PowerPoint Presentation

What Are Teachers' Attitudes Towards Multicultural Education In Science Classroom? By Paul Pierre.

Problem Statement. Science educational programs and science fields have been without significant social consideration or multicultural diversity . Numerous science teachers accept "science is unadulterated" and accordingly get away from the impacts of the current teaching method, patterns, and particularly social impacts ( Karacabey et al., 2019). As of late, multicultural education has, bit by bit, become a pattern in many nations' scholarly frameworks.

Problem Statement. Embracing a multicultural education is fundamental, and school should consider fairness and justice in curriculum ( Wiggan & Watson-Vandiver, 2019). Individuals of various nationalities, sexual characters, religions, social classes, physical or mental handicaps, and socially radicalized ethnic gatherings should tolerate each other's way of life and regard each other ( Karacabey et al., 2019). Despite their ethnic foundation, all learners ought to get equal learning chances to satisfy their inactive potential. The method involved with approving or revising perceived ideas relies upon one's way of life. Multicultural science or socially comprehensive science is accepted to be an improvement for minorities..

Purpose of the Study. Multicultural education is viewed as an essential component to help students think critically about issues of culture and race concerning their curriculum. In this aspect, the study aims to determine teachers' attitudes towards multicultural education. The following research questions will be addressed throughout the study. What factors prevent teachers from implementing multicultural education? How well are teachers prepared to teach multicultural education?.

Literature Review. What is Multicultural Education? Multicultural education is an idea, an educational reform movement, and a process (Banks, 1997). As an idea, multicultural education seeks to create equal educational opportunities for all students, including those from different racial, ethnic, and social-class groups. Multicultural education tries to create equal educational opportunities for all students by changing the total school environment so that it will reflect the diverse cultures and groups within a society and within the nation's classrooms..

Literature Review. Teachers in most schools have recognized the significance of multicultural education. Mapuranga & Bukaliya (2014) studied how school instructors have appreciated multicultural education in Zimbabwean schools. They found that teachers did not understand the meaning of multicultural education, but there was significant evidence of multiculturism in most studied schools. According to Olson (2003), pre-service education instructors perceive the positive impacts of multiculturalism just after a discussion on multiculturalism than before discussion. Thus, teachers' attitude towards multicultural education increases with time if teachers frequently encounter it while teaching..

Literature Review. Furthermore, many respondents accepted that multicultural education had more positive impacts on human life than negative ones. Taraska & Nathan (2004) postulate that teachers need to be trained further on the importance of multicultural education, starting with tertiary institutions. Education strategies should focus on multiculturism education. According to Ogunleye (2009), multiculturalism is excellently compact with the education science, and African teachers have to make students understand African science by incorporating it in their lessons. This aims to increase the need for multiculturalism awareness among children and make them respect all cultures without discriminating..

Methodology. Participants-experimental designs using quantitative and qualitative research methods were carried out in this study. The research was conducted in two private middle and high schools in the Atlanta area. Questionnaires were given to ten ( 10) science teachers. The teachers were given four days to respond to the questions..

Data Collection. Quantitative data- Quantitative data was collected from nine questions on the questionnaire. The questions offered three choices of answers, and the teachers had to select one option. Qualitative data- was collected via the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire contained a total of three open-ended questions. The responses from teachers were analyzed to look for trends and specific patterns in their answers. Responses from semi-structured interviews were also included in the analysis..

Data Analysis. Have you heard the term multicultural education before?.

Data Analysis. Do you think multicultural education should be a component of schools’ curriculum?.

Data Analysis. How well do your colleagues at school understand you as a person? Very well Somewhat well Not so well 60% 20% 20%.

Data Analysis. How often do school leaders encourage you to teach about people from different races, ethnicities, or cultures? Very well Somewhat well Not so well 10% 30% 60%.

Data Analysis. How often are students given opportunities to learn about people from different races, ethnicities, or cultures?.

Data Analysis. How often do you think about what students of different races, ethnicities, or cultures experience?.

Data Analysis. How comfortable are you with incorporating new material about people from different backgrounds into your curriculum?.

Data Analysis. 10. What do you think multicultural education entails? Teaching about other culture. Using matters about culture and race in class lessons. Valuing other culture and race. Using more diverse materials about student’s background in class. 11. How do you incorporate elements of race and diversity into your science units? By allowing students to talk about race related issues openly . Using relevant materials from student cultural background. Having cultural day, I don’t really talk about race and culture in my class..

Data Analysis. 12. Do you think students are more motivated when elements of their culture are used in your lessons? Yes , I believe students are more motivated. I don’t know. Yes, students are more engage when the information is relevant to them. Yes, they will be more motivated I don’t think so. 13. Do you think more can be done to incorporate multicultural approaches in your school? Yes, every school should incorporate multicultural education in curriculum. I think schools should find areas to teach more about culture and diversity. I think it can be done , but I’m concern about some parents’ views. Some parents might not want their child to discuss race and cultural issues . I think more can be done. It can sometime be a sensitive topic.I belive it can be done.

Personal Summary Based on Interview Questions. The response from the teachers shows that most of the school teachers have understood and appreciated the importance of multicultural education. From the interview questions, it is evident that society has appreciated the importance of multicultural education in schools. They feel that they have been recognized and part of the education system when their cultural practices are embraced. This is shown as at least 60% evidence that teachers are part of their schools and only 20% evidence are not part of their schools.

Personal Summary Based on Interview Questions. Teachers have a deep understanding of the term multicultural education. The increasing world population has increased the world culture diversities and the need to learn cultural diversification. School heads should ensure that multicultural education is incorporated into the school’s curriculum. This is because there are increasing interactions of individuals with diverse cultures. Educating individuals on cultural differences improves their mutual co-existence and makes it easy to solve societal problems..

Personal Summary Based on Interview Questions. They felt included and respected in the school where multicultural education is incorporated into the curriculum. This has significantly boosted the academic results as togetherness, and shared ideology make life in school comfortable and worth staying. The school instructors use relevant materials from the students’ backgrounds as teaching aids. In science units, appropriate materials are used by school instructors, recognizing the need for appreciating the diversification. There is still much-needed effort to ensure that all schools, private and public, consider the importance of multicultural education. The government should formulate policies that ensure that schools have incorporated multicultural education in school..

What factors prevent teachers from implementing multicultural education?.

APPLICATION & LEARNING POTENTIAL. Students' achievement is influenced by many factors, including student attitudes, interests, motivation, type of curricula, relevancy of materials, and the culture of the students ( Banks & Banks,1995). To understand multicultural issues in science classroom, educators much be aware of the following dimension. Content integration Knowledge construction Prejudice reduction Equity pedagogy Empowering school culture and social structure.

APPLICATION & LEARNING POTENTIAL. Some strategies teachers can use to improve multicultural education in the science classroom are. The use of Cooperative learning strategies. Strategically mix students to form groups. Demand group responsibility. Demand individual accountability. Introduce students to social or interpersonal skills..

Conclusion and Application. While teachers' responses were generally positive about implementing multicultural education in their classrooms, there is still room for improvement. Administrators and schools officials can do much more to ensure school culture reflect a multicultural approach. Constant reflection about issues of race and inequality needs to be reflected in classrooms. Infusing a classroom with multicultural education can serve as a motivation for students who historically have felt underrepresented. This study has informed my teaching and caused me to reflect on some changes I would like to make to my classroom to ensure more multicultural approaches are practiced and implemented..

Conclusion and Application. Moving forward, some of the improvement I will make to my classroom are as follow: Include in lesson research on people of diverse cultures who have contributed to the lesson topic or concept being covered. Use cooperative learning, inquiry, and graphic organizers. Assign authentic assessments to discuss and use culturally rich information in the discussion. Foster a growth mindset by helping students understand that their abilities can be improved with dedication and hard work..

RefeRences. Banks, J., and c. Banks (eds.) (1995). Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education. new York: Macmillan. Barrett, M. (2018). How schools can promote the intercultural competence of young people. European Psychologist . https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10.1027/1016-9040/a000308 Huang, H. P., Cheng, Y. Y., & Yang, C. F. (2017). Science teachers’ perception on multicultural education literacy and curriculum practices. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education , 13 (6), 2761-2775. https://www.ejmste.com/article/science-teachers-perception-on-multicultural-education-literacy-and-curriculum-practices-4797 Kahraman , P. B., & Sezer , G. O. (2017). Relationship between attitudes of multicultural education and perceptions regarding the cultural effect of globalization. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research , 16 (67). https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ejer/issue/42446/511241.