Section archive - Multiculturalism & Diversity

The paper draws on data from a small-scale qualitative study conducted in Australia. This study investigated how pre-service teachers engaged with students from culturally diverse backgrounds during practicum. It also explored how they understood their own ethnic identities.

This study investigates the similarities and differences in the perception of the good teacher among a wide population, focusing on two aspects – ethnicity and gender. The research investigated whether the ethno-cultural or the gender component better explains the differences in the perceptions of these qualities and whether interaction exists between the two components. The research indicated that perception of the qualities of a good teacher is culturally dependent. The ethno-cultural origin of the group was dominant in explaining differences in attitudes towards the qualities of the good teacher and not the gender group.

This article investigates a New Zealand Pākehā (European) teacher's professional development experience working with Māori (indigenous people of New Zealand), and their protocols and practices. The article discusses a participant observer process of living on a marae (Māori congregational place), working with Māori, experiencing Māori protocols and practices on a daily basis.

The paper reveals the findings of a participatory ethnography with post-secondary students enrolled in a large West Coast University in British Columbia. These students had previously been identified as 'learning disabled' and thus, the 'recipients' of special educational policy interventions. The study uncovers the performative work the students engage as they negotiate the contradictory ideologies of meritocracy and equal opportunity while living with the label and realities of various 'learning disabilities'. The students' discourses are read in relation to and against the dominant common-sense ideologies of special education. The study takes into account the students readings in light of their positionalities as racialized, classed, gendered, in addition to living with the label of learning disability.