Multicultural teaching competence and teachers' attitudes toward inclusion

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between multicultural teaching competence (MTC) and teachers' attitudes toward inclusion. Specifically, this study tested whether MTC has an influence on teachers' attitudes toward inclusion over and beyond the influence of teachers' sense of efficacy (TSES). Further, the study explored two possible ways in which MTC and TSES, in tandem, affect teachers' attitudes toward inclusion. First, I tested the potential role of TSES as a moderator of the relationship between MTC and teachers' attitudes toward inclusion to examine whether TSES would strengthen the degree of association between the two variables. Second, I tested whether TSES would affect teachers' attitudes toward inclusion through the mediation effect of MTC.

The participants included 370 teachers currently employed in K-12 schools in the United States. Participants responded to measures of multicultural teaching competence, teachers' sense of efficacy, and attitudes toward inclusion. Additionally, each participant completed a short demographic survey. Results indicated that MTC was significantly related to teachers' attitudes toward inclusion even when controlling for TSES. Teachers' sense of efficacy did not moderate the relationship between MTC and teachers' attitudes toward inclusion. However, MTC did partially mediate the relationship between TSES and teachers' attitudes toward inclusion. Additionally, these results indicate a mechanism through which teachers' sense of efficacy affect multicultural teaching competence, which in turn affects teachers' attitudes toward inclusion.