Impact of Practice Perception and Teaching Efficacy of Multicultural Education on Its Practice Level in Early Childhood Teachers

Objectives: This study focuses on practice perception, teaching efficacy and practice level of multicultural education and it investigates correlations and effects of these variables. Methods/Statistical Analysis: This study sampled randomly 300 kindergarten teachers, working at early childhood educational institutions in the city of Busan and Gyeongsang province. Out of 300 teachers, 260 answered the survey (86.7%) and finally 253 were analyzed. Using Windows SPSS 23.0 program, this study analyzed median, standard deviation and Person correlations coefficients of research variables. Later, stepwise multiple regressions were performed. Findings: First, the median of perception of multicultural education practice appeared as 3.56 (SD = .33), multicultural teaching efficacy as 3.50 (SD = .55) and practice level of multicultural education as 3.49 (SD = .54). Second, correlations coefficients of multicultural education practice, multicultural teaching efficacy, and practice level of multicultural education appeared from .50 to .53 (p<.01), indicating that these variables are positively correlated. Third, Kindergarten teachers’ perception on multicultural education practice and multicultural teaching efficacy were analyzed to explain 68% of practice level of multicultural education. Specifically, multicultural teaching efficacy explains 66%, leaving teachers’ perception on multicultural education practice with the rest (2%). In addition, F value (258.69) was found to be statistically significant, indicating this study’s model was appropriate (p<.001). As a result, multicultural teaching efficacy, followed by perception on multicultural education practice, was analyzed to have a positive impact on practice level of multicultural education. Improvements/Applications: These results explained to increase kindergarten teachers’ perception on multicultural education practice and multicultural teaching efficacy in order to improve the practice level of multicultural education.