“How Will You Do This?” Infusing Multiculturalism Throughout Art Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

The argument that teacher education is unresponsive to critical approaches to multiculturalism is not new (Vavrus, 2011). Some art education programs continually marginalize multiculturalism in social foundation courses (Knight, 2006). Or, if multiculturalism is included in normative courses like methods, it is situated as a “theme” within the curriculum. This marginalization of multiculturalism is not conducive to teaching preservice students how to respond to diversity or to construct a culturally responsive pedagogy. The following article details an action research project in which the author describes, analyzes and assesses strategies used to infuse multiculturalism throughout an art education secondary methods course. This research helps to reframe the initial debate that questions the quality of multicultural competency and visibility in preservice teacher education.