Evaluation of a Cultural Competence Assessment for Preservice Teachers

Abstract

Globally, public schools enroll culturally and linguistically diverse student populations and teacher preparation programs must assess the cultural competence of preservice teachers. Yet, few adequately tested measures of teacher cultural competence are available. In this research study, a sample of 396 preservice teachers were surveyed to evaluate psychometric properties of one cultural competence measure designed by Liang and Zhang (2009) and to determine how well the instrument's factors reflected the construct of cultural competence. Data were collected over a 2-year period from preservice teachers enrolled in their last semester of student teaching in public school settings. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted along with a Schmid-Leiman solution due to strong interfactor correlations. Results revealed residualized first-order factors accounting for 47% of the variance and a second-order factor, Cultural Competence, which accounted for 53% of the variance explained. Implications for assessing preservice teachers' cultural competence and future research are discussed.