Prejudice Reduction Through Diversity Coursework for Teacher Education

• Main Author: Hartman, Luke Aaron
• Other Authors: Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
• Format: Others
• Published: Virginia Tech 2014
• Subjects: Prejudice Reduction; Preservice Education; Diversity Coursework
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/49563

Investigated in this study was whether a university education course that covers the topics of diversity and cultural responsiveness would change teacher candidates\' existing prejudicial attitudes.  The major variables reported in this study were exposure to diversity coursework which served as the independent variable and teacher candidates\' prejudicial attitudes, which served as the dependent variable. Using the Yoder-Hartman Survey of Beliefs Scale, three research questions were addressed: (a) Are there differences in prejudice level between preservice teachers who have taken a diversity course and those who have not taken a diversity course? (b) Are there differences in prejudice level in preservice teachers before and after taking a diversity course? and (c) Do preservice teachers who have taken a diversity course and those who have not taken a diversity course display different pre/post levels of assessed prejudice? No differences were found between students who had taken a diversity course and those who had not. The current study suggests that one diversity course is not sufficient to have a significant effect on prejudice reduction among preservice teachers. Analyses of the current study results suggest that the coursework designed to reduce prejudicial attitudes was ineffective. Continued investigation will be required to: (1) refine and develop a program that will reduce prejudicial attitudes among teacher candidates and (2) refine and develop measures of prejudice reduction. === Ph. D.