Browsing by Subject "Cultural Awareness"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item An Examination of Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade Teachers' Beliefs and Cultural Awareness of Students of Color in Relationship to Teacher Ethnicity, Teaching Certification, Years of Teaching Experience, and Gender(2011-10-21) Nunley, Vonda RoychelleThe purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to examine the relationship between teachers? beliefs and cultural awareness of students of color, and teacher ethnicity, level of teaching certification, years of teaching experience and gender. During the 2005-2006 academic school year, data was collected from teachers teaching in a large urban school district, located in the southeastern portion of Texas, to examine teacher?s working with diverse populations of students in diverse communities. The Cultural Awareness and Belief Inventory (CABI) was used to collect this data. The CABI measures teachers? beliefs and cultural awareness when working with African American students in comparison to their counterparts of other ethnicities. This study examined the data collected from teachers teaching students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The data collected in this study was examined based on four descriptive characteristics, teacher ethnicity, teacher gender, level of teaching certification (elementary or secondary), and years of teaching experience. Data collected from African American teachers and European American teachers were examined for statistically significant differences. The results indicate that there is a statically significant difference in the beliefs and cultural awareness of African American and European American teacher?s teaching sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. There was not a statistically significant difference in the beliefs and cultural awareness of teachers teaching sixth, seventh, and eighth grade in relationship to teacher gender, level of teaching certification (elementary or secondary), or years of teaching experience.Item Desired Competencies of Employees on International Agricultural Development Projects as Indicated by Project Managers: A Qualitative Study(2011-08-08) Sandlin, M'Randa RuthInternational agricultural development institutions previously hired employees based on their technical expertise, and, with little to no formal training in development, were sent to live abroad with one goal: implement the project. Since the development of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, a spotlight has been placed on the development industry as a whole, and calls for world-wide accountability. The purpose of this study was to identify the desired competencies of project employees on international agricultural development projects as determined by experienced project managers. The population (N=8) for this study were all current or past project managers of international agricultural development projects. The participants engaged in an interview with the researcher, or chose to complete a questionnaire via email or standard mail. The same questions were presented in both situations. The researcher analyzed the data using the constant comparative qualitative method. The finding of this study identified competencies and categorized them into the following domains: cultural awareness, technical training, communication and interpersonal skills, attitudes and behaviors, experience, and organizational skills. The implications this study affect the curriculum development and content of higher education institutions, the hiring and evaluation process of international agricultural development institutions, and self-competency evaluation of potential employees of international agricultural development projects. It is the recommendation of the researcher that further studies be conducted to determine if the value of these competencies differ as per the location of the development project. It is also recommended that institutions of higher education, development institutions, and beneficiaries collaborate to provide opportunities for practical application of knowledge to future and current employees of international agricultural development.Item Determining the validity and reliability of the cultural awareness and beliefs inventory(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Roberts-Walter, Patricia FayThe purpose of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Cultural Awareness and Beliefs Inventory (CABI). The CABI consist of forty-six items that measures urban teachers?????? cultural awareness and beliefs on a Likert-type four-point scale. In addition, this study also examined the extent the CABI determined statistically significant differences by demographic characteristics, such as teachers?????? ethnicity or years of teaching experience. During the 2005??????2006 academic year, data for this study was collected from the Cultural Awareness and Beliefs Inventory (CABI). Approximately 1873 Prekindergarten through Grade 12 teachers, employed by an urban public school district located in southeastern Texas, completed the survey. Construct validity was determined by internal consistency, content validity, convergent and divergent validity. To investigate the internal structure, an exploratory factor analysis, EFA, yielded an eight-factor, 36-item inventory. The eight factors, Factor I: Teachers?????? Beliefs, Factor II: School Climate, Factor III: Culturally Responsive Classroom Management, Factor IV: Home Community School, Factor V: Cultural Awareness, Factor VI: Curriculum and Instruction, Factor VII: Cultural Sensitivity, and Factor VIII: Teacher Efficacy were examined by a jury of experts to establish the content validity of the eight-factor, 36-item inventory. Convergent and divergent validity was established for six of the eight constructs by conducting a Pearson product moment correlation. Cronbach??????s alpha coefficient was conducted to measure the internal consistency reliability of the 36-item CABI. The reliability was established at .83. Further, the alpha for the eight factors, or scales, ranged from 46 percent for TE to 88 percent for CRCM. Differences in the teachers?????? perceptions by teachers?????? ethnicity were determined for TB, CRCM, CS and TE. Follow-up Scheffe post hoc analyses indicated that African American teachers had significantly more positive perceptions of TB, CRCM, and CS. Hispanic American teachers had significantly more positive perceptions of TE. Differences in the teachers?????? perceptions by years of experience were determined for CRCM and HCS. Follow-up Scheffe post hoc analyses indicated that teachers with more years of experience had significantly more positive perceptions of CRCM than first year teachers. First year teachers had significantly more positive perceptions of HCS.Item Ninth Grade Teachers? Perceptions of Cultural Awareness and Teacher Beliefs as Measured by the Cultural Awareness and Beliefs Inventory: Relationship with the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Reading Scores(2011-02-22) Yandell, Shanah LeaThis descriptive, correlational study investigated small learning community campuses? teachers? perceptions and traditional high school campuses? teachers? perceptions of eight factors as measured by the Cultural Awareness and Beliefs Inventory (CABI): (1) cultural awareness, (2) teacher beliefs, (3) school climate, (4) culturally responsive classroom management, (5) home and community support, (6) curriculum and instruction strategies, (7) cultural sensitivity, and (8) teacher efficacy. Further, the statistical differences between teachers? perceptions were explored as related to ethnicity and gender. The relationship between teachers? perceptions as measured by the CABI and student achievement as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Ninth Grade Reading Test was examined. The data were collected from eight secondary campuses in a large urban school district in the southwest United States: four small learning community campuses and four traditional high school campuses. This descriptive, correlational study of ninth grade teachers? perceptions of cultural awareness and beliefs yielded unexpected results when delineated by the campus group in which the teacher was employed. The data found statistically significant differences between Small Learning Community campuses? and Traditional High School campuses? teachers? perceptions of school climate by campus group, by ethnicity and campus group, and finally by gender and campus group. Two additional factors of the CABI reported statistically significant difference when delineated by ethnicity: cultural awareness and teacher efficacy. The relationships between teachers? perceptions of the eight factors and the TAKS for ninth grade reading reported negative correlations for the small learning campus groups? teachers and a mixed results for the traditional high school campus groups? teachers with five negative correlations and three positive correlations for HCS, CI, and CS. In the final analysis, these results countered the expected responses given the research on small learning communities.