Introduction

As an educator for over 10 years, I have observed that urban classrooms are becoming more culturally diverse. This change has offered me valuable opportunities to become a more effective teacher. My students were instrumental in helping me develop broader, more inclusive classroom pedagogy. Most of the powerful lessons I learned stemmed from the important truths that related to their personal lives.

As a result, I created a classroom environment that made connections and was focused on and with the students' everyday experiences. Although this process continued to evolve for me during the years, it rooted from a solid foundation which embraced principles such as respect, social justice, responsibility for self and others, and empowerment. These concepts have been used in my personal living and were visible in my classroom. It was hard for me to believe that critical theorists would support my classroom pedagogy until I started my doctorate degree at Capella University.

As an African American woman, I have been subjected to discrimination in some shape or form on a regular basis. As a result, I am sensitive to the challenges my diverse students have or may encounter in our race-conscious society. For while race is not the only determining factor in the way in which we educate students it is a significant one and as such should be considered critically when fashioning learning models for students of diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Critical education theory stirs the passion for the why I teach. Critical education theory is conducive to educational needs of students of color (Darber, 1991). It has provided with opportunities to enable my students to face obstacles dominant to their culture that may one day or have already been imposed on them.

Most of today's students of minority receive a traditional education and have been trained to maintain their role as passive learners in the classroom. There are very few educators that incorporate engaging education that empowers the students and attempts to train them to be thinkers, communicators, and good citizens. Now, the educators that utilize creative and critical instructional strategies to teach and develop student-centered instruction and multicultural curriculum replicate culturally democratic pedagogy in their classrooms.

As a result of my own personal growth while developing learning environments in multiculturally diverse schools, I have realized that these experiences should be shared with other teachers and in other school districts. It occurred to me that, by collaborating with my fellow teachers in order to create more inclusive culturally diverse classrooms, I am aiding in the effort to transform the educational learning environments of public schools and to promote teacher effectiveness in the classroom. It is my commitment and duty to assist my fellow teachers and minority students to create tremendous possibilities in order to try and create a more just society.

A Multicultural Teacher Education Program offers a training program that is responsible for preparing current and future teachers with the necessary knowledge and/or skills to promote learning for all students of diverse populations. The training program is entitled the Multicultural Education (Diversity) Training program. Many educators all over the world have been required to attend this training in a traditional setting for many years. The curriculum for Multicultural Education programs are constantly being developed and restructured. This paper entails a traditional model curriculum approach which has not been implemented in present-day training programs. Background information will include the standards and competencies of the training program, the collaborative relationships between the curricula, and an overview of the program.

Mission Statement

To prepare current and future teachers to promote meaningful, engaged learning for all students, regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity, or cultural background.

In most school districts, there is a lack of in-depth multicultural education training program in order to teach educators how to effectively instruct and meet the needs of a diverse population of students' which make-up our schools today. As a former Professional Development Facilitator in my former school district, I know firsthand that pre-service, beginning, and veteran teachers need to be trained in the area of multicultural education. Teachers need to know how to make their instruction, assessments and school climate more adaptive to all learners which is not the case in today's classroom. Jones and Fennimore (1990) explain:

"Too often schools do not legitimize the knowledge or experiences these [minority] children bring to school. Instead, schools are most likely to label these children as failures because their backgrounds--usually their language and culture--are seen as inadequate preparation for learning." (p. 16)

Multicultural education programs need to be expanded so that the drop-out rate can decrease and literacy rate can increase. In order for this to occur, I need to know how the teachers' having the lack of training needed to develop a culturally democratic classroom affects the needs of the students' so a plan can be developed in order to address the problem because "all students should receive an education that continuously affirms human diversity--one that embraces the history and culture of all racial groups and that teaches students of minority to take charge of their own destinies. ... With regard to teaching, a multicultural perspective assumes that teachers will hold high expectations for all students and that they will challenge those students who are trapped in the cycle of poverty and despair to rise above it." (Grant, 1990, p. 31)

The purpose of this program is to describe the types of changes that need to be made to current K-12 teacher multicultural education training programs in a County School District settings and to determine how the lack of information regarding the development a culturally diverse (democratic) classroom affects the needs of the diverse student population being met in the K-12 setting.

The key question the needs to be answered is: To what extent is multicultural education training needed by teachers as to meet the needs of the diverse student population and develop culturally diverse and democratic classrooms in the K- 12 classroom setting? Because teachers that have been trained with this detailed multicultural education training curriculum will have better student academic success than teachers that have not used this program.

Theoretical Changes

The majority of existing teacher training programs lack the modern, groundbreaking theories that would prepare beginning and current teachers to equally share in the process of transforming our society and world which is dedicated to the principles of democracy, social justice, and human rights (Aronowitz & Giroux, 1985; Darder, 1991; Foucault, 1977; McLaren, 1994; Ramirez & Castaneda, 1974). Teacher training programs significantly need a new language that takes into the consideration the relationship between democracy and the establishment of those teaching and learning conditions that enable forms of self and social determination in students and teachers (Arnowitx & Giroux, 1985). Teacher...