Reflections from Teachers of Culturally Diverse Children (page
2) "Teachers cannot hope to begin to understand who sits before
them unless they can connect with the families and communities
from which their children come. To do that it is vital that
teachers and teacher educators explore their own beliefs and
attitudes about non-white and non-middle-class people." Other
People’s Children Approximately 40 percent of children in U.S.
public schools are from culturally diverse backgrounds (NCES
2003). Yet, other than in Head Start—where 52 percent of
teachers come from a variety of racial, ethnic, and cultural
backgrounds different from the mainstream—only 22 percent of
preschool teachers are culturally diverse (Saluja, Early, &
Clifford 2002) and the percentage of non-White K–12 teachers
actually may be closer to 10 (NCES 2003). A cultural mismatch
between teachers and the children they teach can result in
uncomfortable classroom experiences for some children and
teachers. Unlike many children who arrive at pre