Tasha R. Wyatt* The Influence of “Super-Diversity” on Pre-service Teachers’ Sensitivity to Cultural Issues DOI 10.1515/mlt-2015-0014 Abstract: While many teachers in American pre-service programs struggle to develop experience and awareness of multicultural issues (Sleeter, 2001, Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the over- whelming presence of Whiteness. Journal of teacher education, 52(2), 94–106. doi:10.1177/0022487101052002002), there is a modicum of evidence to suggest that today’s college students are ahead of their predecessors in preparing for multicultural teaching. This study analyzes how seven pre-service teachers made sense of their students’ cultural struggles as they authored multicultural literature written for children in Hawai‘i. The results indicate teachers used their own experiences to make sense of students’ cultural struggles and when they could not find commonality, they engaged in ethnographic research. The results have implications for preparing millennial teachers and calls for rethinking the standard curriculum in preparing teachers for multicultural teaching. Keywords: teacher education, culture, multicultural educational literature While many teachers in American pre-service programs struggle to develop experi- ence and awareness of multicultural issues (Sleeter, 2001), some recent evidence suggests that today’s college students are ahead of their predecessors in preparation for multicultural teaching. This new “millennial” generation of teachers, born in or since 1985, have far more experience interacting with people from diverse back- grounds when compared to previous generations (Taylor & Sobel, 2001). As such, they may have greater acceptance and appreciation for culturally diverse groups when compared to their predecessors (Broido, 2004). While some claim these traits make millennial teachers better equipped to work with children in multicultural settings (Castro, 2010), others claim cross-cultural experiences alone are not *Corresponding author: Tasha R. Wyatt, Educational Innovation Institute, Augusta University 1120 15th Street, CJ-1020 Augusta, GA 30912, E-mail: trwyatt@hawaii.edu Multicult. Learn. Teach. 2017; 12(1): 87–109 Brought to you by | University of Florida Authenticated Download Date | 2/4/18 10:12 AM