Convergence of Technology and Diversity: Experiences of Two Beginning Teachers in Web-Based Distance Learning for Global/Multicultural Education

Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter 2006 by Gaudelli, William

Web-Based Experiences of Two Beginning Teachers

Two beginning teachers expressed an interest in taking this online course and their tuition was funded through a grant to examine professional development in global and multicultural education. Both participants took the course as an enrichment opportunity rather than for completion of degree or teacher certification requirements. Qualitative data was drawn from participant interviews, observations of student participation in the course, email correspondence throughout the school year, and periodic observation of classroom instruction.

Alysha is a white woman in her mid-20s who is a native Floridian, having spent one year in an international school in Saudi Arabia as a child. Except for some vague recollections of life there, Alysha's experiences with diverse populations have been minimal and she described her hometown as relatively homogenous. She originally obtained a bachelors degree in advertising and worked for an ad campaign to promote milk in schools. As the school liaison, she said that she enjoyed her time with students more than promoting milk, which she viewed as manipulative. She decided to pursue a Masters degree in teaching social studies. Before completing her degree she was hired as an out-of-field teacher for 6th grade geography. She did not have a student teaching experience and therefore did not have an opportunity to work with educational technology prior to becoming a teacher. The extent of her preparation for infusing technology in teaching was limited to taking two online courses while in college. Alysha currently teaches in a low SES school with a high immigrant Latino population. Her student load is 169 students, with class sizes that range from 34 to 39 pupils.

Jorge is a late 20s Latino male with an easygoing outlook on life. Jorge's father is a Cuban immigrant and Jorge is proficient in Spanish. Throughout his early life, Jorge faced a great deal of personal struggle, including family poverty, unemployment, and being homeless as a young adult. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in social studies education and anthropology in the semester just prior to the global/multicultural online course and did his student teaching internship in a predominately African-American, urban school where he experimented with educational technology. Jorge's second undergraduate major is in anthropology. He had what he describes as a life-altering experience working on a relief project in sub-Saharan Africa for seven months. Immediately following the distance global/multicultural course he was hired to teach high school social studies at an urban school in Florida. Like Alysha, he has a daunting student load with 135 adolescents of diverse backgrounds, roughly equivalent to the ethnic breakdown of the larger school population (50% Latino, 25% African-American, and 25% white).

Alysha and Jorge offer an interesting contrast in perspectives. Both are beginning teachers, yet Alysha is an out-of-field teacher with no educational technology preparation and Jorge a traditional student with secondary social studies certification along with experience using technology in classrooms. Both taught in economically poor, immigrant gateway communities that reflect a growing trend in the region, but Alysha is monolingual from the suburbs and Jorge is bilingual from a low SES background. Both are interested in global and multicultural education, although Alysha has limited personal experiences to draw upon and the Jorge's is more substantial. Studying these two participants is useful in understanding how DL-GE/MC was differently understood and integrated by them based on their divergent perspectives. Despite these differences, they shared similar experiences around four broad themes: information, technology, pedagogy, and context.