Promoting Ethnic Identity Exploration While Teaching Subject Matter Content

This article provides a research-based model for teacher educators and K-12 classroom teachers to use to facilitate ethnic identify exploration among students in concert with teaching subject matter content. Researchers have found ethnic identification to be correlated with higher levels of psychological well-being and directly related to school success factors. Moreover, ethnic identity exploration engenders academic engagement and persistence in academic pursuits. This four dimensional model is a resource to help teacher educators to prepare K-12 classroom teachers to begin to meet this critical need among all students in the culturally diverse classrooms in which they find themselves.