Multicultural Education: Identifying training needs of Pre-school Teachers

The purpose of this study is to identify the training needs for multicultural education of pre- school teachers in Singapore. There are two tasks involved in this study. The first task is to investigate the concepts and issues related to multicultural education and pre-school teacher education in the context of Singapore. The second task is to use the results of the investigation in the first task as input for the design of a framework for a multicultural component to be conducted in the teacher-training program for pre-school teachers in Singapore. This study could lead to further research on meeting the needs of pre-school teachers in other areas of teacher-training, as well as meeting the needs of pre-school teachers in other teacher-training institutes in or outside Singapore. It could also lead to a new research on the effectiveness of the component on multicultural education for pre-school teachers.

Dr Karuppiah Nirmala is a Lecturer at the Department of Early Childhood and Special Education, National Institute of Education. She has served many years in field of early childhood education, holding various positions including lecturer, practicum supervisor, curriculum consultant and research advisor.