Relationships among Secondary School Teacher Multicultural Education Beliefs, Perceived Multicultural Education Praxis, Gender and Workshop Attendance

Abstract

This study examined the relationships among secondary school teacher perceptions of multicultural education belief (MCEB), multicultural education praxis (MCEP), teachers’ gender, ethnicity, and attendance of multicultural education (MCE) workshop. The participants were 464 secondary school teachers from central Taiwan. Descriptive statistics, t-test, product moment correlation, and multiple regressions were applied to analyze the data. The analytical results showed that significant differences were found between teachers’ gender and attendance of MCE workshop. A positive and significant correlation between perceived MCEB and MCEP, i.e., perceived MCEB could predict perceived MCEP. At levels of teaching strategy, learning assessment, classroom management, and overall, the MCEB dimension, special need was the strongest predictor of perceived MCEP. At curriculum design level, ethnicity and special need were the best predictors of perceived MCEP. Teachers’ attendance of MCE workshop could significantly predict perceived MCEP at levels of teaching strategy, curriculum design, learning assessment, classroom management, and overall. However, perceived MCEB could not be predicted from teacher’s gender.