The role of teacher education in preparing the student teacher to face the multicultural classroom. : A qualitative study focusing on the content and literature of educational science courses.

Abstract: This paper is about how teacher education programs today provide tools for new teachers to face the multicultural classroom. The paper uses a qualitative method chosen to compare the content and literature of different teacher education programs in the courses that make up the educational science core. Furthermore, the essay has a comparative hermeneutic theoretical approach in its theoretical framework. The paper shows that there are several weaknesses in current teacher education in this particular theme. The content of the course syllabi is not, at any point, specified for the multicultural classroom and the literature included in the teacher education programmes of the universities surveyed, according to current bibliographies, is not in any way specifically focused on the multicultural classroom and the tools that teachers of all subjects need to face this particular issue.  The conclusion is that despite several attempts from various quarters to point out this weakness, nothing has been done to solve this problem. Society and its components are changing at a very fast pace and neither governing bodies nor higher education institutions, and therefore neither curricula nor course content, have listened to the criticism that has been raised in the past. Teacher training needs to be updated in terms of multiculturalism and everyone needs to take responsibility and not blame each other.