Fostering culturally responsive pedagogy related competencies among pre-service teachers: a systematic review of the recent research literature

Cultural diversity is an important feature of today's classrooms, where learners come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. In order to teach every individual in an appropriate and motivating way, teachers need a wealth of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and teacher training plays a major role in their acquisition. The present research was undertaken in order to gain a better understanding of how teacher training contributes to the development of pre-service teachers' culturally responsive competencies. Overall, the findings indicate that there are differences in the components of CRP-related competencies that teacher education programs deliver to prepare teachers for key aspects of multicultural education. Most of the courses are stand-alone courses, one semester long and only focus on one of the competence elements (eg attitude). We found only a limited number of courses that incorporated culturally responsive pedagogy as a long-term, comprehensive approach into their curriculum, and were thus able to develop the majority of competence elements related to CRP.