The purpose of this study is to inquire whether early childhood teachers, who are educating children from multicultural families of diverse nationalities, show differences in multicultural sensibility and receptiveness and their multicultural teaching efficacy along the line of background factors, and to investigate what effects their multicultural sensibility and cultural acceptance attitude have on their multicultural teaching efficacy.
To investigate multicultural sensibility, cultural acceptance attitude, and multicultural teaching efficacy among early childhood teachers, the present study was conducted with a total of 288 teachers who work as lead teachers in various forms of early childhood educational or child-care institutions located in Gyeonggi-do.
The present study used Intercultural Sensibility Scale, developed by Chen and Starosta (2000) and translated by Kim (2008), to measure the multicultural sensibility of early childhood teachers; and Teacher Multicultural Attitude Survey(TMAS), developed by Ponterotto, Baluch, Greig, & Rivera(1998) and used by Yoon (2008), to measure the their (multi)cultural acceptance attitude. Also, to measure early childhood teachers'' multicultural teaching efficacy, the present study used a modified version of Multicultural Efficacy Scale, originally developed by Guyton and Wesche (2005) and further categorized by Choi and Mon (2007), to fit the purpose of this study. For the analysis of collected data, the study conducted t-test and ANOVA according to research questions and performed the Duncan test as post hoc analysis.
The results of this study are summarized as follows:
First, when differences in mulcultural sensibility and receptiveness and multicultural teaching efficacy were examined along the line of backgroud factors of early childhood teachers, it was found that multicultural sensibility was higher among teachers who work at national & public educational institutions or work-based child-care centers, and are older but have less years of teaching experience. In terms of cultural receptiveness, it was found that teachers who work at home-based child-care centers and are older but have less years of teaching experience showed higher cultural receptiveness. Also, multicultural efficacy was higher for teachers who work at home-based child-care centers and are older and have more years of teaching experience.
Second, in terms of multicultural sensibility, it was found that teachers who interact with higher self-confidence showed higher efficacy in teaching ordinary life and that higher involvement, self-confidence, and attentiveness in interaction, indicated to higher teaching efficacy and class functions. Also, higher involvement and enjoyment in interacting with multicultural sensitivity showed higher efficacy in teaching interpersonal relationship.
Third, the study indicated that efficacy in teaching ordinary life and interpersonal relationship among early childhood teachers were higher when their scores for attitudes towards multicultural environment, teacher''s role, teacher training, and curriculum were higher.
The study is limited in that its results cannot be generalized to all early childhood teachers, and thus, requires further research on sample subjects with various factors. Further research is needed with segmentalized sampling and various factors with respect to the positive results about multicultural sensitivity of teachers working at home-based child-care centers that differ from previous studies.