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Multiculturalism: An assessment of professors from the teachers college of one midwest land-grant university
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the current levels of multiculturalism of professors from the teachers college of one midwest land-grant university. A secondary objective was to consider the demographic data and levels of multiculturalism. as compared to administrators of higher education in the same institution and a state-wide sample of public schools teachers. The participants of this study were active tenure track faculty members of the teachers college of one midwest land-grant university (N = 94). The Personal Multicultural Assessment instrument was utilized to obtain the necessary data. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlational analysis (Pearson's r), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the Tukey-HSD post-hoc test. Findings of the study revealed that the professors are functioning at different levels with regard to their multicultural development. The life experience subscale was the second highest for faculty and higher than the teachers and administrators; suggesting that faculty are beginning to seek out opportunities that will enable them to better understand diversity, whereas the teachers and administrators are only beginning to question negative stereotypes that have previously guided their behavior. The personal attitude subscale score for the faculty fell between the high score, administrators, and the low score, teachers. The results indicated that the administrators appeared to have a more critical perspective on formerly held beliefs, whereas the faculty and teachers are only beginning a greater openness as their experience with diversity increases. The personal behavior subscale was essentially the same for all three groups and implies they are beginning to pursue information in their venture of understanding other cultures. Although the three groups were all functioning at an equivalent level for professional behavior, the faculty subscore was well below the teachers' and administrators' subscores. Overall, the results of the study indicated that the faculty find positive images and benefits in learning about diversity. The results revealed a positive correlation between annual salary and personal the behavior subscale; and between the number of international visits and professional behavior. In contrast, a negative correlation was found between the life experience subscale and the number of weeks of international travel.
Subject Area
Higher education|School administration|Teacher education
Recommended Citation
Alvarez, Timothy A, "Multiculturalism: An assessment of professors from the teachers college of one midwest land-grant university" (1999). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9929182.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9929182