The status of research on multicultural education in teacher education and special education: Problems, pitfalls, and promises

Significant numbers of culturally diverse children and youth now experience school failure in schools across the United States. To counter this unfortunate and inequitable circumstance, many teacher educators and policymakers now advocate for multicultural curricula in teacher education and special education programs. Although the research on multicultural education has been examined thoroughly, there has been no systematic analysis of the multicultural teacher education empirical literature in special education. Hence, the purpose of this manuscript is to present findings from a comprehensive analysis of this literature. We first summarize the existing research in teacher education. Next, we examine extensively the existing literature on multiculturalism in special education teacher preparation programs. We end our review with identification of strengths and weaknesses of existing research and provide recommendations for future inquiries.