Teachers' Cultural Competence and Students' Perception of the Social Classroom Climate in Culturally Different Middle School Classrooms

<p>Problem</p> <p>Teachers and students often come from different cultural backgrounds, so classrooms are increasingly becoming the venue where interactions, if not appropriately managed, will produce a social climate not conducive to learning. The present study seeks to determine to what extent teacher cultural competence impacts student perception of the classroom social environment.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>The Teacher Multicultural Attitudes Survey was used to quantify teachers’ cultural competence and a Social Classroom Climate Measure was used to gather scores on the four key factors of the social climate. Hierarchical Linear Modelling was used to assess the influence of teacher cultural competence and several demographic variables on student perception of the classroom social environment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Several demographic variables were shown to impact students’ perception of the classroom social climate. The teacher’s reported level of cultural competence, however, was not shown to be a predictor of students’ perception of classroom social climate.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of this study highlight the possibility of two major issues. First, students’ perceptions of the classroom social climate are affected by particular student characteristics, in this case, grade-level and ethnicity. This outcome lends support to the push to place students at the center of learning and pedagogical decisions. Second, it is difficult to differentiate between the effects of cultural competence and good teaching. Hence, it is important for teachers to rigorously engage in high-quality pedagogical strategies in an effort to produce instruction that addresses the ways in which all students learn best. This concept is at the heart of cultural competency, which requires teachers to have the knowledge and skills to successfully teach all students.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction PhD

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Spence, Olivia L. R.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Elvin Gabriel
• Tevni Grajales
• Larry Burton

• Cultural Competence
• Multicultural
• Effective Teachers
• Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education
• Education

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dissertations/1604

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.andrews.edu:dissertations-2871