How kindergarten teachers experience teaching for ethnically diverse children: A phenomenographic study.

KINDERGARTEN teachers; TEACHER educators; CULTURALLY relevant education; RESEARCH questions; SEMI-structured interviews; TEACHER development

Internationally, there is growing concern regarding the insufficient preparation of teachers in mainstream kindergartens in terms of teaching for ethnically diverse children. As teacher educators, we are concerned about how to help kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong improve their teaching. In this study, we adopted the research approach of phenomenography to investigate the following research question: In what qualitatively different ways do teachers experience the teaching for ethnically diverse children? We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 26 in-service kindergarten teachers. Four ways of experiencing were identified. Teaching for ethnically diverse children can be experienced as: adjusting instruction (A), expanding modes of expression (B), exploring new possibilities (C), and embracing inclusion (D). We recommend that teacher educators discuss our results with teachers in professional development programmes, making them aware of alternatives and appropriate advanced ways of experiencing such teaching. Moreover, our results also revealed the benefits that ethnically diverse children bring to all children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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