Insight for Teacher Preparation Program Administrators: Enhancing Pre-service Educators\u27 lntercultural Sensitivity and Deep Proficiency in Culturally Responsive Teaching through Short-Term Study Abroad

Abstract

Teacher preparation program administrators face the issue of expanding curricula to prepare teacher candidates for the diverse population of students they will encounter {Trent, Kea, Oh, 2008). Globalization demands that teacher candidates grasp how to function in a more integrated and interdependent society (McGrew, 2005). According to Smith-Davis (2004) students from non-English speaking countries compose the fastest growing United States K-12 student population, and those identified as limited English proficient were over 10 million in 2004. The United States Census reported in the New Census Bureau Report the number of individuals five and older who speak languages other than English at home more than doubled in the past three decades (2010). If teacher preparation program leaders fail to prepare future educators with the dispositions, knowledge, and skills necessary to meet the needs of the nation\u27s school population, the national security and economic development may be hindered, and the position of the United States in the world community may be challenged (Zanh, 2011)