Teachers' beliefs about diversity: an analysis from a personal and professional perspective

  1. Chiner Sanz, Esther
  2. Cardona Moltó, María Cristina
  3. Gómez Puerta, Marcos
Revista:
NAER: Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research

ISSN: 2254-7339

Any de publicació: 2015

Volum: 4

Número: 1

Pàgines: 18-23

Tipus: Article

DOI: 10.7821/NAER.2015.1.113 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Altres publicacions en: NAER: Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research

Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible

Resum

The purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs that teachers have about diversity and their level of sensitivity towards some topics related to it. Moreover, beliefs were compared according to teachers' personal and professional views and teaching experience. The Personal and Professional Beliefs about Diversity Scales (Pohan and Aguilar, 1999) were administered to a sample of 233 teachers. Results showed highly positive beliefs towards diversity in all its dimensions (cultural, linguistic and social diversity, ability, gender, sexual orientation and religion), especially regarding its personal implications compared to the professional ones. Likewise, it was observed a significant relationship between years of teaching experience and professional beliefs about diversity, so teachers with no school experience showed a higher tolerance than those with teaching experience, mainly in aspects related to cultural, linguistic and social differences, ability and gender. The implications that these results have for educational practice and the need for the development of multicultural education courses that favour an effective teaching are discussed.

Referències bibliogràfiques

  • Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Bandura, A. (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 37(2), 122-147. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.37.2.122
  • Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (2007). Multicultural education: issues and perspectives (6th ed.). New York, NY: Wiley.
  • Brookhart, S. M., & Freeman, D. J. (1992). Characteristics of entering teacher candidates. Review of Educational Research, 62(1), 37-60. doi: 10.3102/00346543062001037
  • Cardona, M. C. (2005, April). Assessing teachers’ beliefs about diversity in personal and professional contexts. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada.
  • Cardona, M. C., & Chiner, E. (2002, September). Spanish teachers’ personal and professional beliefs about diversity: is there any difference? Paper presented at the European Conference on Education Research, Lisbon, Portugal.
  • Cardona, M. C., Jiménez, C., & Chiner, E. (2007). ¿Son los profesores tolerantes con las diferencias? Análisis de sus actitudes e implicaciones en el proceso de la convergencia europea. In R. Roig Vila, J. Blasco, M. A. Cano, R. Gilar, S. Grau, & A. Lledó (Eds.), Investigar el cambio curricular en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (pp. 77-90). Alcoy, Spain: Marfil.
  • Chiner, E., & Bravo, L. I. (2013). Estudio sobre las creencias personales y profesionales de los alumnos de psicopedagogía acerca de la diversidad. In M. C. Cardona, E. Chiner & A. Giner (Eds.), Investigación e innovación educativa al servicio de instituciones y comunidades globales, plurales y diversas. Alicante, Spain: AIDIPE.
  • Chiner, E., & Cardona, M. C. (2013). Inclusive education in Spain: how do skills, resources, and supports affect regular education teachers’ perceptions of inclusion? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 17(5), 526-541. doi: 10.1080/13603116.2012.689864
  • Fernández Batanero, J. M. (2003). Cómo construir un currículum para «todos» los alumnos. Granada, Spain: GEU.
  • Giambo, D., & Szecsi, T. (2007). Does diversity education make a difference in teacher education? Practice and Theory in Systems of Education, 2(3-4), 35-50.
  • Hansman, C. A., Jackson, D. F., Grant, D. F., & Spencer, L. E. (1999). Assessing graduate students’ sensitivity to gender, race, equity and diversity: implication for curriculum development. College Student Journal, 33(2), 261-268.
  • Hinojosa, M. S., & Moras, A. B. (2009). Challenging colorblind education: a descriptive analysis of teacher racial attitudes. Research and Practice in Social Sciences, 4(2), 27-45.
  • Hollins, E. R., & Guzman, M. T. (2005). Research on preparing teachers for diverse populations. In M. Cochran-Smith & K. M. Zeichner (Eds.), Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education (pp. 477-513). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Larke, P. J. (1990). Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory: assessing the sensitivity of preservice teachers. Action in Teacher Education, 9(3), 23-30. doi: 10.1080/01626620.1990.10734396
  • Milner, R., Flowers, L, Moore, E., Moore, J., & Flowers, T. (2003). Preservice teachers’ awareness of multiculturalism and diversity. The High School Journal, 87(1), 63-70. doi: 10.1353/hsj.2003.0018
  • Nespor, J. (1987). The role of beliefs in the practice of teaching. Curriculum Studies, 19(4), 317-328. doi: 10.1080/0022027870190403
  • Neuharth-Pritchett, S., Reiff, J., & Pearson, C. (2001). Through the eyes of preservice teachers: implications for multicultural journal from teacher education. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 15(2), 256-270. doi: 10.1080/02568540109594965
  • Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 307-332. doi: 10.3102/00346543062003307
  • Pohan, C. A. (1995). The development and validation of the educators’ beliefs about diversity scale (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Proquest Dissertations and Theses (UMI No. 9507822).
  • Pohan, C. A., & Aguilar, T. E. (1999). The personal and professional beliefs about diversity scales: User’s manual and scoring guide. Unpublished document.
  • Pohan, C. A., & Aguilar, T. E. (2001). Measuring educators’ beliefs about diversity in personal and professional contexts. American Educational Research Journal, 38(1), 159-182. doi: 10.3102/00028312038001159
  • Pohan, C. A., Ward, M., Kouzekanani, K., & Boatright, C. (2009). The impact of field placement sites on preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching diverse students. School-University Partnerships, 3(1), 43-53.
  • Richardson, V. (1996). The role of attitude and beliefs in learning to teach. In J. Sikula, T. Buttery & E. Guyton (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 102-119). New York, NY: Macmillan.
  • Romine, X. (2010). The relationship of personal and professional teacher diversity belief typologies to average student mathematics achievement in middle schools serving the diverse populations of North Georgia (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Proquest Dissertations and Theses (UMI No. 3439784).
  • Shroeder, M. C. (2005). The relationship between educators’ personal and professional beliefs about diversity: cross-cultural experiences and multicultural coursework as predictors of sensitivity (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Proquest Dissertations and Theses (UMI No. 3318746).
  • Su-Chuan, H. (2009). Meeting the challenges of diversity: beliefs of Taiwanese preservice early childhood teachers (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of North Texas, Denton, TX.