Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 1-1-2012 A Descriptive Study of Multicultural Sensitivity at Two Rural Higher Education Institution Settings through a Survey of those Institutions' Faculty Sumeeta Patnaik [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons Recommended Citation Patnaik, Sumeeta, "A Descriptive Study of Multicultural Sensitivity at Two Rural Higher Education Institution Settings through a Survey of those Institutions' Faculty" (2012). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 213. This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF MULTICULTURAL SENSITIVITY AT TWO RURAL HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION SETTINGS THROUGH A SURVEY OF THOSE INSTITUTIONS’ FACULTY Sumeeta Patnaik, Ed.S Marshall University Graduate School of Education and Professional Development Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Marshall University Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction Committee Chair, James Sottile, Ph.D Celene Seymour, Ph.D Thelma Isaacs, Ed.D Clark Egnor, Ed.D Huntington, West Virginia 2012 Keywords: Multiculturalism, Multicultural Sensitivity, Multicultural Responsivity, Faculty-Student Interaction, Rural Colleges, Multicultural Affairs and Social Justice Copyright 2012 by Sumeeta Patnaik, Ed.S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Seven years ago, I began a long journey into the process of becoming a doctor in education. Along the way, I found myself completely changed by the process of learning, teaching, and writing to become a scholarly thinker in education. Although this journey has been difficult, I owe a great deal of thanks to the following people. My deepest gratitude goes to Dr. James Sottile, my dissertation chair, who took on a difficult project and helped me see it to the end. I am also grateful to my committee--Dr. Celene Seymour, Dr. Thelma Isaacs, and Dr. Clark Egnor-- for your support and commitment to this study. I also want to give my thanks to previous committee members, Dr. Calvin Meyer, and Dr. Luke Eric Lassiter, for helping me to get this project off the ground. I want to thank the following friends and colleagues for their unwavering support: Mollie McOwen, Mollie McClennan, Drema Stringer, Rebecca White, Susan Peyton, Linda Vinson, Carol Perry, Monica Shafer, Barbara Holland, Eliot Parker, Kim Nisky, Ron Worley, Mildred Battle, Michael McComas, Shirley Banks, Debra Young, Melanie White, Sherri Ritter, John Whiteley, Jean Chappelle, Joycie Waywie, and Leeann Olson. Most important, I want to thank my family, including my mother, Angela Bryson, my sister, Anita Patnaik, and my brother, Vijay Patnaik. Your love, support, and faith always carried me through the difficult times. ii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................II TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................... III LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................................... V LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... VI LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................... VII ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. VIII A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF ASSESSING MULTICULTURAL SENSITIVITY AT TWO RURAL HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION SETTINGS THROUGH A SURVEY OF THOSE INSTITUTIONS’ FACULTY....................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................. 6 PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................................................... 14 OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................................................... 15 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................................... 16 SIGNIFICANCE ............................................................................................................................................ 18 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS ...................................................................................................................... 18 SURVEY ..................................................................................................................................................... 25 CONTINUUM .............................................................................................................................................. 40 RATIONALE ................................................................................................................................................ 45 LIMITATIONS/ASSUMPTIONS ...................................................................................................................... 49 DELIMITATIONS ......................................................................................................................................... 50 ROLE OF THE RESEARCHER ........................................................................................................................ 51 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ........................................................................... 56 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 56 MULTICULTURALISM ................................................................................................................................. 58 THEORETICAL APPROACHES ...................................................................................................................... 70 FACULTY-STUDENT INTERACTION ............................................................................................................. 92 CONTINUUM OF MULTICULTURAL SENSITIVITY ...................................................................................... 111 RURAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ...................... 126 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 133 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS (WITH SURVEY DEVELOPMENT)............................................ 134 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 134 PILOT STUDY ........................................................................................................................................... 135 CURRENT STUDY ..................................................................................................................................... 141 DATA COLLECTION .................................................................................................................................. 148 DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................................... 150 CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA .................................................. 153 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 153 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES ............................................................................................................ 154 iii RESPONDENT AND SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS ....................................................................................... 155 FINDINGS ................................................................................................................................................. 163 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................. 194 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 194 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY .......................................................................................................................... 194 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................................