Just tell us what to do: pre-service teachers’ desire for normativity in multilingual and multicultural pedagogies

This article examines how pre-service teachers express a desire for normative, prescriptive guidance when approaching multilingual and multicultural classroom teaching. This desire stands in stark contrast to teaching in diverse settings and the growing call for teachers to adapt and rethink their pedagogies in such educational settings where universal methods and solutions are inadequate. Drawing on in-depth interview data with two pre-service teachers in a Norwegian teacher education program, the study explores how their expectations for ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do it’ reflect novice teacher mindsets and the influence of traditional schooling models. The findings reveal a tension between the complex, dynamic nature of culturally responsive teaching and the participants’ search for certainty. The article argues for teacher education curricula that both acknowledge novice teachers’ need for structure and scaffold their development toward adaptive, inquiry-based practice.