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The changing student population in developed nations resulting from higher birth rates among racial/ethnic minority groups, increased worldwide migration related to economic globalization, and the adoption of educational policies of placing students with disabilities in the 'least restrictive' learning environment possible have pressured university-based teacher education programs over the past 15-years or so to prepare all teachers for classrooms that are inclusive of all students. Teacher education has typically responded to this call for change by adding a course or two on diversity while leaving the rest of the curriculum largely intact or by having individual teacher educators infuse some attention to issues of diversity into the courses they teach—approaches that have been found unproductive because they lead to a fragmented teacher education experience. We argue instead for a coherent approach to rethinking the teacher education curriculum, one that is guided by a broad vision or framework for preparing general education teachers who are inclusive of all learners in their teaching. In this chapter we present such a framework. Although originally developed to address student diversity primarily related to race, ethnicity, class and language, we show the framework's broader applicability to the preparation of general education teachers for students with disabilities.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-54389-5_10

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