When their teachers are well equipped to foster inclusive and equitable classrooms, students from marginalized communities show higher rates of academic achievement, motivation, self-confidence, and self-efficacy. However, many teachers complete preparation programs feeling underprepared to work in culturally diverse classrooms, making high-quality professional development (PD) in this area crucial. We undertook a meta-ethnographic, systematic literature review of 40 studies of multicultural education–focused PD programs in order to better understand the forms and features of such programs that contribute to teachers’ self-efficacy and success in working with culturally diverse students. We found a small literature base with too much variation across types of programs studied and outcomes analyzed to draw conclusions about the factors that contribute to effectiveness. However, the extant literature does point to important questions and considerations for both providers and researchers of multicultural education PD. One area for future research is how PD providers navigate tensions or challenges arising from resistance to discussions of diversity and equity. Another is locating the balance between providing specific knowledge about students’ cultures and guarding against promoting stereotypes or broad generalizations. Researchers and PD developers should also pay close attention to their underlying theories related to both teacher learning and multicultural education.

Educators today must be able to respond to the needs of an increasingly diverse student body and to teach all students the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for civic participation in a globalized, pluralist society. While state departments of education and national teacher organizations have begun to adopt global awareness in their teaching standards and evaluation tools, educators need to understand what globally competent teachers actually do in classrooms across subject areas and grade levels.  This qualitative, multiple case study explores the signature pedagogies (Shulman, 2005) of 10 in-service teachers in one southeastern state who teach for global competence in math, music, science, English, social studies, and language classes across elementary, middle, and high schools. We found three signature pedagogies that characterized globally competent teaching practices across participants: 1) intentional integration of global topics and multiple perspectives into and across the standard curriculum; 2) ongoing authentic engagement with global issues; and 3) connecting teachers’ global experiences, students’ global experiences, and the curriculum. These signature pedagogies provide visions of possibility for concrete practices teachers can adapt to infuse global citizenship education into their own contexts and for policies that school districts and teacher education programs can consider in preparing and supporting teachers in this work.

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