Abstract:

The present study aimed to find out whether a course on multicultural education affect teachers' attitudes towards multicultural education, cultural differences, prejudices and democracy education. To this end, a one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was employed. The sample of the study consisted of 20 teachers enrolled in a graduate program at a mid-sized public university in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey. The Democracy and Multicultural Education Attitude Scale (DMEAS) was administered both at the beginning and at the end of the 14-week multicultural education course. A paired-sample t-test was used to compare the pre-test and post-test scores, and one-way ANOVAs were carried out to analyze the differences based on gender, place of residence and years of experience. The findings of the t-test revealed a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores regarding attitudes towards multicultural education, cultural differences, prejudices and democracy education. In addition, ANOVA results indicated a significant difference for gender (for the post-test) and place of residence (for the pre-test). Based on the findings, it can be said that a multicultural education course that will be added to the programs could significantly improve the multicultural attitudes of the participants and reduce their prejudices.

Keywords: