Examining high school teachers' perceptions of cultural competence in terms of different demografic variables

The purpose of the research is to determine the perceptions of high school teachers' multicultural competence levels and examines the levels of multicultural competence according to some variables of gender, seniority, level of education and professional branch situation of the school environment lives in Küçükçekmece/İstanbul. The research was conducted in the sectioning model of general research. The population and sample consisted by the teachers of 2013-2014 academic year that worked in state high schools in Küçükçekmece. Teachers chosen as samples work in 9 different schools and 163 (%60,1) of them were females and 108 (%39,9) of them were males. 271 high school teachers participated in that research in total. The research data was collected by perceptions of multicultural competence scale developed by Başbay and Kağnıcı in 2011. The obtaining data was analyzed with descriptive statistics techniques and ANOVA. The results of the study determined that the teachers' awareness levels about multicultural education were elevated. Whereas it was identified that the level of competence and knowledge was generally upper intermediate. Besides, it was observed that there was no significant difference in the scores that teachers had taken from the awereness about multiculturalism, competence and knowledge according to the gender, seniority, level of education except professional branch. Keywords: Culture, Education, Teacher, Multicultural Education, Perceptions of Multicultural Competence