Parental perceptions of the importance of providing multicultural education for their children's education at elementary, middle, and high schools in an ethnically-diverse suburban school district

The purpose of this study was to examine parents' perceptions of multicultural education and the positive effects of a multicultural approach. Parents who were attending parent-teacher conferences in a single suburban school district were asked to complete a survey.; A total of 351 parents completed and returned the survey that was adapted from previous research to measure parents' perceptions of multicultural education in their school districts. The parents ranged in age from 19 to 75 years. The majority of parents were African American, with the largest group of parents reporting annual household incomes from {dollar}30,000 to {dollar}45,000. Most of the parents had some college. Three subscales were used to measure parent's perceptions of multicultural education: teaching and learning using multicultural education, purpose of multicultural education, and use of multicultural education in schools. The survey also measured parents' perceptions of the effectiveness of multicultural education regarding psychosocial outcomes (e.g., self-esteem, self-confidence, resolving conflict, increasing tolerance, developing social skills, reducing prejudice, and educational quality). Demographic information about the parents also was obtained on the survey.; The results of the study indicated that parents generally had positive perceptions of multicultural education in their children's school. No differences were found on the three subscales measuring multicultural education among parents from different ethnic groups. Parents of children at the four building levels had similar perceptions regarding multicultural education in their children's schools. Perceptions of parents regarding the multicultural education were correlated with the affective outcomes of multicultural education in a positive direction. When the annual family incomes were correlated with perceptions of multicultural education, the results were not statistically significant.; The findings indicated that parents wanted multicultural education included in the curriculum. The study also showed that the ethnicity of the parent, age of the student, and income level of the parents did not result in differences in perceptions of multicultural education among parents in the school district.