Meeting Diverse Needs

Kappa Delta Pi Record, Winter 2005 by Palmer, Ruth J

Teachers today are expected to design learning experiences that facilitate diverse students' personal and academic engagement and development. In classrooms everywhere, teachers are working with student populations that reflect the interwoven dimensions of diversity: gender, age, individual differences, varying developmental stages and rates, and culture. These classrooms continuously are impacted by their dynamic contexts-their schools, their proximal and distal communities-in sum, the micro- and macro-systems in which they are located.

My teaching experiences have taken me across multiple levels and international boundaries to Bangladesh, Cyprus, the Caribbean, Kuwait, South Africa, the United States of America, and Venezuela. The challenge is always the same: to address the complexity that teaching and learning present for diverse learners, the nature of the learning experience, the learning task, the content, the context (political, cultural, and economic), my teaching stance, and the diversity of the learners. The challenge extends further for teacher educatorsteaching others to invest in their personal and professional development, as well as cultivate and nurture a commitment to diversity and the development of cultural competencies that enhance and support that work.

Educating an increasingly diverse group of students constitutes a major concern of schools. It is imperative that schools respond, in context, to the multicultural and diverse reality of the populations they serve. The onus of that task rests on the school leaders, teachers, teacher educators, parents/ families, and students. School administrators must adopt policies and support practices that better serve their clientele. Teachers across all phases of the life cycle (novice, apprentice, professional, expert, distinguished, and emeritus) must expand and continuously renew their repertoire of skills, knowledge, and dispositions to enhance their teaching effectiveness for diverse student learning. Teacher educators must participate in their own transformative change effort and that of schools to ensure the renewal of teacher education for student learning. Together, school administrators, teachers, and teacher educators can work to engage parents and families in issues related to diversity, unity, equity, and justice. These combined efforts can explicate the goals and actions needed for addressing the diversity issue.

But all efforts must be grounded in cyclical patterns of refiection-in-action, practical inquiry, rigorous research, and action. Each author's contribution in this issue of the Record offers views of the active work being done to meet the diverse needs of all learners. These include research-based practice related to collaboration, differentiated instruction, and pedagogical approaches that mine the rich resources available to address multicultural issues across content areas and disciplines, special populations, and special needs. The articles offer critical reflections on current practice and suggestions for further investigation. This issue of the Record advances the current conversation among teachers and teacher educators on this topic, and contributes to the extension of teacher capacity in this area.

by Ruth J. Palmer

Guest Editor

Ruth J. Palmer is Associate Professor and Division Leader for Undergraduate Teacher Education at The College of New Jersey. She teaches research methods, psychology of learning, and adolescent development. Her research interests include teacher development, leadership, and adolescent learning.