Twenty-sixth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Many educators are unprepared to educate culturally diverse learners (Cicchelli & Cho, 2007; Gay, 2013; Jones, 2004; Keengwe, 2010; Lindsey, Robins, & Terrell, 2009; Pope & Wilder, 2005), which derive partly from insufficient cultural diversity preparatory programs for pre-service teachers. The lack of proper cultural diversity training for pre-service teachers creates academic barriers for students, which exacerbates educational achievement gaps (Jett, 2012). According to Hammond (2015) and Tanner, Hermond, Vairez, and Larchin (2017), the proper implementation of culturally responsive teaching practices has the potential to close achievement gaps and increase success for historically under-served populations. Therefore, it is imperative to research best practices for the development of effective cultural diversity preparatory programs for future teachers. This quantitative study focused on a population of pre-service teachers from two Southeast, Texas universities. The researcher examined how video-based anchored instruction influenced the pre-service teachers’ culturally responsive preparedness. Additionally, the researcher examined how the amount of cultural diversity training, outside of pre-service teachers’ educator certification programs, influenced their cultural responsive teacher preparedness. The results help increase understanding of the impact that cultural experiences have on preparing pre-service teachers to teach culturally diverse populations and allow for more effective cultural diversity preparedness in teacher educator programs.