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Despite the pluralism that will cause ethnic and racial minorities to comprise 40% of our school population within the next 30 years, prejudice against nonwhite, non-European groups remains high (Cartledge & Milburn> 1996, p. 1). A survey in 1992 revealed that many Americans believe there are irreconcilable differences among ethnic and racial groups with blacks (46.2%) feeling more strongly about the issue than whites (26.7%) (Dash & Niemi, 1992). In response to this growing social problem, President Clinton has instituted a national initiative on race entitled "One America in the 21st Century," appointing by Executive Order 12050 a seven-member Advisory Board on Race Relations to advise him in promoting a national dialogue on race relations (U.S. Embassy Israel Press Archives, 1997).
It would seem that teachers particularly need tolerance and understanding of gender, ability, race, and cultural differences in order to be successful in the pluralistic classroom of the future. Many colleges have made minimal curricular changes to address these issues by requiring multicultural, women's studies, and/or world music classes. Research has not yet shown resultant changes in tolerance or acceptance of diversity among prospective teachers. Demonstrating this point, Stanley (1996) recently reported that preservice physical education majors were overwhelmingly negative about the ability to teach academics to lower socioeconomic groups and those of another race; 72% reported being uncomfortable around students from an ethnic heritage different from their own.
Though America is becoming more culturally diverse, the teaching pool is becoming increasingly homogeneous, with the number of white, middleclass, Euro-American females increasing disproportionately (Cartledge & Milburn, 1996, p.2). The homogenous background and attitudes of preteachers, coupled with student diversity in the classroom, both present a growing social and educational problem. Youth from cultures that are ethnically disparaged often react with maladaptive social behavior and academic failure (Cartledge & Feng, 1996, p. 30). Most educators profess the goal of accepting every child, but disparity along racial, ethnic, gender, ability, and religious lines still exists in our schools. To what extent are prospective teachers intolerant of diversity and how might such attitudes be changed?
Background
Early in the multicultural education movement, it was assumed that integrating multicultural information into the curriculum would affect students' attitudes about diversity. Research has shown this to be a fallacy....