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Exploring pre-service teachers' sense of responsibility for multiculturalism and diversity: scale construction and construct validation

Kozel, Sarah D.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1407225325

Abstract Details

2007, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, EDU Teaching and Learning.
While a great deal of previous research focuses on multicultural education, very little examines teachers' definition and implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy. Recent scholarship focuses on multicultural teacher efficacy, which examines teachers' confidence in their ability to implement culturally relevant and aware teaching practices. Broadly, efficacy theory posits that individuals with high sense of efficacy will more likely engage in a behavior and persist through challenge. By extension, multicultural teacher efficacy studies presume a high sense of efficacy will lead to persistent engagement in multicultural education. Three problems preclude the cursory conclusion that high efficacy results in persistent engagement in multicultural education. First, simply believing that a behavior will lead to an outcome and feeling confident in one's ability to engage in that behavior, as self-efficacy theory suggests, disregards the role of motivation. Second, 'multicultural education' remains ambiguous, often receiving only superficial attention from teachers. Third, the ambiguity of terms such as 'diversity' in previous measures may lead to a merely superficial measurement of beliefs about the groups composing these constructs. In an effort to address these concerns, this study seeks to investigate teachers' sense of responsibility as an indicator of motivation through development of a scale designed to compare various sub-domains of multiculturalism and diversity. The Teachers' Sense of Responsibility for Multiculturalism and Diversity Scale (TSR-MD) contains 120 items divided among four axes that represent aspects of education in which culture might be relevant (e.g. classroom, teacher identity). Items are further divided among sub-domains of multiculturalism and diversity in order to determine whether disparity exists among sub-domains. Sub-domains selected for the measure are taken from published progressive non-discrimination statements (e.g. race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith). An established teacher efficacy subscale was adapted and included to triangulate the findings of this measure. Statements from each sub-domain representing teachers' beliefs about parents' rights to have their children opt-out of lessons were also included in order to examine the degree to which teachers feel specific sub-domains of multicultural education are important. Eighty-eight pre-service teachers in four education cohorts participated in the study. Three important findings inform the value of the TSR-MD. First, traditional employment of broad terms such as 'diversity' may be problematic because statements including these terms received consistently higher ratings of agreement than those referring to specific sub-domains. This suggests previous tools' intended measurements may be skewed. Second, response to sense of responsibility is significantly lower than advocacy, which suggests teachers feel they are advocates for minority students but do not feel responsible for teaching about those populations. Finally, efficacy and opt-out items are predicted by axis and sub-domain means. This suggests the TSR-MD predicts efficacy and thus addresses possible contributions of advocacy orientation and responsibility to teachers' overall impetus for action. While the current study represents only an initial investigation, its findings are extremely encouraging.
Heather Davis (Advisor)
Antoinette Miranda (Committee Member)
165 p.
Education

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kozel, S. D. (2007). Exploring pre-service teachers' sense of responsibility for multiculturalism and diversity: scale construction and construct validation [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1407225325

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kozel, Sarah. Exploring pre-service teachers' sense of responsibility for multiculturalism and diversity: scale construction and construct validation. 2007. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1407225325.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kozel, Sarah. "Exploring pre-service teachers' sense of responsibility for multiculturalism and diversity: scale construction and construct validation." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1407225325

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1407225325
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.