Presentation by: Sheryl MacMath, Barbara Salingre, Vandy Britton, Janet Carroll
Session: E | Time: 11:05AM – 11:45AM | Location: Room 207
As research continually points out, the vast majority of teachers are Caucasian, middle income, females (Childs & Ferguson, 2016). However, here within the Fraser Valley, the schools are filled with children from diverse ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. In teacher education a great deal of focus is placed on ways to increase the diversity of our teachers: our diverse student population would benefit from a diverse teaching force (Childs et al., 2011; DeLuca, 2015). As such, it is important that our admission variables enable that diversity to be showcased and valued (Harper et al., 2009). Research into Multiple-Mini Interviews (MMI), even though in the medical profession, demonstrates that this variation in interviews enables diverse skills and dispositional attitudes to be revealed providing broader views of prospective applicants and maximizing the diversity of successful applicants (Brownell et al., 2007; Eva et al., 2004; Kelly et al., 2014). There is a concern that current admission procedures tend to limit their scope to specific traits thereby reducing diversity in successful applicants (Calder Steggeman, 2014). Our department is specifically implementing these revisions to see if the MMI does contribute to increasing the number of diverse successful teacher candidates, in order to strengthen the diversity of the teachers working in the Fraser Valley. This presentation will provide an overview of the MMI, the steps our department has undertaken to implement this model, and example questions related to teacher education. Reflections on its implementation in the Spring of 2018 will also be shared. Discussion will focus on diversity in teacher education admissions, admission procedures, and inclusive institutional processes.
Abstract: 560