Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Dissertation

Keywords

International education--Iowa;

Abstract

Global education is a curriculum which is creating considerable debate among educators and lay people. The Iowa Department of Education has mandated that all schools develop a global education program. Clough (1994) reports that "the globalization of American society has greatly increased the incentives for individuals in all parts of the country to become more involved in world affairs" (p. 4) . Therefore, it is important that the attitudes of educators toward global education and the implementation of global education be studied.

The purposes of this study were to identify the attitudes of public high school principals and social studies teachers in Iowa related to global education, the extent to which public high schools have implemented global education, the relationship of personal and social variables, and the relationship of community variables implementation.

A quantitative research approach was utilized. The questionnaire was mailed to 442 public high school principals and social studies teachers within Iowa. The sample was stratified into three categories which included metropolitan, urban, and rural high schools. The final sample included 242 responses which represented a return rate of 55%.

Six research questions were explored to identify the degree of global education acceptance and implementation and the relationship of these with various personal and social traits of educators. Several statistical tests were conducted to analyze the data. All of the statistical tests were conducted at the .05 level of significance. The statistical tests conducted included: t-test, chi square, lambda, gamma, one way ANOVA, Tukey HSD, and Scheffe procedure.

There was a high level of acceptance of global education conceptually, but a generally low level of implementation. Few personal or social characteristics were related to global education. However, the results indicated a positive correlation existed between school size and global education implementation, hence, an exploratory study was launched to identify other variables which may have a correlation with global education implementation. Thirty-six variables from the 1990 Census were selected to represent community social variables. Four variables which had the highest relationship to the implementation of global education were: median housing value, percentage of people below poverty level, percentage of population born in state (inverse relationship), and foreign born population.

The conclusions indicated that there was considerable agreement between high school principals and social studies teachers about global education attitudes. However, the implementation level of global education was much lower than expected considering the higher level of attitudinal support for global education. Community variables show promise as significant predictors of global education implementation.

Year of Submission

1994

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Department of Educational Administration and Counseling

First Advisor

Robert H. Decker, Faculty Advisor

Date Original

1994

Object Description

1 PDF file (vi, 177 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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