Professional development in multicultural education: What can we learn from the Australian context?

Including data from 3006 in-service primary and secondary public-school teachers in New South Wales, we investigated the effects of professional development in multicultural education on teachers' beliefs about the effectiveness of multicultural strategies in fostering a culturally inclusive environment, the importance of these strategies in providing equitable opportunities for students, and the teachers’ support for monocultural ideologies and practices. Our multilevel structural equation model showed that teachers who received professional development, especially during their in-service years, had more positive attitudes and beliefs about multicultural ideologies and practices compared to teachers who did not undergo professional development.