Abstract: Teacher educators play a crucial role in the professional preparation of pre-service teachers. The study’s main purpose was to investigate teacher educators’ practices of diversity-responsive pedagogy in primary pre-service teachers’ education programs in Ethiopia and draw its implications for trainees’ professional preparation. The study employed a cross-sectional survey design. The data were collected from three primary pre-service teacher education colleges involving 70 teacher educators and 150 pre-service teachers. Simple random, multi-stage, and purposive sampling techniques were used. Questionnaires, interviews, and observations were the sources of data. Quantitative data were analyzed using means and standard deviations. Qualitative data were analyzed verbatim and with responses narrated. The study’s findings show that teacher educators have an understanding of and positive attitudes towards diversity but lack practices. They were incapable of building diversity-responsive practical skills and experience. Lack of diversity-responsive curricula, pedagogical skills, and leadership supports were the main challenges for teacher educators. As a result, the primary pre-service teachers didn’t have the opportunity to learn and grow professionally in response to diversity. Therefore, the practices of diversity-responsive pedagogy by teacher educators deserve due attention. This study provided insight into teacher educators’ practices of DRP in primary pre-service teacher preparation in Ethiopia and provided curriculum planners with valuable information on what content to emphasize in order to produce diversity-responsive primary school teachers. The study suggests practice-oriented capacity-building trainings for teacher educators and revisiting teacher education curricula from diversity perspectives. Further research is recommended to investigate its impact on the professional preparation of pre-service teachers.
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