Date of Award
1992
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the level of inclusion of multiculturalEducation materials and activities in kindergarten classrooms in the State of Indiana. The researcher developed a two-part questionnaire which was mailed to 500 of 2,000 kindergarten teachers in the State of Indiana. The teachers were selected by systematic sampling. There were seventy-eight items on Part 1 of the questionnaire which asked for information about the teacher, the students and the structure of the classroom. Part II of the questionnaire asked teachers to respond to forty-three items relating to the physical environment of the classroom, beliefs related to curriculum, instructional strategies and the various curriculum areas. The items in Part II were measured on three levels of inclusion, with Level 1 indicating inclusion more than 80% of the time. There were six research questions to which an answer was sought. These related to whether the teachers were including multiculturalEducation materials and activities, whether the racial/ethnic group of the teacher or the students affected inclusion, whether the geographic area (urban vs. rural) affected inclusion, the effect of the teachers' level of experience and type of multicultural training received. Two hundred and ninety-six teachers from seventy-nine of Indiana's ninety two counties responded to the survey. The responses indicate that kindergarten teachers do include some multiculturalEducation activities and materials in their classrooms and their curriculum. However, teachers with 1-4 years of teaching experience were more inclined to include multicultural activities and materials than all other groups. The teachers' ethnicity did not play a major part, though they showed a high percent of inclusion in some areas. The race/ethnicity of the students did not encourage inclusion, the geographic region was not a factor for inclusion, and teachers with 10 years or more experience were less likely to include multicultural activities and materials more than 80% of the time.
Recommended Citation
Gayle-Evans, Guda G., "A Survey Of Kindergarten Teachers' Implementation Of MulticulturalEducation In The Classroom" (1992). All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 757.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/etds/757