Little research has been conducted to document the process utilized in state-mandated multicultural teacher inservice education programs and the effect of these programs on teachers and their ability to teach their limited English proficient (LEP) students. The current study focused on the component of culture in the 60-hour inservice education required of content-area teachers in Florida. The purpose was to assess the impact of inservice educational programs on public school teachers' cross-cultural adaptability using control and experimental groups. / The study established the relationship between multicultural inservice education and the four dimensions of cultural adaptability: emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy. The study also investigated the relationship of these four dimensions to teacher characteristics of gender, age, race, years of teaching experience, languages spoken fluently other than English, and extent of overseas travel. / One hundred and three male and female content-area teachers ranging in age from 24 to 60 years old were divided into four groups: (a) two control groups of 24 and 29 teachers respectively, and (b) two experimental groups of 24 and 26 teachers, respectively. The two experimental groups consisted of teachers participating in a multicultural inservice education program. The two control groups were composed of teachers who had not yet had the inservice program. / All subjects were administered the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) developed in California by Meyers and Kelley (1987) as well as the Multicultural Opinion Survey (developed at The Ohio State University) and a Demographic Profile Checklist. Semi-structured interviews with selected teachers were conducted to further substantiate the outcomes of the inservice education. The instructor was also interviewed regarding her educational background and teaching experience. / Contrary to what the researcher expected, the findings of the study revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in the teachers' cross-cultural adaptability scores before and after taking the cultural component of the inservice educational program. The results of the study indicate that inservice educational programs in multicultural education need to be reevaluated. Further research is needed in other parts of the country to validate the findings of the current study. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4378. / Major Professor: Byron G. Massialas. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77062 |
| Contributors | Remmert, Annouska Askaridou., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 207 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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