Evaluation of Multicultural Education's Understanding and Knowledge in Freshman Level Preservice Teachers.

Overview & Synopsis

One hundred forty-three Eastern Kentucky University college students majoring in education and enrolled in an introductory education course were surveyed to determine their understanding of and knowledge about multicultural education and to discern the extent to which these students appreciated and valued multicultural education. The study also intended to use this group as a control and compare it with a similar group in 1996, 5 years after the implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), which was passed in 1990, and to use the group in a pre- and post-study in 1996. KERA recognizes the significance of diversity and includes diversity in the state's learner expectations. At the first class the subjects were asked to give a comprehensive definition of multicultural education by responding to a prompt "Multicultural education is..." These were then scored against the Kentucky State Board of Education's definition. Results suggested that multicultural education was addressed in the subjects' high school curriculum, though perhaps only to a limited degree. Compared to 11 percent of the subjects who did not know anything about multicultural education, 55 percent were aware of cultural differences. Another 4.2 percent had some understanding of multicultural education. Six subjects had benefited from their multicultural education to a degree where they accepted, respected, and valued it. (JB)