Evaluation of the Attitudes of Teacher Candidates towards Democracy and Multicultural Education
Abstract
The purpose of this research, performed with the idea that democracy is the basis of multicultural education, and multicultural education is the perpetuity of democracy, is to determine the attitudes of teacher candidates towards democracy and multicultural education. This study used qualitative and quantitative research techniques together; quantitative data are given with the “Democracy and Multicultural Education Attitude Scale”, and qualitative data are gathered in the answer given to the sentences starting with “I think democracy…” and “I think multicultural education…”. According to the results, the attitudes of teacher candidates towards democracy and multicultural education: “very positive” on democracy education and democracy, “positive” on multiculturalism, multicultural education and prejudices on multicultural education. It is understood that participants of the research did not differ in their attitudes according to their genders, parents’ education, the region they live in and location variables, that social studies teacher candidates formed the group that had the most positive attitude for “democracy education” and “democracy”, that respectively, formation and physical training teaching groups had relatively negative attitudes on same topics, and that classroom teacher candidates had more positive attitudes on cultural differences according to others. According to the multinomial logistic regression analysis results, it was found that the “major department”, “gender”, “parent education”, “region and location lived for the longest time” variables selected under the research are insufficient to explain the attitudes of teacher candidates towards democracy and multicultural education, that teacher candidates had more positive attitudes on democracy education and democracy compared to multicultural education and that father’s education is effective on teacher candidates’ attitudes on cultural differences. It is understood that teacher candidates emphasized the political, active participation and “equality-for-all” aspects of democracy and explained democracy with positive themes; regarding multicultural education, they believed that this education will provide equal opportunities; they emphasized the importance of diversity, and suggested a change in curriculum for this education
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