online searching engines
including ACADEMIA and Google Scholar. The selection of the articles was based on their
relevance and reliability.
Primary Research:
Primary Research refers to the collection of original primary data that has been designed to meet
one’s unique and specific needs. (Hox and Boeije, 2005) For the current study, qualitative
research, specifically interview was conducted. Semi-structured interview were conducted in this
study in order to enrich the data collection. There were two aforementioned interviewees.

Research Design
There are around twenty basic questions in conducting the semi-structured interviews. These
questions are based on secondary data that showed in the literature review. Meanwhile, these
questions were split into two sections. The first part covering some basic questions includes
interviewees’ background information (i.e. Could you please introduce yourself first?). Second
part covers specifying questions (i.e. how are you, as a pre-service teacher, trained now to work in
diverse classrooms? Would you like to have any other kind of courses in order to feel more
prepared for teaching in diverse classrooms? How should such a course be designed?) Throughout
asking specifically, interviewees can be free to express their point of view, and deeper statement

17
can be discovered. A wider range of aspects related to this study can be collected, which will all
contribute to the research.

Sampling
Our interviews were conducted with one teacher and prominent member in preparing pre-service
teachers for work in vocational high schools, and one intern who worked with the pre-service
teachers. Ingeborg Plackle, who has a rich experience working with pre-service teachers in
Flanders, was interviewed in order to help explore inside knowledge of the pre-service teacher
program. Alexandra Sarrigeorgiou, a student of in the 2nd year of the MES at the VUB, is doing
her internship in PXL. She was suggested by Ingeborg Plackle because she is one of the significant
student's-coach-actors in Inge’s program where she was actively involved in the coaching,
evaluation and development of the pre-service multinational teaching community engaged in the
projects.

Data collection procedure

The interviews were conducted face to face in common area in university. In this stage, a brief
introduction was given to respondents including the main theme and the length of the interview.
Record permission was also asked. After the introduction, the interview began with several ice-
breaking questions as the preparation, and more information could be investigated through in-
depth interview.

Findings and Conclusions

The findings of our research are based on collecting data from the interviews of the expert-
Inge, and the teacher education coach- Alexandra. Also from our literary review, our which
includes the framework of teaching in diverse context and teacher education preparation.

The concept in PXL, a University college in Flanders

In Flanders, there are general, technical and vocational secondary schools. Some schools
combine all of these sectors while others are specifically for one sector. Preparing pre-service
teachers for secondary vocational education is quite different than preparing them for teaching in
general education. The reason is that in vocational education the diversity in the classroom is quite
high. Pre-service teachers need to cope with this diversity, this is why in PXL the main focus is to

18
prepare them for teaching in diverse classrooms. Diversity has to do with the fact that in many
vocational classrooms in Flanders, the majority of the students are foreigners so very often it is a
multicultural environment and students have to deal with the language barrier as well.
Additionally, there are many students in vocational schools coming from economically
underprivileged background or have a previous bad experience with education, so they are already
demotivated.

Prepare student teachers to teach in multicultural classrooms

Student teachers in PXL are mainly trained to develop challenging and authentic learning
environments for demotivated students in vocational schools. The expert highlighted the
importance of motivation in vocational training with an example; she recently visited a classroom
in Flanders where one of her students had to teach. The whole class was demotivated and it was
quite hard for the student teacher to motivate them to participate. Due to the economic, social,
cultural and educational background of vocational students it seems very important to prepare pre-
service teachers on how to motivate their students.

Motivating vocational education students

Many factors influence the students at PXL and they face different challenges at times
because of their background. At times the most difficult challenge that pre service student teachers
are facing is the lack of their students’ motivation to learn.. The interpretation of this is not always
easy since some students have already created their own beliefs and gestalt figures which are not
helping them in the integrative process of the mixed multinational communities. Integrative
approaches have been used to motivate students in active participation at classes. The diversity
among pre-service student teachers themselves is an interesting matter that has been questioned
during the interview. Apparently the majority of the pre-service student teachers are Belgian but
in this concern diversity still exists, though the problem is that not all student teachers manage to
graduate.
Regarding the different approaches, in theoretical and practical matters, the PXL program
is aimed to help pre-service student teachers create and develop authentic learning environments
working together with teachers in different vocational schools. The process is based on observation
sessions, advancing to developing or adapting authentic teaching-learning techniques which will
be implemented and used in practice. The pre-service student teacher program has a unique
curriculum developed in Flanders, in which the skills and the theory are equally managed. The

19
pre-service student teachers take courses dealing with diversity and multiculturalism, starting from
the first years, they learn that differentiation is a mindset that they need to develop and use, in
order to best serve their students.

Resistance to diverse teaching

It is a very difficult idea to defend. In the National University of Brussels, other departments
for different areas of pre-service teachers only learn about differentiate in the second year and start
to practice it in their third year, the last year of the training. However it was noted that
implementing subjects of diversity has improved in the past years. In vocational education in 2000,
the program had only one subject to teach pre-service teachers how to cope with diversity.
However, recently new programs have been introduced to teach all pre-service teacher different
didactics related to multicultural education. This training is significant for all, “because it’s
important for all student teachers to deal effectively with diversity.”

Examples
There are many examples of programs in PXL that prepare pre-service teachers for
multicultural classes and the wide range of diversity they will meet while teaching. One example
is in the first week of the program, the students go into schools in Brussels and “they learn to know
students in all diversities.” In this way the program shows pre-service students to start with the
students themselves and build from there. Learning to teach is important but they also need to learn
to look at a student’s whole universe.
It is important in teacher education to work with authentic contexts. This year the pre-service
teachers in PXL worked together with secondary students in a vocational school, which specialized
in working with wood and cloth. Some of these students were going to Gambia to help build a
nursery school. Thus, the pre-service teachers worked with the students on intercultural skills.

Community of teachers
Professional learning communities are greatly important in professional development because
it reduces the isolation of teachers. It not only provides teachers a chance to define good teaching,
share classroom practices and creates new knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learners. It
also increases meaning and understanding of the content that teachers teach and the roles they play
in helping all students achieve expectations.

20
The perceptions of “otherness”
Training students for reflection on multiculturalism is used in developing the ethical
awareness of understanding different cultures and raising the interest of students to engage in
diversity in order to explore it as much as possible. The activities and projects in the education
program raise the interest of the students and their willingness to participate in activities related to
mixed cultures and diversity. The support of PXL is based firstly on the participation in workshops
related to international exchange programs, like the Gambia project for example. In this project
the students, working in groups, prepared the whole of the materials that they would use, they
conducted research related to cultural diversity based on in-depth academic literature, later using
the literature reviews to manage the workshops and finally preparing an in-depth reflective
portfolio related to their activity. Learning opportunities, such as travel and teaching abroad, and
the perceptions of “otherness” this creates, lead to new perspectives regarding human differences.
Such experiences, if wisely structured, can rectify misconceptions and reverse stereotypes.
Secondly, the preparatory courses that the pre-service student teachers participated in before
leaving to Gambia and teach. The workshop which was about history, geography and local news
in Gambia, for example, was very useful. It was made to be specific about the place where the
students were going to. It includes social life and balance, news, media which have both positive
side such as foods, culture, nature, and negative side such as vulnerable people, poverty, crime,
and e-waste. Through this workshop, the pre-service teachers improve their knowledge and skills
of searching for information about multiculturalism.

Recommendations
Based on the findings of our case study, our research has several recommendations below.

The mindset
Pre-service teachers should start thinking and learning about diverse students from the very
beginning of their studies. Pre-service teachers need to be shown that learning is different for each
student, in this way they can look in a different way to their students. It is ineffective if pre-service
students have learned to teach ‘in general’ then in their last year they are taught how to
differentiate. Multicultural education doesn’t work as something to “put on top of teaching, it’s an
integral part of teaching and learning, differentiate has to be a mindset” (Inge)

21
 In the Flemish Community, there are diverse students; however the pre-service teachers
are not diverse so they have not been aware of the issue when they teach in multicultural
classrooms. The course of diversity in teacher education programs is still optional, that means the
students who do not choose this course will face problems of teaching diverse classrooms. In our
case study, most pre-service teachers voluntarily participated in and showed their motivation of
teaching diverse students. The suggestion is that this kind of course should be compulsory
therefore all pre-service teachers are equipped to deal with diverse problem in schools.

“Teach as you preach” and Teacher educator

One pattern that should be taken into account of teacher education programs in preparing
pre-service teachers for dealing with diversity in school is that the educators (lecturers, professors)
in teacher education should apply “teach as you preach”. In other words, pre-service teachers will
apply the way they were taught in their own teaching in schools, therefore the educators in teacher
education also have to apply the relevant methods of teaching regarding to diversity. Through the
teacher education programs, they will improve the awareness of diversity if they were taught
diversely.
However, it is stated that at the moment there is no required program for becoming an
educator related to multiculturalism, someone graduated and who works in an institute for teacher
education, is automatically a teacher educator. A new program is being designed specifically to
become a teacher educator, in which there is a course titled “Teacher educators for social justice”.
It is just one course in the program but it is “important for teacher educators to learn about social
justice and to differentiate, and to give every student optimal chances.” (Inge)

Integration of theory and practice

In the teacher education program, students usually are provided the theory and/or practice
concerning their specific topic. However, there is still a gap between theory and practice.
Therefore, it is very important to integrate the theory and practice for students regarding
multiculturalism. The teacher education engages pre-service teachers practice their knowledge and
skills in real situation where they can integrate what they have learnt in their program into the
practice in a real classroom. The authentic context will help these students improve their
knowledge and skills as well as integrating theory and practice regarding the diversity in
classrooms.

22
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Appendix 1: Interview transcripts

TRANSCRIPT Interview with Inga

Transcript
Allie: Could you give us your background, a little bit of your Education?
Inge: I am Inge Placke and I am a teacher Educator since 2000 in PXL which is a University college, so it
is pre-service teacher education Institute and since 2008 I am doing here my PhD and I am also a teacher
Educator in this Institute. I mainly teach future teachers for secondary education. I don’t know if that’s also
the topic of your research, so I prepare students for secondary education and more specific for vocational
education and mostly the general aspects for vocational education so languages, mathematics, science,
historical skills so that’s the subjects that I teach to future teachers for secondary vocational education. I

27
am also the Chair of the Association of teacher educators in Flanders, so we have many meetings with
teacher educators here in Flanders, which is my main topic.
Allie: So there are two specific secondary schools, one for vocational group of students and…?
Inge: Yes, yes, it depends, we have schools which are specific for general education and then we have
schools for technical education and then we have also schools for vocational education. Some schools make
the combination of the three but you also have schools for vocational education only. So we have different
kinds of schools.
Allie: Ok, do you see any differences on your teachers and how they are trained and to go to this specific
school? Do you think there is much of difference or is it just the subjects that are different? Is there a
different way of training them?
Inge: Yes, I think that students of vocation education, there is a lot of diversity, so my students really have
to cope with all those differences and we mainly focus on that. And I think we focus on that part more than
teacher Educators focus in preparing pre-service teachers for general education. My focus is diversity and
I think it would be very good if all teachers or teacher educators would focus much more on dealing with
diversity. So not only in vocational education but I really think it is important that also in general education
should be differentiated instruction, as well. But at this moment, some good teachers are really good in
coping with diversity, also in general streams - but I think it is very important. So, yes, there is really a
difference in preparing pre-service teachers for vocational education.
Allie: Οk, that’s great, that is really interesting. We are working on multicultural education and diversity.
Do you see diversity in Flanders? Are there classrooms with such differences?
Inge: It depends a lot, have you seen vocational classes at the moment in Belgium?
Allie: No
Emi: I have seen in Romania, but not in Belgium, no!
Inge: Diversity in Flanders in very high. We have all levels in one classroom. When I compare with more
general streams, I can see that more students with background are in vocational streams, students with low
SES so students more vulnerable.
Allie: Do you think that there are maybe some diverse, like some are from Belgium but some are from other
countries?
Inge: Yesterday I have visited my student teacher and it was a lesson in an school in Hasselt and all of the
students were from another country. So often is the language barrier that makes that students are in
vocational stream.
Allie: Can you maybe tell us some more about difficulties that you students face? The pre-service teachers?
Imagine language or different ability levels? Are there any other problems or issues that stick at in your
mind and you have to deal with?
Inge: Yes, my students are trained to develop a very authentic and challenging learning for their students
and I find it very difficult to challenge our students in vocational education. Mostly they had a difficult
educational background as well, so several students are more demotivated and it is very hard to challenge
them again for learning. So we are dealing with that and I find it very difficult. Yesterday, there were a lot
of demotivated students and my student found it very hard to motivate them all.
Allie: Yes, so motivation is a big issue.
Inga: I find it very hard to motivate them, we are trying to motivate them but it’s very hard if students are
at several negative experiences in their school it’s very hard to change that and so that they focus on learning
and that they like to learn again.

28
Allie: Maybe it would be interesting to find out your students, the pre-service teachers, what is their
background? Are they mostly Belgian or are they elsewhere?
Inge: Yes, they are mostly Belgian, yes.
Allie: Do you find that they are diverse themselves in maybe a multicultural way or?
Inge: Yes, I think it’s very important that the group of teachers, for the future is more diverse than at the
moment. We also see that in the first year of teachers education diversity is bigger, students find it more
difficult to pass the three years of teacher education so at the end we have fewer students of future teachers
with diverse background and it’s a pity because I think diverse teachers could deal very well but our students
in educational education are Belgian, yeah.
Allie: Great, could you give us some examples a little bit about what they are currently doing to help your
pre-service teachers with this multicultural classroom?
Inge: Yes. First of all, I am doing research on Project channel subjects, so my research topic is working on
authentic challenging learning environments and to focus on differentiation and to integrate evaluation for
learning, so that is the research part and I try to, ahm integrate those principles in my curriculum. I find it
very important that I go to the schools with my students and a week before we are searching schools where
my students together with the teachers create or develop authentic learning environments for students, so,
ahm..always with the focus on the learning of the students in vocational education. So, together in small
research groups, we try to develop attractive courses for vocational students and my students give lessons
also, or implement the lessons with the students and they receive feedback and then we can go on in that
way and the schools are also asking me to join their meetings, to help them develop authentic, challenging
learning pathways and differentiated learning pathways for their students.
Thu: So, is the research implemented in the curriculum or as an internship?
Inge: Yes, it’s a very good question. In my last year I only have 7 students who have chosen vocational
education and my students form a research group together with the teachers in one certain school, so it is
integrated in the curriculum and during my classic lessons I am going with my students at that school so I
don’t give classes at the moment at the university college but I take them with me in schools.
Thu: And is this also a course or is it compulsory so that students can choose?
Inge: Last year they could not choose because I made an arrangement with the heads of that schools but
years in advance when they were only in the 2nd year of their training I asked them if they would like to do
that and be involved in the project and they said yes, so from that moment on it was compulsory. They had
to do it, but first I asked them if they would like to participate in the researching school and they liked it
very much and the 3rd year the lessons went in that particular school, together with the teachers and together
with the principle also because it was also very enthusiastic and he also joins the group.
Thu: And how about the others, pre-service teacher educators in Flanders, do they have a similar curriculum
or program for students to have authentic learning like that?
Inge: Ahm… I think it’s, from my research, I saw that it’s still a concern of most teacher educators in
Flanders and teacher educators, especially teachers try very hard to create authentic learning environments
and also when I think about other institutions they don’t go with their students to other schools, ahm.. I
don`t know ..
Thu: So actually it’s more in theoretical than practical?
Inge: Yes, Yeah! Mostly it is.
Thu: So in their curriculum they have a subject or course for dealing with diversity or multiculturalism?
Inge: yes, they have. Ahm, mostly I can speak from my own context, I know the teacher educators from
other schools as well, and mostly they stay more at the university college and teach more about diversity.

29
Thu: In which year? Second or third year?
Inge: In fact, that I think about my context it’s so important that you start at the very beginning because it’s
a mindset and if you know that learning is different and students are different, you look in a different way
to your students and it’s very hard if you first learn your students to teach in general and the 3 rd year you
will say that “now you can teach in general so we will learn you how to differentiate because there are also
differences between your students” and it is wrong I think that you have something that comes on top of it
while it has to be an integral part of teaching and learning, differentiation has to be a mindset, I think.
Allie: Do you think that other people in Flanders, teachers, educators, also feel this way?
Inge: Ahmm.. I just, yeah, I know its very hard, even in my institution students learn to differentiate in the
second year and they learn to do it only in the 3rd year.
If they attend uni they have a course to deal with diversity and multiculturalism?
(15:30) Yes they have, mostly they stay at the uni college and teach them there.
Which year? When do they do that?
Speaking for myself, from my context; It’s important that you start dealing with, learning about, diversity
from the very beginning. It’s a mindset. If you know that learning is different and students are different,
you look in a different way to your students. Its very difficult if you first teach your students to teach in
general and then in the 3th year you will say now you can teach general, now we will teach you how to
differentiate. Because there are also differences between your students. It doesn’t work if it’s something
you put on top of teaching. It has to be integral part of teaching and learning, differentiate has to be a
mindset, I think.
Do you think other people in flanders feel and think this way?
I know it’s very hard, even in my instiution, students learn to differentiate their second year and they have
to do it only in their third year. So it’s hard to defend that idea. It’s a working point, not only in my institute
but I think in many. When I think of this university, this teacher edu we start here with a whole week,
where our students are going to brussels, and they learn to know students in all diversities. Yeah so here we
do it.
(18.00) Is that like an exchange?
Its part of the program here for teacher edu. It’s a starting point. We found it very important that we start
with the students themselves and build on from there. They learn to teach but we also look at the students
whole universe.
See the resistance, is it a new thing to implement diversity?
When I first started teacher edu for vocational edu, we only had a lot differentiate in vocational edu. It was
in 2000, I thought it was important for all students learn to cope with diversity. From that moment one we
implemented didactic workshops for all students. Also For the main stream student teachers, because it’s
important for all student teachers could deal affectivity with diversity. But it started in vocation edu and
took it to main stream edu. Secondary, there will be much more differentiate, then 10 years ago. At this
moment there is no course to become a teacher educator. So at this moment you finish your students and
you work at an institute for teacher edu, you will be a teacher educator, you don’t have to follow any
courses. Now we are designing a program to become a teacher educator. And part of that course is teacher
educators for social justice, it’s one course. Because we think it’s also important for teacher educators to
learn about social justice and to differentiate, and to give every student optimal chances.
Why is multicultural edu important for all students?

30
When I see the results for students in vocational schools, in maths and dutch only 39% of the students
reached the final attainment. The results are very low, it’s a problem. We need to think about, how can we
improve those results? And try to focus on those students, and how can we improve their learning.
Do you have any examples what you are doing now with the pre service teachers to open their eyes
to diversity?
(23:30) In teacher edu I also want to work with authentic context, so teach as you preach. This year my
students worked together with secondary students in vocational schools. Those students are going to gambia
to build a nursery school. So students in secondary edu vocational schools working with wood and cloth,
went to Gambia to build schools. But my students prepared those students to work in gambia for
intercultural skills. And a classmate Alex, she guided the process, for intercultural competence for my
students. She also led a workshop for students who were going to gambia.
Do you have any examples what you are doing now with the pre service teachers to open their eyes to
diversity?
(23:30) In teacher education I also want to work with authentic context, so teach as you preach. This year
my students worked together with secondary students in vocational schools. Those students are going to
Gambia to build a nursery school. So students in secondary education vocational schools working with
wood and cloth, went to Gambia to build schools. But my students prepared those students to work in
Gambia for intercultural skills. And a classmate Alex, she guided the process, for intercultural competence
for my students. She also led a workshop for students who were going to Gambia. And she did it in English,
and in vocation education we don’t get English as a subject.
25:50 AllIie: do you maybe have more suggestion for this school or other how can integrate
multiculturalism in pre-service teacher education?
Go to the context of their students, to know the context of their students is very important, in the past,
organization between parents and schools, trying to improve the connection between school and home,
students involve those progects.
For example my students teach the students a surtine subject and the parents can see how you can work
together with students. At the same time, my student teachers learn about the families of the school. They
learn to appreciate the families, my students became brokers (middle men) between the families and the
school. It’s broader then staying at just the schools, it’s going out and working with the families.
In Hasselts we do with third year students, here (VUB) also from beginning, this is important to know your
students, to see the context, if you know that you start searching for methods that are appropriate for those
students.
Emi: Diversity problem example? Like ethnic, Bullying, immigration
Yes for instance that project is called learning to learn at home, the first year we only worked with students
on a volunteer basis, not compulsorily. It was a great success, the preservice teachers where very
enthusiastic, and the families really liked it. Because of the advantages we saw we made it compulsory for
all students to participate, then we saw some problems. Some pre service student teachers had some
stereotypical ideas about diverse students. So it was very hard to work with that. Pre service teachers would
go to the families and then come back to the school at teacher education, and told us more stereotypical
(bad) stories. We had to work in coaching sessions, to deal with those stories, otherwise it could be a risk
that those stereotypical ideas would stick with them. And the pre service teachers would only stick with
those stereotypes.
Allie: do you see resistance with other pre-service teachers? Not the ones in your program, but other
programs?

31
(31.14) Inge: yes yes it’s very hard sometimes.
Allie: Do you see it in your peers?
Yes also a lot of my colleges, have another vision. So it’s important that you co-create a shared vision.
That’s important for the future.
Allie： Maybe… Do you think they’re more in the line of or, it should just be, you know education it should
just be math as math, they shouldn’t deal with maybe social justice issues. Do you think that’s a problem
or?
Inge: I think it’s very important that the reason teachers always…. social justice in your way of acting.
That’s to be… or…yes…
Allie: Yeah. That’s great. Anything else? That’s wonderful. That’s kind of our main idea maybe to make
our proposal. Maybe to show people a different way that multicultural education and the social justice
education is important for everyone.
Inge: Also, work this student in south within context and it’s not enough to send your student to some
context but it’s also very important that you have individual session after supervision session after some
exercises within context to deal with some ideas and to work on social justice and opinions, to discuss come
from the classroom I think it’s very important that to do that to get with and be our center.
Allie: Yeah, absolutely. Ok. From our research into this and from our other courses of course of the
reflection is that a big part that help pre-service teacher, is that integrated from the very beginning?
Inge: Yes, it’s integrated. For example, in the first year, they really, they have to go to teachers and ask
them which works forms they are using, and why they are using or how it work from contribute to learning
of the students. So from the very beginning, they have to within the classroom. And also after that, reflected
on what they have seen, on what they have heard from the teacher.
Yes, then, also in that case, it depends from on the reversion of the typical teacher. How he/her looks at
diversity. So also in that case, it’s also very important to discuss that in teacher-education and to see the
directing are learned from teachers.
Allie: That’s great. What do you think? Do you have anything else? We really talk about all the issues that
we had.
Thu:Oh yeah, I have one more question about the community of the teacher, community of practice for the
teacher and they…
Inge: For the teachers or for the teacher-educators?
Thu: Do you prepare for student-teacher well participate in community of teachers, because in the future,
they’re going to teach…
Inge: Yes. An example of the researching school: they are my students, who formed a group. A learning
group to get with the teachers. I hope that in the future, they can take that with them… and then also formed
a group of teacher, I think it’s very important that teaching is not a “individually case” but… more and
more it will be team approaching… that you as a team are responsible for learning of your students. I think
it’s very important to have such discussion how can we improve learning in that particular way, the students
together with my colleagues. And I also focused on learning of the students.
(Then Emi, Allie and Thu are asking Inge if she could introduce some of her students from pre-service
teacher program to us for more interviews… asking the contact imformation of those students)
Allie：Thanks so much. It’s a huge help.

TRANSCRIPT Interview with Alex

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Team: Hello Alex, thank you very much for your time, we appreciate it a lot. Would you like to introduce
yourself and explain a bit of your experience and background in education so far, your studies?
Alex: Sure, thanks again for inviting me. It is actually my first time I’ve been interviewed. My Bachelor
was in early childhood education, I graduated from Athens University. After two years I went to
Kindergartens to try to find a job and see how the working environment there is. I really did not like the
situation, so I said I want to develop and I realized in how many things teacher could develop. I was more
interesting in adult education, that is why I came to Brussels and I am following now this master at the
VUB. There is not a lot of my professional career yet. To connect it to your case study it is important to
mention that during my bachelor we could choose directions for our teaching practice and one of them I
chose was ‘cultural awareness’. So I had this background and it was really interesting. We had a thematic
week with intensive classes about culture, full with different activities and we went also to secondary
schools and did projects. Afterwards we had to reflect and do individual presentations, so I really got
familiar with this topic and this is why I wanted to follow this master which is international.
Team: Can you describe shortly what is your involvement with pre-service teachers is? What was your role
and responsibilities?
Alex: I started my internship in November and it is still ongoing. It is taking place in PXL Hoogeschool
here in Belgium, in Hasselt exactly, so it is in Flanders area. My major task is to coach students. Students
are pre-service teachers around 20 years old. Because of the language, I mostly deal with English teachers.
I am also involved with sports and arts, so with sport and arts pre-service teachers. English teachers need
more coaching now because they are starting with their teaching practices in different schools. So they need
to teach without using their body a lot, but mostly by focusing on the learning objectives and content of
grammar and vocabulary, so they get a bit stressed. Basically this is my biggest involvement with teachers’
training.
Team: Do you think that the area of Flanders is very diverse?
Alex:I would say not really in Hasselt. Although everybody speaks English and is very easy to communicate
and in PXL they have many international students every semester, some of them want to stay and live in
Hasselt...for ever, people from Turkey and Spain that I met, which is interesting. But what I see in PXL is
that the school is very open to international students.
They had this very interesting course in their schedule which is not compulsory. For this course they had
to go to a vocational training school because the students of this school have to go to Gambia for two weeks.
And the pre-service teachers had to create an one-day workshop to in order to give secondary students an
idea on what competencies the students in Gambia need to have, so the Belgian students need to teach them.
They had to teach them how to use a portfolio, parts of the workshop were about food in Gambia, the
traditions and history of Gambia as well. This workshop was all created by the teacher students in order to
introduce it later to the secondary students and prepare them for their trip. This workshop was very
important because afterwards we reflected on what happened during the workshop. They had to evaluate
the whole workshop and they had me and Inge Placke as a coach to discuss how to make aware of the
situation in Gambia. We also created some games that we played during the workshop and that they were
relevant to Gambia.
A: […..]some of them, they come from and they want to stay, like forever, a lot of people from turkey and
Spain I met which is interesting but really in the society I see not a lot of diversity but the school is very
open to incoming students.
Q: so there are many students coming from abroad?

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A: Let’s say, if I can speak in numbers, I am not really sure but it’s something like less than 10 % there
which is still ok and the people that are from Flanders they really engage with those students.
Q: Do they speak English?
A: Yeah, everybody speaks English and if they don’t they make and effort, so communication is fine, there
are not lots of problems since they are teachers.
Q: So now that you are learning in the PXL School, did you see any set of tools that teachers can use to
manage multicultural content, in the context of the preservice teachers?
A: In practice when there is a class and the teacher has to teach the preservice student teacher let’s say, and
there are three international students and the rest are Flemish, usually the teacher gives the instruction, it’s
a bit difficult for other classes. English is in English but let’s say history, he gives the instruction in Dutch
so the PowerPoint is in Dutch but he provides students with the separate material in English and if they
have questions he supports them and also, because I am coaching international students in PXL they share
with me their experience and they say that not all the teachers respect them. So there is one case, that for
example the teacher doesn`t even provide English material and the teachers, he/she is aware that they are
international students and everything is in Dutch so students are really struggling in this sense and it is in
their curriculum and its difficult and it’s a bit strange but this is only one case. Most of them provide courses
in English and international students have a coach, not only me that I am a coach for inter-learning process
a but there is another coach which makes sure that everything goes well, so they have a close connection.
Q: and do you see anything else except professors distributing English teaching materials?
A: in the application the application there is something like this, they have an electronic platform like we
have PointCaree, they call it EPOS where they can communicate and I am also using the platform and even
the keywords there are in Dutch. So it’s not really accessible, I think it’s a bit closed but however the
mentality and what they do is really open and how to engage different cultures and study abroad. They have
another program where they send Flemish students abroad for internships and the support this as well.
Q: So this program is also in this direction, to help multinational integration?
A: yeah and also the student teachers they chose to go, like if they would like to have their last semester
abroad they make their requests and it’s like an Erasmus but they don’t have to follow courses, and for that
they go abroad an teach in English they have to follow some courses to prepare them for this process. So I
guess they create their own curriculum, with the courses they will follow, they adjust the learning path if
they go abroad so that they know how to deal with another culture.
Q: So once they go abroad it’s for teaching in the classroom not for the courses?
A: No no. it’s for teaching practice.
Q: So they are there for the teaching practice, this is a step forward towards multicultural education?
A: yes!
Q: Can I ask an additional question, did you go to any class to observe?
A: Yes, what do you mean, when they go to teach? Yeah, and I evaluate them as well but this is not related
to multicultural education. They teach the kids.
Q: Do you remember any incident that had to do with multiculturalism, for ex teaching English in a
classroom, if there was a problem regarding the language?
A: No because they are all Flemish, pre service teachers. It’s a new language for them, when they prepare
those teachers in didactics workshops; they have teacher practice, reflection and workshops and every
workshop had a theme. And one was cultural differentiation.
Q: So they had didactic for differentiation?
A: Yes and for how to assess students, focus on vocabulary.

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Q: Do you know if there is any training for reflection on multiculturalism for pre service teachers?
A: Yes, they have maybe Inga could tell you about this. PXL has an occan class, something like this, it’ for
multiculturalism and inter-culturalism and so on. This is a separate theme. The task was to create a one day
workshop for secondary school students who were going to Gambia. Who were going to experience 2 weeks
in Gambia. So the preservice teachers had to gather information about Gambia, its culture, etc. It takes also
their attitude to be open as professionals to design this type of program for secondary school students. They
designed this program from scratch, so they set objective, they plan 3 parts workshops. They make a
portfolio so could show their students the reflection, which they also did themselves. So it was let’s say 6
months of very well done, structured assignment and I think the 4 students that followed this workshop they
also developed as well. They started to look at articles about another culture. I was coaching the team, so
we planned together everything. And I lead implementation the whole day and the second was in the
morning workshop for the secondary school students. I suggested we should create a game. We were all
together so we split up in groups and created this board game.
Q: You did lit review and prepared a game for the workshop to take to Gambia and what else did you do?
A: So for the workshops, we had a brief introduction. Then we split up. We gave them the portfolios, so
they could reflect after each workshop and to take with them to Gambia so they could reflect before during
and after the experience. First workshop was a game for different cultures, a ready-made game with cards.
Ss really enjoyed.
Q: So first you played it, then they had to play it with the students in Gambia?
A: Yes for pre service teachers we talked about what would be a good first thing. And we discussed gaming
would be a good first thing, to help break the ice. And get to know another’s culture. We brainstormed and
they had already played it. They liked it. And after the game we discussed what they had learned. So the
preservice teachers then played with students and they took 10 minutes to reflect orally. Just saying what
we figured out.
Q: You were there when they created the workshop?
A: Yes I was supporting the students.
Q: And what was your preparation for the workshop? Do you think it helped the pre service teachers?
A: Yes the pre service teachers did really well. They were really motivated and confidence and did really
well. The audience, the secondary students where Flemish
Alex: but I have to say that, the audiences,the students, they are Flemish, people, so you cannot really see
cultural diversity there, so I guess if the audiences were let say international class like us, they come to give
structure for another countries, there will be something different. For sure they will develop multicultural
awareness by doing this, especial having this experience. This is for teacher training, they become teachers
teaching in class. It is different how to handle diversity. It is very good for their professional development
by practicing this but
Ying: Do you see a need to change teaching practices for the pre service teachers to be more multicultural?
Alex: yes, I see a space for this, always there is a space for this.Improving and change, not very thing but
for develop professional. I am not sure that they follow for other classes or they have something more
specific useful for multicultural education, but what I experienced they, it can be more engaged for pre-
service teachers because I wonder why this kind of course is not compulsory. I think it is good and not
problem if it becomes a compulsory course. Especially when you live in Belgium, you are around like the
central of European Union, it is important to be aware of this culture environment.
Mar: Alex, what you describe follow a framework, what is title of the course, do you remember?

35
Alex:I am not sure, but I think you can write OKAN class, maybe you can find it in the internet. There are
students joining this class. Maybe you can find and meet directly students and ask them about it.
Thu :Do think this is important for Flanders to prepare more for pre-service teachers with multicultural?
Alex: Okay, my experience, I’m an international student not from Flanders, when I go for example attend
a meeting, with professor… for pre-service teachers, it is not so influenced the professional attitude because
they are adults, but still somehow professors bring something with any level of education. So if the professor
is still not reflective about diverse teaching method when they are different cultures in class, they do not
bring multicultural into class. it is bad experience, not good example for us.For me being an international
student, for me following a meeting, we go to this school, it’s a dutch school in flanders. Our target is to
prepare students to go to Gambia. These professors there are supposed to be opened-mind, you know, they
have big project, they send people from a village to go to Gambia vocational schools, so the professors
should be positive about multicultural, and in the meeting I expected they explain what we are going to do,
they speak in Dutch and materials are in Dutch.And I was supposed to participate, there was a time when I
had to say what we were going to do in the workshop, all you hear is Dutch and you speak English, kind of
when you try to teach respect but you forget to do it.
Mar: so what did you do?
Alex: it was a little awkward for me. The pre-service teachers were talking, they are independent and they
know what to do so they were talking in Dutch what they would do in the workshop. I knew what they were
about to say. Their language is close to English so I can understand. But it takes so much effort when you
hear somebody speak a language you don’t know, you focus on long time and so tired. So I when I have to
speak, Inga introduced me in English and said I would speak in English. And I told them my Dutch skills
are not good. But I couldn’t really speak so I said one or two things and that’s it. Then the students kept
talking, it was ok but that’s not what I wanted to do.
So you can understand, imagine how a kid will feel in the class, if he doesn’t understand anything. So the
preservice teachers will face the problem that when they are in class but students cannot understand them.
It is frustrating. So I think multicultural should be really compulsory, like even one course to prepare for
students how to adopt.
Ying: any suggestions for those pre-service teachers become more multicultural, except the class becomes
compulsory?
Alex: I think it is personal when it comes to student teachers
Margarita: If you have any suggestion?
Alex: For students?
Margarita:To help pre-service teachers to be more responsive.
Alex: I think do lot of things but it’s not like they can do more because it’s an organization and they already
have a lot of corporation with other institutions and organizations. For example, I forgot to mention that for
pre-service teachers, in sports, they now do a project to support sports in community. The first thing is to
support sports like let people getting to know how to do sports and make more activities. They go to under
privilege that means they are more culture diverse. People are coming and they are not speaking their own
language or like Muslims, there are a lot in Gent… There was a factory there, and now it closed so many
people are unemployed, and now they have this project to bring the sports to community and make it for
free and available for everybody. And go to this privilege so sports teaching are also deal with more kids
that they are not born in or maybe born in but their parents are not from Belgium.
Margarita:They’re providing sports for all for free?

36
Alex: Yes, they go to some parks and some people are playing, some students. They organize activities for
five students. So I think they do think to support cultural diversity but they are more focusing on training
the teachers. And in their subject, for example: sports. Because it’s a good choice to follow. Let’s see, for
sports teacher to ensure that you can integrate with them in a program that is really innovative and
supportive on the privilege community or diverse community. And succeed to go to same times. You
support the community and you developed your skills like how to teach in a different culture. So I think
they already make a lot of projects these combining both, which is very good. Because it’s not very
theoretical, it’s more practice.
Margarita:You mentioned a good example.
Alex: Those are examples that I’m aware of and I’m involved in.
Margarita:You are talking about your experience, so do you think there would be any resistance during the
training for pre-service teachers to be more equipped with multicultural environment? Is there any
intension? Do you think where is the intension come from? From teachers or from pre-service teacher
students?
Alex: That’s interesting question. For my experience I think it will be more welcomed, because it’s really
open to new ideas and it support the community. The communityHastleis very diverse as well. Because it’s
the capital, so it’s a big village. Nearby there are small villages, and Hastle is the main the big one. And it
has a lot of influences. When there is a teacher training institution there, they are also flexible to travel (to
other village nearby). So I think the resistance, if any, I think but not 100% sure that everybody is engaged.
The resistance is for students is not so much? Because when student decide that they want to teach, they
will try to know how to deal with challenges. Maybe for professors, they have to support students doing
extra works. So it takes their more time. So that’s maybe a challenge for professors. But I am not sure yet…
Thu: Do you think as a stakeholder, except students themselves, who most want pre-service teacher to be
more equipped with multicultural?
Alex: Professors for sure.
Margarita:The last question, pre-service teacher students, they are training to work in diverse classroom?
Yes or no, and why? I mean after they finish all study, do they prepare to teach in real classroom?
Alex: I would say that the students have this concerns, they will be more confident about this and in general,
for the training program, I can only speak for English teachers, maybe the sports as well, I think they do in
degree, but might be challenging for them. So there still a space to improve.

Appendix 2: Individual Contributions

Allie
I wrote the introduction for the proposal and the final paper. I did the literature review
portion for the proposal. Then added to it and merged itwith what others had written to the
final literature review. I interviewed Inga and wrote many of the questions for her. For each
interview we each took a part and transcribed it and write it up to be included in the paper. I

37
proofread and formatted the final. I also wrote the abstract. We all worked very nicely and
equally together.

Thu
In the literature review, I contribute the context of education setting in Flanders with the
diverse learners. We prepare the question for the interviews which each of us prepare at least
2 questions. Then in order to collect data for analysis, I participate in the meeting with the
expert and the coach and do interview. We pose the questions and record the interviews.
Then we divide the job of transcription and I finish my part with the help of Allie. In the
paper, I do the part of findings and conclusions, and the part of recommendations based on
our group work. I feel very happy when working with great members in my group because
we support and encourage each other and share the work balance.

Ying
Contribute to Proposal by writing Research Methodology and Design.
Preparing interview questions for both Interviewees.
Participate one of the interviews with Alex.
Finish transcripts of both interviews (around 8-9 minutes each)
Analyze and summarize interviews.
Contribute to final paper by writing Research Methodology and Design.
Contribute to the first part of Literature review including edition and adding stuff.

Except reading literatures, all my personal contributions are connected and based on group
work. I appreciate that we are fairly separated our work and everyone tried her best to make
this final paper.

Emilia
in the pro-active participation in this group paper I contributed to Proposal by writing the
research aims and objectives. In an attempt to find suitable candidates fulfilling the profile
and purpose of the case studies paper, preservice education in multi-cultural communities, I
have contacted and been in continuous e-mail contact with Inge Plackle and partially
Alexandra. Before the interviews, by adding and preparing interview questions for Inges
interview. Further I participated in one interview, namely with Inge Plockle. After recording
the interviews, I have worked on the transcripts of both interviews, minutes of the interviews
have been equally distributed, around 8-9 minutes each person. After transcribing the parts
assigned, I contributed in analyzing and summarizing the interviews (part which have been
distributed). In developing the flow of the paper I conduct research to contribute in the final
form of writing the literature review and conclusion. Finally but not least I contribute to the

38
 second part of Literature review by reviewing the text, edit and adding additional linking
words. Further individual work, like the reader and the transcripts are to be found uploaded
in separate documents on Portfolio. Except reading literatures, all individual contributions
have been developed based on group work. We fairly decided to divide the work and separate
tasks in order to work individually and complete the paper as end result of a successful
collaborative work.

Margarita
Throughout our case study, the contribution of each member of the group was very important
for the progress of our paper. I contributed in the following parts:

· Proposal: after discussing with all the group members, I wrote our working plan, which
reflects our way of thinking and working to fulfil our goals.

· Literature review: after studying several articles, I wrote part of the literature review
concerning the situation of multicultural education worldwide as well as about the integration
of multiculturalism in the curricula of different teacher education departments. Finally, I
presented some methods of how to incorporate multiculturalism in teacher education
programs.

· Interviews: I prepared questions for both our interviews. I contacted students from a
teacher education college to ask for their participation in an interview in person or online.
Furthermore, as we all agreed, I transcribed and analysed part of both interviews, as assigned
to each one of our group members. I attended the second interview as well, which took place
at the VUB.

· Final paper: Each one of us had to review part of our final paper before submitting it, so I
reviewed a specific part as well.

I am very glad I worked with the Emi, Thu, Ying and Allie for this case study since the
collaboration went smoothly and was very productive already from the beginning!

39