The relationship between early childhood teacher candidates' attitudes towards multicultural education and sexism

The aim of this study is to describe the attitudes of preschool and primary teacher candidates who will serve in early childhood towards sexism and multicultural education in terms of various demographic variables and to explain whether there is a relationship between these two attitudes. The study is planned by using relational survey model which is one of the quantitative research methods. The sample of the study is convenient sampling. 550 preschool and primary school teacher candidates who were studying in a public university in Central Anatolia in 2015-2016 academic year participated in the study. Within the scope of the study, scales which were developed and adapted aimed at measuring attitudes towards sexism and multicultural education were utilized. In order to measure the attitudes towards sexism, "Ambivalent Sexism Inventory" was used. To be able to measure the attitudes towards multicultural education, "Multicultural Attitudes Scale for Teacher Candidates" was utilized. In addition to these scales, demographic information about teacher candidates was obtained through general information form. Validity and reliability of the data collection tools were tested, tests of normality were carried out, and moreover the subscales of the tools were confirmed based on confirmatory factor analysis. The data collected were analyzed using ANOVA, t-test, Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney U and Spearman's Correlation. As the results of the study, hostile sexist attitudes significantly vary according to the gender, the type of accommodation, mother's education level, SES, and the dominant political view of the hometown of teacher candidates. Benevolent sexist attitudes significantly vary according to the gender, grade level, marital status of the parents of the teacher candidates and whether they take part in studies related to the dependent variables. Moreover, there is a positive relationship between the benevolent sexist attitudes and the age of teacher candidates. Attitudes towards multicultural education significantly different according to the gender, morther's education level of the teacher candidates and whether they take part in studies, whether they experienced different cultures, and whether they have experienced discrimination before. Furthermore, the frequency of conducting activities and having friends from different groups show a positive correlation with the teacher candidates' attitudes towards multicultural education. Lastly, a negative correlation is determined between the sexist attitudes and attitudes towards multicultural education. While this correlation is statistically significant for female teacher candidates, it is not significant for male teacher candidates.