Literacy Practice & Research | Spring/Summer 2017 • 7 T he past two decades relect a surge in online learning in higher education as an alternative to traditional face-to- face classes (Allen & Seaman, 2014; Babson Survey Research Report, 2016; Kumi-Yeboah & Smith, 2016). Concurrent with the increase in online education programs higher education faculty seek to address diversity issues in online settings (Mer- ryield, 2001; Taliaferro, 2011). However, a search of the extant literature indicates research has not yet explored the ways in which literacy teachers participating in online classes might learn to consider diversity in terms of transcultural spaces in which they acknowledge and appreciate diferences in the cul- tural frameworks of both students and themselves. Yet, currently, over 18 million (1/4) of all children in the U.S. are immigrants (Child Trends Data Bank, 2014) and, it is pro- jected that by 2020, forty percent of students in public schools will be students of color (Van Hook, 2002). Moreover, as the school population becomes more diverse, those entering the teaching profession continue to relect the majority culture (Boser, 2014). Not surprisingly, there is evidence that classroom teachers perceive a need for support regarding teaching linguistically diverse populations in order to foster students’ well-being, learning, and agency (Durgunoglu & Hughes, 2010). hus, it is important to explore how current online literacy programs might better prepare in-service teachers for a diverse class- Shifting from Diversity in Multicultural Populations to Teacher/Student Interactions that Foster Students’ Literacy in An Online Literacy Teacher Education Course First Author and Invited Scholar, Patriann Smith is an Assistant Professor of Language, Diversity, and Literacy Studies in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Texas Tech University. Patriann’s work emerges at the intersection of language, culture, literacy and multicultural teacher education and draws primarily on sociocultural, sociolinguistic and acculturation theories to examine the ways in which cross-linguistic and cross-cultural diferences intersect, clash and collide to impact literacy teaching and learning for culturally and linguistically diverse learners across local, national and international contexts. Sara Gutierrez & Judy Schaffer-Rose TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY Alex Kumi-Yeboah STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK Patriann Smith TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY Janet Richards UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA ABSTRACT Increasing diversity in student populations necessitates literacy coursework that ofers teachers knowledge and expe- riences to meet these learners’ instructional requirements. Concomitantly, master’s online literacy teacher degree programs are the norm. hus, online programs must support teachers as they learn to modify their perceptions about students who difer from them in order to foster students’ self-worth and learning. Accordingly, in this inquiry, we explored a graduate online literacy program that focuses on supporting teachers as they learn to acknowledge diferences between themselves and their students rather than diferences within certain student populations as teachers operate from positions of power. “Identifying and thinking through notions of diference and how they afect the classroom allow both students and teachers to see the classroom as an inclusive place” (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning, 2016, p. 1) “True barriers to creating a diverse classroom are the obstacles perceived by teachers… One goal of teacher education should be the destruction of these barriers in order for teachers to integrate diversity in the curriculum” (Van Hook, 2002, n p) According to Friere, education “should not involve one person acting on another, but rather people working with each other” (Smith M., 2002, n p) “he emphasis on uniformity is a serious disadvantage for students whose culture has taught them behaviors and beliefs that are diferent from the norms of the majority culture most oten emphasized in schools” (Guild, 2001, n p)