Teacher candidates' opinions about multiculturalism and multicultural education

Abstract

Teachers, who raise future generations, are expected to indigenize certain themes such as social justice, critical thinking, reducing prejudices, fighting against discrimination, strengthening intercultural diversity, human rights, democracy and equality of opportunities. This research is about knowledge levels of preschool and classroom teacher candidates about multiculturalism and multicultural education and it asks them whether they would practice multicultural education or not. Survey Method was used in this reseach. The sample of the research was formed through random sampling. The sample of the research was formed of Classroom (N= 113) and Preschool (N= 106) teacher candidates. The data of the research was collected through a questionnaire that is formed of three open-ended questions to determine the opinions of teacher candidates about multiculturalism and multicultural education. The related body of literature was scanned and open-ended questions were formed within the scope of research objectives. Three expert opinions were taken to validate the questionnaire and it took its final shape in accordance with these expert opinions. There are questions in the questionnaire to determine the opinions of teacher candidates about multiculturalism, multicultural education and their capacities to practice this multicultural education. The data was analyzed through descriptive analysis method. The descriptive analysis was implemented in four stages. In the first stage, the data was read by researchers and draft codes were built. Draft codes were combined and themes were created in the second stage. Then themes and codes were reorganized in order to make them easier for readers to understand. In the last stage, findings obtained were presented in tables as frequencies and percentages. In order to increase the internal reliability of the research data, the data was recoded individually by two researchers and then two researchers came together to examine the consistency between analyses. General agreement coefficient between researchers was determined to be .78. When the answers of teacher candidates to the question "Define multiculturalism concept?" were examined, it was seen that opinions fell under two different themes; in terms of individuals and Society. It was determined that classroom and preschool teacher candidates define multiculturalism as to know about different cultures in terms of individuals and various cultures living together in terms of society. When the answers of teacher candidates to the question "What does multiculturalism mean to you?" were examined, it was seen that opinions fell under two different themes; in terms of education and in terms of Teacher/Student. Classroom and preschool teacher candidates define multicultural education as an education with various cultural values.