A Canadian journal In Education has recently published their summer issue, which includes my paper titled Teacher educators’ endeavours to enhance students’ cultural competence:  A qualitative study within Danish teacher education.

The paper examines the perspectives of Danish teacher educators, specifically focusing on how they perceive and engage with cultural perspectives within teacher education programmes. It explores their reflections on recognising and incorporating the existing cultural diversity of contemporary Danish society into the education of future teachers. Utilising data from three dyadic interviews with six teacher educators, I address three central research questions: 

• What place do cultural perspectives hold in teacher education, as perceived by six teacher educators from three Danish university colleges? 
• What methods do these educators employ to enhance their students’ cultural competence? 
• How do these methods resonate with the theoretical principles of critical multiculturalism and multicultural education? 

The findings revealed that the educators felt constrained by the lack of awareness among politicians and policymakers of the significance of multicultural education, which made it difficult for them to develop in-depth knowledge and critical views on culture among students. The educators emphasised a need for a holistic approach that encompasses systemic changes and a shift in mindset toward critical multiculturalism in teacher education. 

The paper is published open access.

It is the entire system that needs to be reformed. I do not think that it would make a big difference if we had five subjects about multicultural education. There is more that needs to be done. There must be a more systematic approach to integrating multicultural education in teacher education to really have an impact.

Karen, pseudonym.

Benediktsson, A. I. (2024). Teacher educators’ endeavours to enhance students’ cultural competence: A qualitative study within Danish teacher education. In Education, 29(2), 78–97. https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2024.v29i2.754