A Pilot Study of Students' Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Multicultural Concepts: A Pre- and Post-Course Analysis

Abstract

Diversity issues have been the cause of both pain and inspiration within the United States. One environment that has aided diversity movements are institutions of higher learning. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine characteristics of a survey used to measure students' perceptions toward various diversity issues pre- and post-course on multicultural/diversity issues in hospitality management. One hundred students were solicited for this study. The instrument measured perceptions toward 23 statements in four sections using a 5-point Likert-type scale. The statistical procedures employed for this study were descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and multivariate analysis of variance. It was found that the survey used for this study contained areas of concern, and adjustments to the survey may be needed to improve reliability. It was also found that students' post-course self-assessments of their diversity awareness differed significantly from their pre-course assessments. The results of this pilot study could be used by various hospitality organizations looking to obtain a competitive advantage through their understanding and embracing of diversity issues as part of their corporate culture.

KEYWORDS:

• diversity education
• diversity perception assessment
• multicultural issues
• student perceptions