Evaluation of pre-service teachers’ opinions of multicultural education

Abstract

This study is concerned with the perception of multicultural education at the level of faculty of education, with a more open expression it s about the discovery of pre-service teachers views of multicultural education which has goals such as educational equity and excellence, multicultural social competence, curriculum reform. Revealing teacher candidates views on multicultural education can be considered as one of the critical steps to be taken to eliminate the bias, discrimination and inconsistencies that may occur in educational settings.The main purpose of this study is to evaluate pre-service teachers views on multicultural education according to several variables. This study is in the category of descriptive researches according to the research objective. The model of this study is survey model when it s examined in terms of types of descriptive studies. The study group of the research consists of the fourth-grade students studying at Erciyes University Faculty of Education in 2011-2012 academic years. Personal Information Form and Multicultural Education Scale developed by the researchers were used for data collection. Data obtained from the study was computerized and analyzed by using SPSS 17.00 for Windows. Results suggest that even though teacher candidates have not received any training on multicultural education, their views on this issue are positive. The results of this study have revealed that female pre-service teachers scores on multicultural education are higher than the scores of male pre-service teachers.