Sınıf Öğretmenlerinin Çokkültürlü Eğitime Yönelik Görüşlerinin İncelenmesi

Abstract

Multicultural education stands out as an approach that requires organizing educational processes by taking into account and keeping individual differences such as language, religion, ethnicity, culture, belief, gender and disability in learning environments. This study aims to investigate teachers' opinions, experiences and practices regarding multicultural education.
Knowing the opinions, experiences and practices of teachers, who largely shape the education and training process, will form the basis of educational measures to be taken in the future. For this reason, it is thought that in this research, investigating the opinions, experiences and practices of many teachers from various branches regarding multicultural education will contribute to the literature. When the studies in the literature are examined, it is seen that many studies are quantitative studies aimed at determining the perceptions, attitudes or competencies of teachers or teacher candidates regarding multicultural education. This study differs from similar studies in the literature in that it both collects teachers' opinions on multicultural education with qualitative data and determines teachers' experiences and practices regarding the creation of multicultural educational environments, and is considered important in terms of this aspect.
According to the research results, teachers' perceptions of multicultural education focus on different concepts of culture, religion, language and race. All teachers stated that they found multicultural education beneficial for students and the majority of teachers stated that they preferred the presence of different cultures in the classroom environment. The majority of the teachers participating in the study consider multicultural education necessary. Most teachers see communicating with families as the most important way to get to know the student. Almost all of the teachers participating in the study think that the current education system is not sufficient to meet the needs of students with cultural differences. Teachers who made suggestions to eliminate the inadequacies and shortcomings of the current system mostly mentioned that education should move away from a uniform perspective and should be developed in a way that covers all students and their needs. Teachers have expressed the opinion that education programs and textbooks are inadequate to meet the needs of students with cultural differences, and that an education system in which the differences in the dominant culture are predominant and neglected will not be sufficient.
Key Words: Multiculturalism, Respect for Differences, Cultural Diversity, Distance Education, Early Childhood Education.