Teacher Education, Diversity, and Community Engagement in Liberal Arts Colleges

Book excerpt: Teacher Education, Diversity, and Community Engagement in Liberal Arts Colleges examines the promise of and issues related to preparing teachers for cultural diversity through community engagement in the liberal arts colleges. This book emphasizes the transformational power of community engagement to both teacher education and the small liberal arts college. Through a careful examination of literature and reflections on practice, Lucy W. Mule underscores the community-engaged approach to teacher education, emphasizing deep relationships with culturally diverse communities, community-based pedagogy, and a consideration of institutional contexts. Building on recent conversations in the areas of teacher education, diversity, and community engagement in liberal arts colleges, she cogently examines a range of issues, from how teacher education's vision, curriculum, and pedagogy can be modified to be more consistent with the goal of educating for cultural diversity through community engagement to some of the program, institutional, and external challenges to community engagement in teacher education. The field of teacher education and small liberal arts colleges will find in Teacher Education, Diversity, and Community Engagement in Liberal Arts Colleges an excellent reason to enact purposeful change and transformation.