Predicting the Perception about Multicultural Education of Respect for Identity Differences: A Study on Prospective Social Studies Teachers

Author : Fadime Seçgin
Number of pages : 294-306

Abstract

It is possible to consider teachers as the key to the success of multicultural education aiming at providing equal education opportunities for all students from different races, ethnicities and social groups and developing of cooperation and dialogue between different student groups. In this sense, it is important to determine the attitudes towards multicultural education of the prospective social studies teachers given the mission of educating the individual as an active and collaborative citizen, and preparing for life and so whether they respect identity differences. In this study, it has been investigated whether prospective social studies teachers' identity differences attitudes are predictors for perceptions about multicultural education. This study was carried out with 220 prospective social studies teachers continuing their education in social studies teaching department at a state university; it was used Teacher Multicultural Attitude Survey (TMAS) developed by Ponterotito, Baluch, Greig and Rivera (1998) and adapted to Turkish by Yazıcı, Başol and Toprak (2009) in order to identify perceptions about multicultural education, and Identity Attitudes Scale (IAS) developed by Yazıcı (2016) in order to determine attitudes towards different identities. As a result of the study, it was found that respect for gender differences, respect for ethnic identity differences, and respect for differences in political identity which are sub-dimensions of IAS are predictors of perception about multicultural education as a result of the multiple regression analysis for predicting multicultural education of attitudes towards identity differences.

Keywords

Multicultural Education, Identity, Difference, Attitude, Teaching Social Studies, Prospective Teacher.

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