Investigation of multicultural competence perceptions and personality traits of primary school teachers

The aim of this research was to investigate the multicultural competence perceptions and the multicultural personality traits of primary school teachers and to reveal the relationship between them. The study was conducted with 407 primary school teachers who were working in 8 central cities of Ankara in the fall semester of 2016-2017 academic year. Information about primary school teachers' "grade level of the class they taught, gender, mother tongue, professional seniority, institution of graduation, latest education status, place where they lived the longest until the age of 18, father and mother education level" and "city they worked in" were determined by using the Personal Information Form. Primary school teachers' perceptions of multicultural competence were measured using the Multicultural Education Cultural Proficiency Scale and their multicultural personality traits were measured using the Multicultural Personality Scale. Data were analyzed by arithmetic mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis. As a result of examining the multicultural competence perceptions and personality traits of the primary school teachers in terms of demographic variables, it was found that the multicultural competency perceptions and personality traits of female primary school teachers were different from male primary school teachers. However, it was shown that primary school teachers' multicultural competence perceptions and personality traits were not related to the place where they lived the longest until the age of 18 and father education level. According to the level of mother education, there was no significant difference in the multicultural personality traits of the primary school teachers, but significant differences were determined in the multicultural competence perceptions. In addition, it was found that as the professional seniorities of the primary school teachers increase, their perceptions of multicultural competence decrease. Mean of the awareness subdimension of multicultural competence perception scores of primary school teachers was highest among teachers graduated from the faculty of education, while it was the lowest among graduates of teacher training school. In addition, it was observed that as primary school teachers' multicultural competence perceptions increase, their multicultural personality traits develop. Based on the findings, suggestions were offered for the development of primary school teachers who have multicultural competence perceptions and personality traits, and organization of inservice teacher education programs focusing on multicultural education.