Responding to Cultural Diversity through an Online Multicultural Sensitivity Course for Pre-service Teachers

The cultural diversity of Mindanao, Philippines, highlights the need for multiculturally sensitive teachers in the region, as well as for teacher education that fosters such sensitivity.  In the light of scarce empirical studies on increasing multicultural sensitivity (MS) among pre-service teachers, this dissertation examined whether and how MS can be increased in teacher education and identified essential variables that might contribute to and clarify this process. Specifically, this research developed a scale to measure MS, designed and developed an online course based on Transformative Learning Theory (TLT), assessed the course’s impact, and determined the role of course engagement and personal factors on the change in MS.

Developing the MS scale required item generation, theoretical analysis, and psychometric analysis. These resulted in an invariant, internally consistent 28-item Likert scale with three factors for the personal dimension (ethnocentrism, intercultural effort, and intercultural stress) and two factors for the professional dimension (exhibiting multiculturalism and monocultural orientation). The study’s subsequent phase used the resulting scale to measure the impact of the developed online course.

The online MS course, with selected TLT phases integrated into the course design,  followed the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (ADDIE) model. Experts and pre-service teachers gave the five-module course a generally high rating.

Overall MS showed a statistically significant increase, but the effect size was modest based on Cohen’s d. However, most pre-service teachers claimed to have experienced positive change and identified critical reflection to have influenced their change.

Course engagement and personal factors were also examined whether they could potentially influence the impact of the course. Data showed that course engagement influenced the increase in overall MS, while multicultural experiences, gender, and some subscales of intellectual humility predicted the increase of specific MS subscales. That course engagement could predict MS increase is a promising result since it implies that the course can bring about change.

Despite the limitations of the MS course in its current form, the study becomes even more relevant in the face of the dearth of literature explicitly detailing how to increase MS.  The study demonstrated this relevance by showing how MS can be increased through a specially designed course that integrates selected TLT phases and that leverages online learning.

Furthermore, this study also presented insights on the convergence of multiculturalism, teacher education, and online learning. Its theoretical contributions, along with the MS scale and the online MS course developed, are practical outcomes that can be used in teacher education.