I am excited to announce the publication of a new article! The article reports on the findings obtained from conducting qualitative individual interviews with ten Icelandic Master’s students who have completed the on-site schoolteacher training and have relevant work experience from compulsory schools in Iceland. During the interviews, the participants got an opportunity to reflect on the theoretical and practical knowledge that they received and discuss the place of various subjects in the programme, including multicultural education. The article answers the following research questions:

• How do the participants perceive culturally responsive teaching?
• What are their perceptions and experiences of prejudice reduction interventions?
• How do they experience cooperation with parents from diverse cultural backgrounds?

The article is published open access in International Journal of Educational Research, volume 120.

ABSTRACT

The pupil population has become more diverse in Icelandic schools. However, there remains a need for teachers to be better prepared to work in this changing context. Drawing on critical multiculturalism, multicultural education theory, and tenets of culturally responsive teaching, this paper explores student teachers’ perspectives on various methods which support cultural and linguistic diversity, challenge prejudice, and promote cooperation with parents from diverse cultural backgrounds. The findings indicate that the student teachers value culturally responsive teaching methods and have been able to utilise them to some extent in practice. However, despite the preparation received from their teacher education programmes, their understandings of the theoretical constructs are inconsistent and influenced by personal interests and specialisation within the programme.