Introduction

There are numerous international declarations and speeches that bespeak the need to adapt the initial teacher training to social changes and increase their sensitivity and commitment to cultural diversity (^{Arnesen et al., 2008}; ^{European Commission, 2010)}. According to ^{UNESCO (2009)}, the biggest breakthrough in international educational thinking is, precisely, the recognition of multiple interpretations of reality and the various forms of teaching and learning.

However, the great educational challenge at the moment is not exclusively in the recognition of cultural diversity, but in how to build an inclusive society and education for all that promotes cultural exchange and common wellbeing ^{(CIDE, 2005)}.

This growing interest in the inclusion of cultural diversity, enhanced in the declaration of principles, seems nevertheless to have a limited impact on the programs of initial teacher training (^{Sleeter, 2001}; ^{Zeichner, 2009}), where the incidence is low and partial, even in those initiatives in which there is express commitment with cultural diversity (^{Morrier et al., 2007}). As ^{Aguado et al. (2008)} have pointed out, the incorporation of the multicultural component to teacher training programs is inexistent or is usually carried out through the introduction of sporadic initiatives and some subjects usually elective that are insufficient.

On the other hand, there are serious doubts about the theoretical approach adopted since, as ^{Gorski (2006)} highlighted, teacher training is typically articulated from the Eurocentric point of view, biased by theories of deficit that conceive cultural diversity as a problem. These conceptions are often accompanied by formative folkloric answers and assimilationist measures that do not contribute to equality and mutual enrichment.

Rigorous studies on this fact have highlighted the lack of comprehensive analysis covering the social and political dimensions of education and the problems associated with the inequality of students (^{Banks et al., 2005}; ^{Matus and Infante, 2011}). The adoption of this kind of approaches involves the incorporation of more reflective and complex prospects to help future teachers to critically assess the impact of social, economic and political conditions in the construction of identity as well as personal and group development. As mentioned by ^{Gay (2013)}, it requires a long-term treatment in which cultural diversity permeates every element of the curriculum and the teaching staff as a whole.

Despite the difficulties it implies, there are more initiatives aimed at improving the initial teacher training in and for cultural diversity (^{Sales, 2006}; ^{He and Cooper, 2009}; ^{Waddell, 2011}), mainly the research and scientific production that focuses on this theme (^{Grant and Secada, 1990}; ^{Cochran-Smith et al., 2004}; ^{Grant and Gibson, 2011}).

Thus a research line arises, strengthened in the framework of teacher training ^{(OECD 2010)}, oriented to reveal the impact of programs of initial teacher training in and for cultural diversity in future teachers. This work collects the progress experienced in this field through the revision of empirical research work developed during the 2005-2012 period.

Procedure

It is a bibliographic research which, as ^{Bisquerra (1989)} pointed out, is oriented to search, collect, organize, value and criticize bibliographic information on specific topics. For ^{Bisquerra (1989: 68)}, one of the greatest virtues of this type of research is that "it enables the dissemination of a panoramic vision of the problem to all those interested in the topic".

To review the scientific production the documentary analysis has been used, understood as a set of actions designed to analyze and represent the content and form of a document (^{Clauso, 1993)}. The procedure of analysis has referred to the double level described by ^{Pinto (1989)}: analysis of formal elements and internal analysis or content analysis.

The first level is shown in the localization and bibliographic description of the documentation (during February 2013). This level is closer to cataloguing, in which documents have been located and classified according to their physical aspects (source, authorship, year and place of publication, bibliographic reference). To access the scientific production different databases and specialized manuals have been consulted.

In the international context the databases ERIC and SCOPUS have been considered, as well as the compiled manuals of ^{Ball and Tyson (2011)}, ^{OECD (2010)} and ^{Townsend and Bates (2007)}. The descriptors used for searching have been: teacher education, preservice, diversity and multicultural/intercultural. Scientific production at a national level has been revised from CSIC-ISOC, DIALNET and TESEO databases USING the following descriptors: formación, profesorado/docente, diversidad cultural and multicultural/intercultural. Using these parameters 320 files are obtained, 199 corresponding to the international context and 121 to the national one.

The second level of internal analysis, has been made out of two stages. The first one, developed between March and April 2013, has been the reading of the title, abstract and descriptions of the documents in order to identify and select studies matching the following criteria: a) empirical research, b) jobs whose object is to study the impact that initiatives of initial teacher training related to cultural diversity have on future teachers. These criteria have made it possible to reduce to 55 the number of documents that have served as the basis for our revision. The journals in which reviewed articles can be found is in Table 1.¹

The second stage was the most intensive (made between May and June 2013). This is a time of in-depth reading and content analysis of the studies regarding the following elements: research problem, methodological design, techniques and instruments for gathering information, sample/participants and results.

Once the documents were analyzed, they were organized in terms of the places where initial training was studied. As ^{Biddle, Good and Goodson (2000)} point out, the teaching contexts are determinant in the impact that initial training has on future teachers and the knowledge they gain. It is also a classification criterion utilized in previous revisions (^{Sleeter, 2001}; ^{Hollins and Torres, 2005}), which make a difference between proposals developed in university centers only and initiatives that include field experiences or immersion in multicultural contexts. All in all, two types of research have been established:

Results

The most outstanding results of the revision based on the types of research established are shown below.

Studies on the impact of training proposals developed in centers of initial teacher training.

This section contains 28 research works aimed to learn the impact of training in and for cultural diversity developed in centers of initial training on the future teachers.

Taking as a reference the international context, we highlight, ^{Guidry and Sowa's work (2005)} as well as ^{Wasonga's (2005)}. The first authors focus their attention on the content analysis of the online dialogues between students and teachers with different cultural backgrounds. The study reveals that the experience has contributed to view the world from different points, to understand cultural diversity as inherent to human beings and to understand that the vision of reality is limited and linked to the own experience.

^{Wasonga (2005)} studies, through surveys, the influence of a formative experience on the knowledge and attitudes of future teachers and the relation between both variables. The research concluded that training for cultural diversity greatly influences knowledge and attitudes, however they are not interlinked, this way knowledge cannot be used as a predictor of attitude changes.

^{Paredes (2009)}, in a quantitative and qualitative study, finds equally positive results and stresses that this training is particularly significant in content, language and pedagogical knowledge. ^{Cho and DeCastro (2006)} are interested in finding, by means of questionnaires, the change in attitude of future teachers. The results, although positive, are taken cautiously because, together with attitudes in favor, there are students who deny the presence of racism and do not consider attention to cultural diversity beneficial.

^{Tsigilis et al. (2006)} study the variation in attitudes and its relation with behavior based on 148 questionnaires applied to students. The results show an improvement in attitudes toward cultural diversity and what they can be predicted, partly, based on behavior. ^{Szecsi et al. (2010)}, also interested in revealing the impact of training on the attitudes of students, found that it has had a positive influence in terms of greater culture awareness and the need to expand teacher training for cultural diversity.

Other investigations are concerned by the impact of training on the conceptions, beliefs and opinions of future teachers. ^{Fox and Diaz-Greenberg's work (2006)} belongs to this group, ^{Moore (2009)}, ^{Kinloch (2011)}, ^{Laughter (2011)} and ^{Liggett (2011)} who, through qualitative approaches, document analysis, interviews and class observations, claim that teacher training for cultural diversity has a major impact on the modification of pre-conceptions and beliefs, generates a deeper understanding of culture, broader meanings of education in multicultural contexts and incipient critical awareness. These authors consider that reflection, exchange with colleagues and collaborative work are key tools for the success of the training programs.

In the case studies developed by ^{Milner (2006)}, ^{Christensen (2007)}, ^{McKnight et al. (2011)} and ^{Patchen (2012)} the learnings and knowledge acquired during the training are discussed. ^{Milner (2006)}, concludes that the activities aimed at fostering awareness, critical thinking and the link between theory and practice are those that have the greatest impact. ^{Christensen (2007)}, claims that future teachers have improved their understanding of cognitive concepts of intercultural education and this increases their awareness and intercultural competence.

This study highlights the reflection of the ethnographic perspective adopted in teacher training as a relevant factor in the progress experienced. ^{McKnight et al. (2011)} note that the participants of their research also have increased and improved their knowledge and have gained greater awareness of cultural diversity. ^{Patchen (2012)}, to improve learning and avoid the cognitive dissonance of future teachers, analyzes the impact that the use of cinema has, as a tool for reflection and learning the other in a subject of intercultural education.

The results confirm that the strategy used helps to better understand cultural diversity, especially students who have had little interaction with people of different cultural origins. This work also emphasizes the tendency of students to make binary and simplistic comparisons when describing aspects related to diversity and variation of responses on the basis of ethnicity.

Similar purposes had the studies by ^{Lenski et al. (2005)}, ^{Cain (2010)} and ^{Gunn (2011)}. The first author analyzes the impact of an ethnographic action-research project in future teachers. Through interviews and documents prepared by 22 students, the authors find that future teachers interact from perspectives different from their own and examine both the situations they observe and their own beliefs more critically.

A later follow-up study with six of these participants confirms that changes remain during their first year of professional exercise. ^{Cain (2010)} used the narrative of fiction online as a strategy to promote reflection on cultural diversity. Combining a qualitative and quantitative methodology, collected evidence of 10 students during a semester.

The findings allow him to affirm that the formative experience has facilitated reflection, awareness and understanding of multiculturality. ^{Gunn (2011)} examined the relevance of case studies as a training strategy for the diversity of future teachers. The results revealed that the strategy has a positive influence on the perceptions of the majority of students, increases their motivation and improves the depth of discussion and the transfer to practice.

Less conclusive results are found in the work of ^{Espiritu (2006)}, ^{Hill-Jackson et al. (2007)} and ^{Fernsten (2009)}. ^{Espiritu (2006)}, based on the observation of 23 students and the work performed in the classroom, recognizes that training for cultural diversity has different impacts on the basis of the participants' social, cultural and economic position of privilege.

Those students of privileged groups minimize the social power of their position and their contribution to the preservation of inequalities and racist attitudes; while the disadvantaged students assume a more critical position toward society and the attention given to cultural diversity. ^{Hill-Jackson et al. (2007)}, in a study with 200 pupils, reveal that the impact of initial training varies depending on the profile of each person.

The profiles found are two: defenders and resistant. Each profile presents different cognitive complexity, vision of the world, intercultural sensibility, ethics and perception of self-efficacy, which will affect the impact of formative experiences and positions that eventually are adopted with regard to cultural diversity. ^{Fernsten (2009)}, from the administration of a questionnaire to 48 students, establishes that the incidence of the teacher preparation received varies depending on the contact with cultures other than their own and the prior knowledge that students have about cultural diversity.

Less encouraging results are shown by other studies, they conclude that the initial training of teachers not only produces no impact on students, but sometimes, reinforces stereotypes and/or knowledge scantly sensitive to cultural diversity. ^{Locke (2005)}, for example, interviewed and observed 13 students and concluded that training designed to contest previous frames of reference has not had any impact on the responses of future teachers, achievements that the social environment or the media have.

^{De Courcy (2007)} performs an action-research with 37 students during a course on multicultural education. The results reflect that unfavorable pre-conceptions have been reinforced and, even though there is evidence that students are susceptible to new ideas, tend to build them in terms of deficit.

^{Henkin and Steinmetz (2008)} as well as ^{Szabo and Anderson (2009)} reached similar results. ^{Henkin and Steinmetz (2008)}, after applying an open questionnaire to 56 students, indicate a low level of understanding and awareness. ^{Szabo and Anderson (2009)}find that the formative actions undertaken have not had the expected impact, as they reflect little impact on the conceptions, attitudes and prior knowledge of teachers in training.

Similar conclusions can be found in the work of ^{Berta-Avila and William-White (2010)} and ^{Reiter and Davis (2011)}. The first work evinces, through narratives, that future teachers show politically correct conceptions of diversity, scarce knowledge about cultural diversity and need strong support to develop processes of reflection and criticism. In ^{Reiter and Davis (2011)}, focused on the responses of 153 students to a questionnaire, it is verified that the training received has not had any impact on the attitudes and previous beliefs of those aspiring to become teachers.

In the national context we distinguish the ethnographic study of ^{Herrada (2010)}, in which 40 students participated. Its purpose is to analyze the evolution of the term race in the course of a subject related to cultural diversity. After the analysis of data obtained through questionnaires, observations and tests, the author notes that students make a problem from the concept, realign their beliefs and attitudes, and in some cases, they extrapolate the knowledge obtained in the lessons to the classroom context.

Discussion and conclusions

After reviewing, we can state that the efforts made in the national context for the consolidation of this line of research is substantially lower than the commitment at the international framework, as it is disclosed by the small number of studies carried out in our environment in recent years. This fact confirms that the field of initial teacher training in and for cultural diversity in Spain continues to be an incipient, residual field with poor visibility.

This can be linked to several factors: the scarcity of funding for educational research, stressed by the economic crisis that has beset the country; disregard of training in and for cultural diversity as a preferential area of research, and finally the difficulty of dissemination, that occasionally this type of investigations find, owing to its eminently local scope; confinement to unrepresentative samples or specific subjects; the methodological weakness in which, sometimes, they are based; and the low use of repositories and other means, outside the usual publishing circuits, which in other countries such as the USA, are common.

A greater commitment and institutional support to increase the training offer addressed to teachers in this aspect is required (^{Trent et al., 2008}; ^{Aguado et al., 2008}; ^{Ibañez, 2012}; ^{Gay, 2013}) and the research aimed to analyze their impact on teachers in training and in their future professional practice (^{Sleeter, 2001}; ^{Rodríguez Izquierdo, 2009}; ^{Grant and Gibson, 2011}). The fact that the analyzed investigations have focused their interest on teacher training, involves recognizing its key role in the improvement of formative process (^{Feiman-Nemser, 2001}; ^{Hammerness et al., 2005}).

From the methodological point of view, there is a predominance of studies that combine quantitative and qualitative approaches, and use interviews, focus groups, documentary analysis, questionnaires and classroom observations as their main information-gathering techniques. However, few are the researches that take a longitudinal design, and make it more difficult to access the real impact that the initiatives of initial training of teachers have in the future teaching practice or in other aspects that may take place in the long term.

This limitation joins other deficiencies detected in the studies analyzed and that have also been reported, among others, by ^{Hollins and Torres (2005)} or ^{Grant and Gibson (2011)}. We refer, for example, to the fact that a large part of these jobs is supported on small samples, unrepresentative, which turn into a non-generalizable outcome; to the little attention paid to the rationale of the methodological framework or the techniques used; and especially, to the limited information provided in relation to the reliability and validity of the instruments used in collecting the information.

With regard to the results of this field of research, it should be noted that it is not conclusive, since, together to research that exhibit training experiences with positive impacts (^{Wasonga, 2005}; ^{Szecsi et al., 2010}; ^{Kinloch, 2011}), studies whose findings are less promising are presented (^{Reiter and Davis, 2011}; ^{Fernsten, 2009}).

Among the factors that are highlighted as determinants of the success or failure of initiatives of initial teacher training in and for cultural diversity are: the experiences, knowledge and previous beliefs and their adaption to different learning opportunities; the methodologies employed in the initial teaching training; training programs; the social, cultural, and economic position that the aspiring teachers occupy in the social context; the relations of power between social classes that make up students' previous experiences; the environment and social relations; the means of communication and contact with other cultures.

Although, as we have said, the results of the researches reviewed in this article are not conclusive regarding the impact of the initial training of teachers on the teachers, if we can say that the formative proposals that are concerned in linking theory and practice and incorporating critical reflection, dialogue, exchange with colleagues, case studies and collaborative work tend to a more positive impact on attitudes and behaviors, beliefs and prospects for future teachers toward cultural diversity.

This finding contradicts the observations expressed by ^{Pajares (1992)} and ^{Richardson and Placier (2001)}, among others, and challenges the incidence of teacher training in the modification of beliefs. However, among all the training proposals analyzed, the well-planned experiences of immersion in the multicultural reality, through the practicum or experiences associated with culturally diverse communities (learning-service, exchanges,...), are the ones that seem to have a more favorable impact.

These experiences help to become aware of the role played by stereotypes and overcome them; modify beliefs; develop attitudes and values of respect, responsibility and mutual trust; improve the knowledge of the self, as well as the understanding of the multicultural reality and the challenge that teaching in culturally heterogeneous classrooms involves, besides increasing the commitment to improve the practice and transfer of knowledge in the classroom (^{Bollin, 2007}; ^{Waddell, 2011}; ^{Nero, 2009}).