MERC Publications

Cultural Diversity Professional Development in Schools Survey

Krystal R. Thomas, Virginia Commonwealth University
Hillary Parkhouse, Virginia Commonwealth University
Jesse Senechal, Virginia Commonwealth University
Zoey Lu, Virginia Commonwealth University
Laura Faulcon, Chesterfield County Public Schools
Julie Gorlewski, University of Buffalo
David B. Naff, Virginia Commonwealth University

This report comes from the Professional Development for Success in Culturally Diverse Schools study from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Abstract

This report presents findings from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) Cultural Diversity Within Schools Survey. This survey was designed for school- based professionals (i.e., teachers, instructional staff, administrators) within the MERC region. Administered in the fall of 2018, the survey collected information about experiences of professional development related to cultural diversity, attitudes toward cultural diversity within schools, perceptions of barriers and opportunities, and perspectives on the need for professional development. Section 1 of the report discusses the context for this survey effort: increased cultural diversity in our schools, increased cultural mismatch between students and teachers, and multicultural education as a promising practice. This is followed in section 2 with information about the survey development and administration process. In section 3, we present the findings from the survey in several subsections that explore group comparisons and results related to the different topics covered in the survey. In section 4, we share recommendations for policy, practice and future scholarship. These recommendations are informed by the relevant literature as well as the results of the survey. The report also includes two appendices: Appendix A presents a full version of the survey, Appendix B provides detailed tables of survey results disaggregated by school division. A third appendix, Appendix C provides technical information about the survey methodology, and is available online.