Multicultural Questions, Action Research Answers

The recent urgent demand for a multicultural educational focus has confirmed the need for more appropriate methods to prepare physical educators to be culturally responsive and to be competent in utilizing culturally relevant teaching practices. As a result, there is an associated need to evaluate the effectiveness of these multicultural efforts. Action research informed by a critical-emancipatory theoretical perspective has been used to better understand educational efforts that promote equity and social justice. This paper opens with a review of theories that have been developed to explain the differential achievement levels of culturally diverse students and moves to a description of contemporary conceptualizations of multicultural education. The use of action research to evaluate the effectiveness of multicultural education in physical education teacher education is presented and then illustrated with a description of an on-going action research project that emphasizes equity and social justice.