I am using a select tag like this <s:select multiple="true" headerKey="-1" list="rejectionReasons" value="%{fmrTenant.terminationReason}" required="true"/>
list = "rejectionReasons" invokes the following method: public List getRejectionReasons() { return rejectionReasons; } I am using value="%{fmrTenant.terminationReason}" because I want to preselec some of the values returned. this invokes the following method public String[] getTerminationReason() { return terminationReason; } I am getting the following error Expected number, date, or string. parameters.nameValue evaluated instead to freemarker.ext.beans.ArrayModel on line 60, column 101 in template/simple/select.ftl. The problematic instruction: ---------- ==> if tag.contains(parameters.nameValue, itemKey) == true || (parameters.nameValue?exists && parameters.nameValue?string == itemKey) [on line 60, column 9 in template/simple/select.ftl] in user-directive s.iterator [on line 40, column 1 in template/simple/select.ftl] ---------- I looked for this error online and seems like this is a bug in struts2: https://issues.apache.org/struts/browse/WW-1747 I just wanted to make sure whether there is a work around as to how I am trying to do this? Thanks!