Chapter 10: Promoting inclusive classroom practices A teacher educator’s experience

South Africa is a multicultural society owing to its many languages and ethnicities. The country’s cultural diversity is reflected by its 12 official languages as well as in its multilingual national anthem. Moreover, this cultural diversity is further portrayed in school classrooms, across all nine of the country’s provinces. However, despite the country establishing democracy in 1994, several incidences of cultural intolerance in South African schools have been reported in recent years. Therefore, this study sought to foreground cultural diversity to student teachers through work-integrated learning (WIL) excursions as an essential attribute of humanness. Teachers need to possess this attribute, for it warrants inclusive classroom practices; hence the need to inculcate this in student teachers through teacher-training programmes. The chapter is a reflection of my lived experience as a teacher educator with regard to how student teachers are enabled to embrace the essentiality, normality and positivity of cultural diversity in preparation for future classroom practice as part of the first-year WIL excursion programme. It is envisioned that student teachers will develop inclusive classroom practices to help their future learners understand different cultures and foster positive attitudes towards those who are culturally different.