Student teachers' opinions of multicultural education based on their use cases of social media

The main purpose of this research is to assess the opinions of the student teachers, currently studying in the final year of BA programs at education faculties, on multicultural education according to their use of social media environments. In accordance with this purpose, the student teachers' perceptions of multicultural education were examined to find out whether there was a statistically significant difference in terms of sub-dimensions such as duration of membership of social media sites, the total number of friends on social media sites, the number of actively used social media sites, the most used social media site, the purpose of using social media sites, the average time spent on social media sites a day, the number of subscribed groups/communities on social media sites, the content of the social media group that are used most. The senior student teachers of education faculties at the state universities in Turkey in the fall semester of 2016-2017 academic year constitute the universe of the research. Since the research universe was large, a cluster sampling method was used in order to save time and cost to reach the study universe. 2152 senior student teachers of education faculties across 10 state universities from each geographical region of Turkey in the fall term of 2016-2017 academic year participated in the study. To evaluate the opinions of teacher candidates about multicultural education according to social media use situations, the following data collection tools were used in this survey: Social Media Usage Questionnaire, Faculty of Education Undergraduate Students Multiculturalism and Multicultural Education Questionnaire and an open-ended questionnaire. Inferential and descriptive statistical approaches were used to analyze the data. In the context of descriptive statistical techniques, data from open-ended questionnaires on multiculturalism and multicultural education were given in frequency and percentage. Frequency and percentage values given to open-ended questionnaires were supported by quotations from responses given by student-teachers. Before analyzing the data related to inferential statistical techniques and methods, the distribution of variables were examined and it was decided whether the analysis method to be used should be parametric or non-parametric. Since the data do not possess normal distribution, they do not provide the parametric test assumptions. For this reason, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance were used for nonparametric tests for the data analysis and the significance value was accepted as p <.05. The Dunn test was used as a non-parametric post-hoc method to test the groups from which the significant difference is derived when there is a significant difference in the Kruskall Wallis variance analysis. The results reached and highlighted as a result of the study are as follows: • The perceptions of the student-teachers that participated in the survey showed a statistically significant difference related to the outcomes of the multicultural education in terms of the purpose of using social media sites, the average time spent on social media sites a day and the content of the social media group that is used most. • The perceptions of the student-teachers that participated in the survey showed a statistically significant difference related to the effect of university education on multicultural education in terms of the most used social media site, the number of membership of groups/communities on social media sites and the content of the social media group that are used most. • The perceptions of the student-teachers that participated in the survey showed a statistically significant difference related to the equality and justice in terms of the most used social media site, the purpose of using social media sites and the content of the social media group that is used most. • When the opinions of student-teachers on the effect of using social media environments on the multicultural perspective were examined; it was seen that the vast majority of student-teachers believe that the use of social media can provide a multicultural perspective. • When the opinions of the student teachers on the results of the adoption of the multicultural education system in terms of education system were examined; it was found out that most of the prospective teachers evaluate the results of the adoption of the multicultural education system positively in terms of the education system. • When examining the opinions of student-teachers on the effect of university education on aspects of multicultural education, it was seen that the vast majority of student-teachers indicated that university education had a positive effect on the aspects of multicultural education.