236 Copyright © 2014, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 14 Preparing Teachers to be Effective in Cross-Cultural Learning Environments ABSTRACT According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 18.9 percent of elementary and middle school teach- ers are from diverse backgrounds. Only 15 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers are minority (“Household Data Annual Averages,” 2008). The current teacher workforce remains predominantly white, middle class (Hughes & Kwok, 2007), and female (Kearney, 2008; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clark & Curran, 2004; Garmon, 2005; Thomas & Kearney, 2008). Another problem that afects teacher workforce is that half of new teachers leave their jobs within their frst fve years of teaching (Kearney, 2008). Because of high burn out due to improper working conditions and lack of support, teachers are leaving schools with a high minority rate (Horng, 2009). Therefore, this chapter is intended to stimulate refections on strategies to deal with the increasing diversity in the national teacher educator workforce. Further, since diversity is a complex issue, issues that teachers of all ethnicities (including white) come across in working with culturally diverse learners are also examined. Grace Onchwari University of North Dakota, USA DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4928-6.ch014