In-Service Teachers' Multicultural Teaching Self-Efficacy and Practices: Survey Development, Item Selection, and Reliability

• In Event: Professional Development as Self-Efficacy and Empowerment in Diverse Contexts

Abstract

Rapidly changing ethnic-racial and linguistic composition of classrooms beckon teachers to meet students’ culturally-diverse needs. Using the Bank’s Multicultural Education Framework (2016), the current study sought to validate a measure that could assess in-service teachers’ multicultural education beliefs, practices, and efficacy, as well as contextual factors such as family and community interactions and perceived school support. A collaborative effort among a research-practice partnership used rigorous methods to validate the Cultural Diversity Within Schools Survey among 2,384 teachers. Confirmatory factor analyses and reliability analyses showed support for a seven-factor structure of the scale. These factors can play a more integral role in developing meaningful professional development for teachers given today’s ever-changing student demographics.

Authors

• Krystal R. Thomas, SRI International

• Chu Yi Lu, University of Delaware

• Hillary Parkhouse, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Jesse Senechal, Virginia Commonwealth University