Multicultural Teaching: Barriers and Recommendations

Abstract

A pedagogy that serves students of all backgrounds and trains them to compete in a diverse world is becoming imperative. University educators have been slow to accept the challenge of multicultural teaching, yet it is not clearly understood why this is the case. The authors surveyed 464 faculty members from across disciplines at a large urban, Midwestern campus. This mixed-methods study assessed faculty conceptualizations of multicultural teaching, the degree to which they may be engaged in this practice, and what challenges they face. The findings revealed that faculty members perceived several barriers to multicultural teaching, including student resistance, language barriers, lack of teaching resources, time constraints, and lack of knowledge about multicultural teaching pedagogies. Although the faculty perceived that most barriers were related to student factors, they revealed some degree of insight into their own role in terms of relative effort and lack of knowledge. Furthermore, faculty identified various institutional barriers that could be addressed to facilitate multicultural teaching at institutions of higher education. The importance of multicultural teaching in the current economic and political environment is discussed.