ERIC Number: ED454216
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 2001-Apr
Pages: 19
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Good News and Bad News: A Comparison of Teacher Educators' and Preservice Teachers' Beliefs about Diversity Issues.
Taylor, Pamela A.
This study examined teacher educators' and student teachers' beliefs about, attitudes toward, and sensitivity regarding cultural diversity and other diversity issues. The Beliefs about Diversity Scale was used to assess respondents' beliefs about race, gender, social class, ability, language/immigration, sexual orientation, and multicultural education. Study participants were 45 teacher educators and 78 preservice teachers at Mississippi State University. The preservice teachers were all enrolled in a Social Foundations of Education course. Data analysis indicated that the preservice teachers scored at culturally sensitive levels for all subgroup areas except sexual orientation. Teacher educators scored at culturally sensitive levels for all subgroup areas. The teacher educators' lowest sensitivity levels were for issues of language/immigration. For both groups, the highest sensitivity levels related to issues of race. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups in their overall beliefs about diversity issues. (Contains 31 references and 6 tables.) (SM)
Descriptors: Cultural Awareness, Cultural Differences, Disabilities, Diversity (Student), Elementary Secondary Education, Gender Issues, Higher Education, Homosexuality, Immigrants, Language Minorities, Multicultural Education, Preservice Teacher Education, Preservice Teachers, Racial Attitudes, Social Class, Teacher Educators
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Seattle, WA, April 10-14, 2001).