In this study, preservice teachers' demographic variables such as race, innercity program experiences, religious affiliation, and cross-cultural friendships are examined to see if they influence the preservice teachers' beliefs on issues of diversity. The data are from a Personal Beliefs About Diversity Scale and a Professional Beliefs About Diversity Scale. Analyses of the data indicate that religious denomination and cross-cultural friendship involvement as demographic variables significantly predicted scores on all the surveys. Another important finding of these analyses is a closing gap between students who had lower scores and higher scores on the presurveys by the end of the course.

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The article describes a longitudinal professional development project in rural Florida (USA) schools that supports the efforts of inservice teachers to make pedagogical transitions from total reliance on prepackaged commercial programmes to making informed decisions about curriculum and pedagogy autonomously. It demonstrates that in order to initiate and sustain qualitative changes in teaching practices, conscious efforts must be made to address a multitude of barriers at the administrative, professional and personal levels. It suggests that professional development efforts in education must recognise the complex, multifaceted and lifelong nature of becoming and being an effective literacy teacher.

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