Understanding the Complexity of Attitudes Toward Public Education: Predicting the Views of Teachers and Parents in France and in the United States Based on Social and Cultural Factors

• Main Author: Wills, Madeleine
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2015
• Subjects: attitudes; education; cross-cultural; intra-attitudinal consistency; social identity; Social Psychology
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/591; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1565&context=scripps_theses

Extending prior research related to attitude development and intra-attitudinal consistency, the current study aims to evaluate various factors that predict attitudes toward public education and understand how they impact the direction and consistency of participants’ attitudes. In an effort to develop our knowledge of the factors that predict these attitudes among members of differing populations, the researcher will administer surveys that assess the three components of participants’ attitudes as well as the factors that predict them to public school teachers and parents of students in the United States (US) and in France. It is predicted that considerations like social identity and the structure of the two education systems will affect participants’ attitudes differently depending on their role (teacher or student) and location (France or US), while other aspects, such as the status of the profession of the teacher and the public perceptions of public education, will impact all participants’ attitudes similarly. This research will allow for an understanding of both the direction and consistency of attitudes toward public education, hypothesizing consistent attitudes among parents and inconsistent attitudes among teachers, based on the number and types of factors each set of the population considers when formulating their attitudes.