In-Service Physical Educators' Multicultral Attitudes in Nebraska Schools Affected by the New Latino Diaspora. (Paperback)

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between in-service physical educators in communities affected by the New Latino Diaspora in Nebraska and the following variables: (a) gender, (b) educators' ethnicity or race, (c) percentage change of Latino population in a community, (d) percentage Latino students in a school district, (e) teacher certification held and, (f) educators' place of residence. In addition, this study seeks to discern: (a) whether or not significant relationships exist between the indicated variable and multicultural attitudes; (b) provide a demographic description of physical educators in selected communities. A sample size of 122 in-service physical educators was identified. Out of the 122 identified physical educators, 102 responded. This resulted in a return rate of 84%. Despite this return rate, assuming a power of 80% as acceptable, all variables and their levels did not attain power to meet this level of acceptance. The male to female ratio in the sample of the physical educators was approximately 3:2. All but one of the participants was of white ethnicity. At the time of the survey, more than half of the sample population held professional certificates (57.80%); nearly one-third held standard certificates (35.30%); 5% held initial level certificates and 2% reported that they did not hold a physical education certificate. The Munroe Multicultural Attitude Scale Questionnaire (MASQUE) was used to collect information related to participants' multicultural attitudes and five additional questions were used to collect demographic data. This study used the analytical survey method to collect data. Research questions were examined using parametric statistics in order to identify whether significant relationships existed. The statistical analyses included T-tests, ANOVAs, F-tests and appropriate Post-Hoc tests. Examination of the research questions identified only one significant relationship. A post-hoc test confirmed that non physical education certificate holders had significantly different multicultural attitudes compared to the multicultural attitudes of the physical education certificate holders. Findings of the study suggest that providing physical educators and physical educator candidates with opportunities to develop a more multicultural responsive approach to teaching.