Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Adams, James

Committee Member

Yu, Chien

Committee Member

Prince, Debra

Committee Member

Wyatt, John

Committee Member

Crossley, Scott

Date of Degree

8-7-2010

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Instructional Systems and Workforce Development

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

College

College of Education

Department

Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development

Abstract

The study examined faculty members’ and graduate students’ perceptions of multicultural education and to ascertain which demographic factors had the most influence on participants’ perceptions. This study also examined whether there were any significant differences between faculty members’ and graduate students’ perceptions of the concept. Validity of the quantitative instruments was determined by a panel of experts. Internal consistency and reliability was calculated using factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha and test/retest reliability. A mixed method research design was used in this study which included a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The surveys were completed by 313 graduate students and 48 faculty members, while 10 faculty members and 13 graduate students participated in semi-structured interviews. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted to analyze the quantitative data and the qualitative data collected were transcribed, coded and analyzed. The findings showed that faculty members and graduate students exhibited a positive perception of multicultural education and that there were some significant differences between faculty members’ and graduate students’ perceptions of the concept. The results also showed that no demographic variables had an impact on faculty members’ perceptions while race and department had an impact on graduate students’ perceptions. The findings also revealed that faculty members believed that faculty bore the most responsibility for integrating multicultural education in the classroom.The study showed that a combination of instructional strategies was used to infuse multicultural education in their courses and no formal evaluations were used to assess whether graduate students were receptive to the multicultural content being taught. Faculty indicated that they received little support from their department heads and college administrators to apply multicultural initiatives. Moreover, a number of factors motivated faculty members’ efforts to teach about multicultural education and these included traveling to foreign countries, learning about multiculturalism during their graduate studies and having an interest in the topic. Lastly, recommendations for further research and recommendations for the College of Education were presented in this study.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15341

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