The purpose of this study is to explore the beliefs, attitudes, and practices of principals with regard to equity and inclusion specific to hiring teachers from diverse backgrounds. A qualitative design and narrative analysis guided this study. Twelve principals and vice-principals from six high schools in one school district in Ontario participated in the study by answering questions on a self-completion web questionnaire. The findings were analyzed using four categories with regard to hiring diverse teachers: 1) current understanding of diversity in the school community; 2) current practices for diversity hiring; 3) beliefs and attitudes for diversity hiring and existing barriers; 4) solutions and future learning opportunities. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The overall themes that emerged from the data were: a) valuing the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion; b) not valuing diversity and providing rationale for not considering diversity and equity. The findings revealed that principals were able to define diversity in their own words. However, principals did not always value diversity in teacher candidates in their hiring practices. The questions used by principals to interview teachers – based on those recommended by the school board’s interview questions – did not include questions that would elicit and support responses from teacher candidates with regard to teaching diverse students or that reveal the value of their own diversity. The findings revealed that there are various barriers due to biases, hiring attitudes and current practices. Finally, the findings revealed that some principals are resistant to additional learning and professional development activities, saying they see no barriers for diverse teacher candidates being hired. However, some principals are open to more training and learning opportunities and see professional development as a catalyst in bringing positive change with respect to hiring practices and valuing diversity. A discussion of the findings with reference to current literature is provided. In conclusion, questions and approaches for further studies are identified.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-104891 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Singh, Gursev |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för beteendevetenskap och lärande, Linköpings universitet, Utbildningsvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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