Confronting cultural diversity: Cultural beliefs of teacher students in South Tyrol

Abstract

Cultural beliefs of teachers are a key component of their professional competence in times of rising cultural diversity in classrooms. Previous studies have postulated relations between teachers’ cultural beliefs and their intended teaching behavior as well as with their own biography and prior experiences with inclusive education.
In order to cultivate positive beliefs, teacher education programs need to take their students preexisting cultural beliefs into account. The Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale (TCBS) was developed in Germany to assess multicultural and egalitarian beliefs.
The presented study replicates the factor structure of the TCBS in a sample of
929 teacher students from the culturally-diverse setting of Southern Tyrol, and adds the factor of assimilationist beliefs to it. This novelty – a culturally-diverse sample and a new subscale – contributes to the discussion in the Italian scientific community and enables international comparisons in the research on cultural beliefs.