Does Multicultural Education Matter? Florida Public School Teachers' Perceptions and Implementation of Multicultural Education

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching and Learning: Multicultural Education, Mindsets, and Perceptions (Table 7)

Abstract

The continuous underperformance of Black and Brown students within schools stands as a blaring reminder of our failure to provide all students an equitable educational experience. Recognizing the corpus of research that links students’ culture, language, socioeconomic status, and gender to academic success, many districts have turned to Multicultural Education (ME) as a framework to bolster the competencies required of teachers to effectively instruct and relate to diverse students. Drawing upon the first statewide survey of its kind this study utilizes an original instrument to investigate Florida teachers’ (n=1919) perceptions of ME to gain an understanding of their knowledge, perceptions, and pedagogical practice in association with multicultural education, in the pursuit to enhance the educational outlook of students of Color.

Authors

• Bianca J Nightengale-Lee, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Charles Dukes, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Kerry Wittel, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Paul Massy, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author

• Kaitlin Salzman, Florida Atlantic University
  Presenting Author