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Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996

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Teaching and Teacher Education

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Assessing teachers’ multicultural and egalitarian beliefs: The Teacher CulturalBeliefs Scale

Axinja Hachfeld a,*, Adam Hahn b, Sascha Schroeder a,c, Yvonne Anders a,d, Petra Stanat e,Mareike Kunter a,f

aMax Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, GermanybUniversity of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USAcUniversity of Kassel, GermanydOtto Friedrich University, Bamberg, Germanye Institute for Educational Progress, Berlin, Germanyf Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 22 October 2010Received in revised form21 April 2011Accepted 26 April 2011

Keywords:MulticulturalismColor-blindnessBeginning teachersTeacher beliefsImmigrant students

* Corresponding author. Max Planck Institute for Hfor Educational Research, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin,671; fax: þ49 30 82406 433.

E-mail address: hachfeld@mpib-berlin.mpg.de (A.

0742-051X/$ e see front matter � 2011 Elsevier Ltd.doi:10.1016/j.tate.2011.04.006

a b s t r a c t

The article describes the newly developed Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale (TCBS). The TCBS assessesmulticultural and egalitarian beliefs about diversity, both of which reflect favorable attitudes towardimmigrant students, but differ with regard to how cultural diversity is believed to be best accommodatedin schools. Results from a first study with 433 beginning teachers supported the two-factor structure andthe measurement invariance of the scale. Results from a second study with 340 teacher candidates andeducational science students showed that proponents of multiculturalism and egalitarianism shareda motivation to control prejudiced reactions, but that they differed in their views on acculturation,prejudices, and authoritarianism.

� 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Schools in most Western countries have become increasinglyculturally diverse over recent decades; and as global migrationcontinues to rise, cultural diversity in schools will continue to growworldwide (UNESCO, 2004).At the same time, large-scale assess-ments such as PISAhave repeatedly shown that immigrant students’school achievement lags behind that ofmajority students inmanyofthe participating countriesdbut especially in Germany (see Stanat& Christensen, 2006, for OECD and partner countries). It has beenclaimed that schools fail to address the needs of immigrantstudents, and that catering to these needs is among today’s majoreducational challenges (Vedder, Horenczyk, Liebkind, & Nickmans,2006). This challenge cannot be met by top-down educationalreforms alone, however. Instead, all educational actors will need towork together to address it. Given their central role in educationalpractice worldwide, teachers have a key function in this process.However, little is yet known about teachers’ attitudes, views, andbeliefs about cultural diversity in schools (Vedder et al., 2006).

uman Development, CenterGermany. Tel.: þ49 30 82406

Hachfeld).

All rights reserved.

This article presents the Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale (TCBS),which we have developed to assess teachers’ beliefs about dealingwith cultural diversity in the classroom. Informed by social-psychological research on intergroup contact, the TCBS focuses ontwo beliefs: multiculturalism and egalitarianism. This article teststhe measurement model of the TCBS in different samples (study 1)and examines the construct validity of its two subscales of multi-culturalism and egalitarianism (study 2). Both studies were con-ducted in Germany. However, we drew on international research toformulate our hypotheses and argue that the key question of howtoday’s teachers are responding to and dealing with increasingcultural diversity is of crucial relevance for schools around the globe.Accordingly, finding ways to access teachers’ beliefs about culturaldiversity in schools is a precondition for “the transformationrequired for teachers to implement appropriate education” inculturally diverse settings (Harrington & Hathaway, 1995, p. 275).

1. Teacher beliefs

Through structuring the learning environment, teachers playa pivotal role in student learning. A large body of evidence fromvarious countries shows that teachers’ beliefs significantly influence

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996 987

how they plan, organize, and implement their lessons and howresponsive they are to their students (e.g., Staub & Stern, 2002;Stipek, Givvin, Salmon, & MacGyvers, 2001). Much of this researchhas focused on teachers’ beliefs about learning and instructing(Woolley, Benjamin, &Woolley, 2004), which have also been shownto affect students’ learning outcomes (Dubberke, Kunter, McElvany,Brunner, & Baumert, 2008; Staub & Stern, 2002).

Although it has been argued that beliefs also play a fundamentalrole in how teachers encounter diversity in the classroom(Harrington & Hathaway, 1995), most research on teaching effec-tiveness to date has been ‘color-blind’ (Zeichner, 1992). Conse-quently, very little is known about teachers’ beliefs about culturaldiversity or about how those beliefs affect immigrant students.Most research in this domain has focused on the effects of preju-dices and discrimination on immigrant students’ achievement(Schofield, 2006). Unsurprisingly, the empirical findings supportthe common knowledge that “a [.] favourable attitude [.]contributes to the development and learning of immigrant youth”(Vedder et al., 2006, p. 10). However, as we discuss below, social-psychological research on intergroup relations suggests thatdifferent ‘favorable’ beliefs can be distinguished and may havediffering implications for social interaction. Two such distinguish-able beliefs are multiculturalism and egalitarianism.

In social psychology, these beliefs are often referred to asideologies; in educational psychology, in contrast, the term ‘beliefs’is used to describe “suppositions, commitments, and ideologies”(Calderhead, 1996). In line with educational research, we use theterm ‘beliefs’ to refer to attitudes, views, ideologies, or models thatteachers hold about students with a different cultural backgroundfrom their own. Multicultural and egalitarian beliefs both reflectpositive attitudes toward immigration; however, proponents ofmulticulturalism and proponents of egalitarianism differ in howthey encounter, interpret, and respond to diversity.

Multicultural beliefs recognize that, because individuals haveengaged with different socio-cultural contexts, they have legiti-mately different perspectives and beliefs. These differences areseen as difficultdif not impossibledto ignore (Park & Judd, 2005).Proponents of multiculturalism believe that these interculturaldifferences should be embraced and viewed as enriching. In theeducational context, teachers with multicultural beliefs can beexpected to incorporate students’ different cultures into everydayschool practice when planning their lessons, choosing materials,and interacting with students in class.

Egalitarian beliefs emphasize the importance of treating allpeople equally. This implies finding similarities and commongrounds between students of different ethnic and cultural back-grounds, regardless of their ethnic or cultural background (Markus,Steele, & Steele, 2002; Richeson & Nussbaum, 2004;Wolsko, Park, &Judd, 2002). In line with a ‘color-blind’ ideal, proponents of egali-tarianism often argue that categorization on the basis of ethnicityor culture is one of the sources of discrimination (Park & Judd,2005) and that it should be avoided (Richeson & Nussbaum,2004). In the educational context, teachers with strong egali-tarian beliefs pay less attention to the cultural backgrounds of theirstudents, focusing instead on their similarities and seeking to treatall students equally. As a consequence, they can be expected tofavor a common curriculum and to give students’ cultural back-ground less consideration in their lesson planning.

These two beliefs are not mutually exclusive (Plaut, 2010); infact, they are conceptually independent. For example, a teachermay hold egalitarian beliefs to some degree, but at the same timetry to accommodate cultural differences. However, as outlinedabove, social-psychological research suggests that the two beliefshave different implications for intergroup contact and that theyshould be distinguished. Although the requisite empirical data from

educational research are not yet available, it seems likely that thetwo beliefs also have different implications for instruction.

Various authors in the field of social psychology have discussedthe benefits and drawbacks of the two beliefs; however, thesestudies have not targeted teachers (Markus et al., 2002; Park &Judd, 2005; Plaut, Thomas, & Goren, 2009; Richeson & Nussbaum,2004; Verkuyten, 2005; Vorauer, Gagnon, & Sasaki, 2009; Wolskoet al., 2002; Wolsko, Park, & Judd, 2006; Wolsko, Park, Judd, &Wittenbrink, 2000). It should also be noted that what wedescribe as ‘egalitarian’ beliefs are termed ‘color-blindness’ in mostsocial-psychological publications. Given the conceptual ambigui-ties of the term ‘color-blindness’ when applied to an educationalcontext and its ties to U.S. history, however, we prefer to use thebroader term ‘egalitarianism’ (see Park & Judd, 2005; Wolsko et al.,2002). This term can be applied to any cultural setting, indepen-dently of a country’s immigration history. We do, however, draw onfindings from color-blindness research to guide our hypotheses.

Various lines of research have highlighted important differencesbetween multiculturalism and egalitarianism or color-blindness(for an overview, see Park & Judd, 2005). Most importantly in thepresent context, multicultural perspectives have been shown tolead to a more outward focus in interethnic interactions (Voraueret al., 2009), to more empathy (Burkard & Knox, 2004), and toa stronger perception and acceptance of differences betweenpeople (Wolsko et al., 2000). Treating all people equally, regardlessof their cultural background, seems worthwhile for its own sake.However, research findings suggest that egalitarian or color-blindperspectives can induce a prevention orientation in interethnicencounters (Vorauer et al., 2009), which can in turn lead to morenegative implicit attitudes toward minority members in high-conflict situations (Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002).Research has also shown that egalitarianism or color-blindness canreduce in-group positivity and be associated with decreased levelsof expressed stereotypicality (Wolsko et al., 2000).

Two hypotheses can be formulated on the basis of previousresearch. First, the findings suggest that multicultural and egali-tarian beliefs may also be important for instruction: An open,empathetic, and student-oriented attitude is crucial for positiveteacherestudent interactions.Moreover, the accurate andprejudice-free assessment of students’ strengths andweaknesses is a necessarycondition for providing each student with the optimal support.However, due to the lack of empirical evidence, it remains unclearwhether multicultural or egalitarian beliefs are more beneficial forimmigrant students. Research on teacher beliefs has been hamperedby the lack of instruments assessing these beliefs in an educationalcontext.

Second, the empirical data indicate that the two beliefs need to beassessed separately. Although several attempts have been made toassess teachers’ cultural beliefs by means of questionnaire measures(Amodeo & Martin, 1982; Barry & Lechner, 1995; Easter, Shultz,Neyhart, & Reck, 1999; Pohan & Aguilar, 2001; Stanley, 1996;Tabachnick & Zeichner, 1984), none of the instruments applied todate in educational research have explicitly assessed multiculturaland egalitarian beliefs side by side. Two scales that have been vali-dated and applied in studies with teachers are the Personal andProfessional Beliefs About Diversity Scale by Pohan and Aguilar (2001)and the Pluralism and Diversity Attitudes Assessment (PADAA) byStanley (1996). These scales measure appreciation of diversity,rather than distinguishing between different favorable beliefs.Additionally, they take a broader approach to diversity, includingitems on social class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, andlanguage (other than English), as well as on ethnicity and race. Bothscales have proven useful for investigating general attitudes towarddiversity and for studying the effects of multicultural educationprograms onparticipants’ attitudes. However, they neither explicitly

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996988

assess multicultural or egalitarian beliefs nordmore generallyddistinguish between different favorable attitudes. Against thisbackground,we developed the TCBS to assess teachers’multiculturaland egalitarian beliefs about cultural diversity in school. Thedevelopment of this instrument is a first step toward a betterunderstanding of how teachers are responding to and dealing withthe increasing cultural heterogeneity of their classrooms. We hopethat this enhanced understanding will ultimately contribute toimproving the learning outcomes of immigrant students.

Most research conducted to date on teachers’ perceptions ofdiversity has involved small-sample qualitative studies. There haverecently been calls for validated quantitative instruments that canbe applied in large-sample studies (Cardona Moltó, Florian, Rouse,& Stough, 2010; for an overview of studies in the educationalcontext, see, e.g., Castro, 2010 and the report of the AERA Panel onResearch and Teacher Education edited by Cochran-Smith &Zeichner, 2005).The TCBS was developed with the explicit goal ofproviding a validated instrument that can be easily implemented instudies of various sample sizes. However, as we discuss in theGeneral Discussion, quantitative methods are not without limita-tions. Before presenting our empirical studies in detail, we firstdescribe the development of the TCBS and specify the aims andresearch questions of the two studies.

2. The Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale

We used a multi-step procedure to develop items tappingmulticultural and egalitarian beliefs, beginning by reviewing thedefinitions of the constructs and screening previous social-psychological research for existing items (Park & Judd, 2005;Wolsko et al., 2000, 2002).The multiculturalism subscale wasdesigned to measure how strongly participants endorse the beliefthat the cultural background of students and their parents shouldbe taken into consideration in teaching. Based on this definition, wemodified the wording of existing items (Wolsko et al., 2002) totarget schools or instruction rather than society in general anddeveloped additional items. The egalitarianism subscale wasdesigned to measure how strongly participants focus on culturalsimilarities and endorse the belief that all students should betreated equally, regardless of their cultural background. Becauseour approach emphasized a focus on similarities rather thana disregard of cultural differences (as often is the case for color-blindness), we did not adapt existing items assessing disregardof cultural differences, but developed new items in line withour definition of the construct. The 16 items emerging from thisprocedure were discussed with several independent experts insocial psychology (with a focus on cultural beliefs) and educationalscience in the United States and Germany. In response to theseexperts’ comments, we dropped two items from the multicultur-alism subscale that dealt with interethnic contact and conflicts (e.g.,“Schools also serve the purpose of facilitating interethnic contact.”)and four items from the egalitarianism subscale that lacked a focuson similarities (e.g., “Cultural differences should not be brought upin class instruction.”), leaving a final set of 10 items. The expertcomments also prompted minor changes in the wording of some ofthese items.

3. Aims and research questions

3.1. Study 1

The purpose of study 1 was twofold. First, it sought to test themeasurement model, factor structure, and reliabilities of the newlydeveloped instrument. In social-psychological research, multicul-turalism and egalitarianism are conceptualized as two independent

constructs, both of which reflect favorable attitudes towardminorities. Hence, we expected that a two-factor solution wouldprovide the best fit to the data, but also that confirmatory factoranalyses would show a positive correlation between the twofactors. Second, as an aspect of factorial validity, study 1 comparedthe measurement model across groups of beginning teachers withdifferent degrees of experience of cultural diversity. Previousresearch has shown that individuals’ experiences of culturaldiversity affect their cultural beliefs, and several studies havehighlighted the importance of classroom experience for (begin-ning) teachers’ beliefs and attitudes about cultural diversity (for anoverview, see Castro, 2010). In constructing the TCBS, we aimed todevelop an instrument that could be used to compare the beliefs ofteachers with varying degrees of cultural experience. We thereforetested the measurement model in different samples, testing for (a)measurement invariance and (b) mean differences. Measurementinvariance across groups is often regarded as a prerequisite for thecomparison of group means (Brown, 2006). Although we did notexpect different factor structures across groups, there is reason tohypothesize that teachers with varying degrees of cultural experi-ence differ in their support of multiculturalism and egalitarianism.As a first proxy for cultural experience in the school context, wetherefore compared beginning teachers at the start and in theirsecond year of the teacher placement phase (the samples aredescribed in more detail in the Method section of study 1). Thelongitudinal findings of Bender-Szymanski (2000) suggest thatbeginning teachers’ endorsement of multicultural beliefs decreasessignificantly during the first year of teaching. At the same time,Castro (2010) has pointed out that the younger generation ofbeginning teachers is generally more multicultural and that higherendorsement of multicultural beliefs among younger beginningteachers may be a cohort effect. Given these results, we expectedteachers in their first and second year of classroom teaching todiffer in their endorsement of multiculturalism. Because we couldnot draw on any prior research about beginning teachers’endorsement of egalitarianism, we did not formulate specifichypotheses about group differences in egalitarianism.

The second proxy for differing exposure to cultural diversity wasschool track. Especially in the United States, studies often compareurbanwith suburban schools. For the German context, however, wereasoned that the school track would be a better proxy for culturaldiversity than the location of the school. The German secondarysystem differentiates college-track schools, which qualify studentsfor university admission, from vocational-track schools. Thepercentage of immigrant students is considerably higher invocational-track schools, meaning that teachers in this track gainmore experience interacting with culturally diverse students thando teachers in college-track schools. This higher level of intercul-tural interactionmay lead to greater acceptance and appreciation ofcultural diversity (Castro, 2010) and hence to higher endorsementof multicultural beliefs. At the same time, teachers starting theircareer at a vocational-track school may learn that a focus onsimilarities is not feasible in a culturally diverse school setting,leading to lower endorsement of egalitarian views. In sum, weexpected to find mean differences between beginning teachers incollege-track and vocational-track schools. Again, in order to beable to compare mean differences, we first aimed at establishingmeasurement invariance.

Finally, we compared mean differences in the endorsement ofmulticultural and egalitarian beliefs between beginning teacherswith and without an immigrant background. Previous researchsuggests that people from an immigrant or minority backgroundare more likely to endorse multicultural beliefs than are peoplefrom the majority culture (for the Netherlands, see van de Vijver,Breugelmans, & Schalk-Soekar, 2008; for the United States, see

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996 989

Wolsko et al., 2006). We expected similar results for our sample ofbeginning teachers. In turn, we expected participants without animmigrant background to support egalitarian beliefs more stronglythan participants with an immigrant background.

3.2. Study 2

Study 2 was conducted to test the construct validity of the twosubscales of the TCBS. As discussed above, multiculturalism andegalitarianism are two distinct beliefs that both reflect favorableattitudes toward immigrant students, but differ with regard to howcultural diversity is perceived and believed to be best accommo-dated in schools. Whereas multicultural beliefs stress accommo-dating and respecting students’ backgrounds, egalitarian beliefsemphasize similarities and equal treatment of all students. Weexpected that these differences would also be reflected in therelationship of the constructs with (a) prejudices and the motiva-tion to control prejudiced behavior, (b) attitudes toward pluralismand acculturation, and (c) authoritarianism as one aspect ofteaching style. Whereas multiculturalism and egalitarianism canboth be expected to be associated with the motivation to controlprejudiced behavior and with positive attitudes toward diversity,we expected proponents of the two beliefs to differ with regard totheir attitudes toward acculturation and their endorsement ofauthoritarianism.We outline the hypotheses that guided our choiceof measures in more detail in our presentation of study 2.

4. Study 1

4.1. Method

4.1.1. Participants and procedureParticipants (N¼ 433) were beginning teachers taking part in

the COACTIV-R study, which was conducted to assess professionalcompetence and development during teacher education inGermany. Teacher education in Germany is divided into two pha-ses: a first university-based phase and a second phase of classroomteaching practice. All COACTIV-R participants were in the secondphase of teacher education. During this 2-year placement phase,beginning teachers are expected to acquire the practical knowledgeof learning and instruction considered crucial for their profession(Oser, Achtenhagen, & Renold, 2006). They are introduced to the

Table 1Results of confirmatory factor analysis: standardized factor loadings for the TCBS in both

Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale (TCBS)

Factor 1: multicultural beliefs1. In the classroom, it is important to be responsive to differences between cu2. It is important for children to learn that people from other cultures can hav3. Respecting other cultures is something that children should learn as early a4. In counseling parents who have a different cultural background than I do, I

considerate of cultural particularities.5. When meeting with parents of different cultural backgrounds, I spend mor

understand and empathize with their perspective.6. Dealing with cultural diversity should be taught in teacher training courses

Factor 2: egalitarian beliefs7. Schools should aim to foster and support the similarities between students

cultural backgrounds.8. In the classroom, it is important that students of different origins recognize

that exist between them.9. When there are conflicts between students of different origins, they should

to resolve the argument by finding common ground.10. Children should learn that people of different cultural origins often have a

Latent correlation between the two factors

Note: all items were administered in German. Study 1: sample of beginning teachers (N¼background (N¼ 325). Study 2: sample of teacher candidates (75%) and educational scie

practicalities of teaching under supervision of a mentor. Dependingon their degree program, they teach either in vocational-trackschools (grades 5e10) or in college-track schools (grades 5e13).

The study, which conformed to APA ethical standards, wascross-sectional. Before beginning the study, we obtained theapproval of the ethics committees of the two German federal statesin which data were collected. Questionnaires were sent to partici-pants at the beginning of the first (cohort 1, n¼ 332) or second(cohort 2, n¼ 101) year of their teacher placement phase and wereanswered at home. Data from cohort 2 were collected in only one ofthe federal states. Hence, analyses comparing the two cohorts arebased on data from only one state. Participation was voluntary andparticipants received monetary compensation. The items relevantfor the present study were administered as part of a larger ques-tionnaire tapping beginning teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, socio-demographic data, and information on the teacher trainingprogram.

Participants (65.3% women, n¼ 277) were on average 28.2 yearsold (SD¼ 4.75; range: 23e57 years). Of these, 45.3% (n¼ 196) wereteaching in the vocational track, and 14.2% (n¼ 60) were from animmigrant background.

4.1.2. InstrumentsAs described above, the TCBS consists of six items designed to

measure multicultural beliefs and four items designed to measureegalitarian beliefs. Responses were given on a 6-point scale rangingfrom 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). All items are listed inTable 1.

4.2. Analyses and results

4.2.1. Measurement model of the TCBSWe conducted confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) using the

Mplus software (Muthén&Muthén,1998e2006) to test whether thehypothesized two-factor structure of multiculturalism and egali-tarianism emerged. Parameters were estimated using themaximum-likelihood (ML) fitting function. We evaluated model fitaccording to criteria suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999). There isgrowing consensus that imputation of missing observations andmaximum-likelihood approaches are preferable to pairwise or list-wise deletion (Schafer & Graham, 2002). In the present analyses, wechose the full-information-maximum-likelihood (FIML) procedure

studies.

CFA study 1 CFA study 1 (e) CFA study 2

ltures. .770 .722 .519e different values. .613 .623 .656s possible. .615 .616 e

try to be .567 .575 .605

e time trying to .551 .547 e

. .400 .411 .595

from different .782 .780 .650

the similarities .857 .850 .824

be encouraged .689 .683 .684

lot in common. .406 .367 .740

.625 .613 .736

376). Study 1 (e): study 1 sample without beginning teachers from an immigrantnce students (Nfull sample¼ 339).

Table 2Results from multigroup confirmatory factor analyses testing measurement invariance of teachers’ cultural beliefs in cohort 1 and cohort 2.

c2 df c2diff Ddf RMSEA (90% CI) SRMR CFI TLI

Equal form 103.679 66 .077 (.047e.104) .064 .941 .920Equal factor loadings 117.630 76 13.951 10 .075 (.047e.101) .128 .935 .923Equal factor loadings and intercepts 124.596 86 6.969 10 .068 (.039e.093) .137 .940 .937

Note. N¼ 193. c2diff: nested c2 difference; RMSEA: root mean square error of approximation; 90% CI: 90% confidence interval for RMSEA; SRMR: standardized mean squareresidual; CFI: comparative fit index; TLI: TuckereLewis Index.

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996990

that is implemented in Mplus (Graham & Hoffer, 2000). Two itemsfrom the multiculturalism subscale assessed how sensitive partici-pantswere to cultural backgroundwhenmeetingwith or counselingparents (items 4 and 5). These two similarly worded items weremore similar to each other than to the remaining items.We thereforeallowed for a correlation between the two items in both models.

The descriptive fit indices of the CFA testing the hypothesizedtwo-factor model indicated a good fit, c2(33)¼ 70.344, CFI¼ .966,TLI¼ .951, RMSEA¼ .055, SRMR¼ .039. We also estimated a one-factor model, c2(34)¼ 216.280, CFI¼ .834, TLI¼ .780, RMSEA¼ .119,SRMR¼ .078, and tested it against the two-factor model. The resultsconfirmed that the two-factormodel provided a better fit to the datathan the one-factor model, Dc2(1)¼ 145.936, p< .001. The two-factor structure was also supported by the latent correlationbetween multiculturalism and egalitarianism, which was onlymoderately high (r¼ .63). The results thus supported the hypothe-sized two-dimensional structure of the TCBS. The reliabilities of thetwo scales were also satisfactory (Cronbach’s a¼ .75 for multicul-turalism; a¼ .78 for egalitarianism). All factor loadings were statis-tically significant and are listed in the first column of Table 1.

4.2.2. Measurement invariance of the TCBSIn a second step,we testedwhether the hypothesized two-factor

structure held across groups of beginning teachers at differentstages of their education (cohort 1 and cohort 2) and in differentschool tracks (college and vocational) as an aspect of factorial val-idity. To this end, we conductedmultigroup CFAs inMplus to test formeasurement invariance (see Cheung & Rensvold, 2002).

First, we estimated overall model fit for the entire sample (equalform; Brown, 2006). We then estimated two models with addi-tional between-group constraints: (a) equality of factor loadingsand (b) equality of factor loadings and intercepts. To check forsignificant differences, we tested each model against the one withone additional constraint (equal form vs. equal factor loadings, andequal factor loadings vs. equal factor loadings and intercepts).Because we expected measurement invariance to hold, we did notexpect to find differences in the factor structure across the twocohorts or the different school forms. In view of the small-samplesize, we did not test for measurement invariance between partici-pants with and without an immigrant background.

For the two cohorts, the constraint of equal factor loadings didnot lead to a significant decrease in model fit, indicating that thesubscales measured the same constructs for beginning teachers inboth cohorts. Assuming equal intercepts in addition to equal factor

Table 3Results from multigroup confirmatory factor analyses testing measurement invarianceschools.

c2 df c2diff

Equal form 96.840** 66Equal factor loadings 108.486** 76 11.646Equal factor loadings and intercepts 151.100*** 86 42.614*

Note. N¼ 367. c2diff: nested c2 difference; RMSEA: root mean square error of approximaresidual; CFI: comparative fit index; TLI: TuckereLewis Index.***p< .001. **p< .01. *p< .05.

loadings did not decrease model fit either (all c2 comparisons werenonsignificant, see Table 2).We can therefore conclude that bothcohorts showed comparable means.

For the different tracks, the constraint of equal factor loadingsagain did not lead to a significant decrease in model fit, indicatingthat the subscales measure the same constructs for teachers in thedifferent tracks. Assuming equal intercepts in addition to equalfactor loadings did, however, significantly decrease the fit of themodel (Table 3), indicating that the degree to which teachers in thedifferent tracks endorsed multiculturalism and egalitarianismdiffered.

To compare the factor means of the different cohorts and tracks,we used multiple group mean structure comparisons and set thelatent means and variances for multiculturalism and egalitarianismto be equal across groups. In view of the small-sample size, we usedthe traditional t test for the comparison of participants with andwithout an immigrant background.

Between the cohorts, there was no significant difference inbeginning teachers’ multicultural, DMK¼ 0.004, ns, and egalitarianbeliefs, DEG¼ 0.081, ns, (Dc2(4)¼ 2.796, ns), replicating the resultsof the test of measurement invariance. Beginning teachers in cohort1 strongly endorsed multicultural (M¼ 4.72, SD¼ .63) and egali-tarian beliefs (M¼ 5.06, SD¼ .65), as did their counterparts incohort 2 (multiculturalism: M¼ 4.78, SD¼ .61; egalitarianism:M¼ 5.07, SD¼ .58).

Between teachers in different tracks, however, there weresignificant differences in multiculturalism, DMK¼ 0.487, p< .001,and egalitarianism,DEG¼ 0.267, p< .05, with beginning teachers invocational-track schools as the reference group,Dc2(4)¼ 19.459,p< .001. Beginning teachers in vocational-track schools endorsedmulticulturalism more strongly (M¼ 4.86, SD¼ .57) than did thosein college-track schools (M¼ 4.63, SD¼ .65). At the same time, theyalso endorsed egalitarianism more strongly (M¼ 5.13, SD¼ .60)than did their counterparts in college-track schools (M¼ 5.00,SD¼ .65).

In viewof the small-sample size,we didnot test formeasurementinvariance between participants with and without immigrantbackground. However, we used t tests to compare mean differencesbetween beginning teachers with and without immigrant back-ground. The results revealed significant differences in the endorse-ment of multiculturalism, t(396)¼�2.189, p< .05. Beginningteacherswith an immigrant background supportedmulticulturalismsignificantly more strongly than did those without an immigrantbackground (immigrant background: M¼ 4.92, SD¼ .60; without

of teachers’ cultural beliefs for beginning teachers in vocational- and college-track

Ddf RMSEA (90% CI) SRMR CFI TLI

.050 (.026e.070) .046 .971 .96110 .048 (.025e.067) .085 .970 .96410 .063 (.046e.080) .130 .939 .937

tion; 90% CI: 90% confidence interval for RMSEA; SRMR: standardized mean square

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996 991

immigrant background:M¼ 4.71, SD¼ .63). Therewas no significantdifference between beginning teachers with and without an immi-grant background in their support of egalitarianism, t(371)¼�1.269,p¼ .21 (with immigrant background: M¼ 5.17, SD¼ .60; withoutimmigrant background: M¼ 5.04, SD¼ .63).

In a final step, we tested for mean differences between multi-culturalism and egalitarianism and compared these differencesacross groups (cohorts, tracks, immigrant background). On average,beginning teachers strongly endorsed both beliefs (multicultur-alism: M¼ 4.73, SD¼ .63; egalitarianism: M¼ 5.06, SD¼ .63; rangefor both subscales: 1e6). However, they endorsed egalitarianbeliefs significantly more strongly than multicultural beliefs,t(373)¼�9.600, p< .001.

4.3. Discussion

The results of factor analyses confirmed the theoretically pre-dicted two-factor structure with the factors multiculturalism andegalitarianism. Reliabilities were satisfactory for both scales. Weconducted tests formeasurement invariance and group comparisonsfor teachers of different cohorts and in different school types asproxies for differential exposure to cultural diversity in the class-room. Results showed equal factor loadings and equal intercepts forbeginning teachers in the first and second cohort, confirmingmeasurement invariance. Contrary to our hypotheses, beginningteachers in the two cohorts did not differ in their endorsement ofmulticultural beliefs. Likewise, we found no significant differences intheir egalitarian beliefs. For beginning teachers in college- vs. voca-tional-track schools, we found equal factor loadings but differentintercepts, suggesting that some items may function differentiallyfor these two groups. This difference may be attributable to differ-ences in the degree of cultural diversity of the respective teachingenvironments. As expected, beginning teachers in vocational-trackschools endorsed multicultural beliefs significantly more stronglythan did their counterparts in college-track schools. However, andcontrary to our hypotheses, they also endorsed egalitarian beliefsmore strongly. Possible interpretations of our findings of highermulticultural beliefs in vocational-track teachers are that greaterexposure to cultural differences raises these teachers’ awareness ofcultural differences. On the other hand, teachers with multiculturalbeliefs may be more likely to decide to teach at more culturallydiverse schools. Their heightened awareness of cultural differencesmay also make these teachers more ambitious to achieve ideals ofequality, as reflected in their endorsement of egalitarian beliefs.

Descriptive results on the manifest level showed thatdwhereasbeginning teachers tended to endorse egalitarian beliefs morestrongly than multicultural beliefsdthis pattern was reversed forbeginning teachers with an immigrant background, who showedsignificantly higher endorsement of multicultural beliefs than didbeginning teachers without an immigrant background. This findingreplicates results from various (non-teacher) samples in theNetherlands and the United States, which have shown that peoplewith an immigrant or minority background endorse multicultur-alism more strongly than do majority members of society (van deVijver et al., 2008; Wolsko et al., 2006).

In sum, the aim of study 1 was to test the newly developed TCBSinstrument and to confirm the hypothesized two-factor structure ofmulticulturalism and egalitarianismda first but necessary step inestablishing the new scale for use in future research. In a secondstep, we tested the construct validity of the two subscales.

5. Study 2

Study 2 tested the construct validity of the two subscales of theTCBS: multiculturalism and egalitarianism. To this end, we derived

several hypotheses from social-psychological research on multi-culturalism and egalitarianism. The following hypotheses guidedour choice of measures.

5.1. Prejudices and motivation to control prejudiced behavior

Research has shown that the motivation to act without preju-dice moderates the relation between implicit and explicit stereo-types about gender (Banse & Gawronski, 2003). Two aspects ofprejudiced behavior can thus be differentiated: expression ofprejudices and the motivation to act without prejudice.

Based on previous research, we expected multiculturalism andegalitarianism to show different patterns of relations to theexpression of prejudices. Social-psychological research suggeststhat multicultural beliefs are associatedwith fewer prejudices (Park& Judd, 2005; Wolsko et al., 2000, 2006). Findings for egalitari-anism are not as clear-cut, however. On the one hand, research oncolor-blindness has shown that color-blind perspectives, althoughinitially promoting an anti-prejudice stance, can lead to moreprejudicial behaviors in actual interactions (Richeson & Nussbaum,2004). On the other hand, a study by Wolsko and colleaguesshowed that, relative to a control condition, White participantsprimed with a color-blind messagemade more positive evaluationsof African Americans (Wolsko et al., 2000). However, as both beliefstheoretically reflect a positive regard for immigrant students, weexpected both subscales to be positively related to the motivationto control prejudiced behavior.

5.2. Attitudes toward pluralism and acculturation

Empirical evidence on the relationship between multicultur-alism and egalitarianism, on the one hand, and attitudes towardpluralism and acculturation, on the other, is still scarce.

Because both subscales of the TCBS assess an appreciation ofcultural diversity in school, we expected both subscales to bepositively related to attitudes toward pluralism. Given the twobeliefs’ differing emphasis on students’ cultural backgrounds andtheir relevance for teaching practice, however, we expected to finda stronger relationship for multiculturalism than for egalitarianism.Likewise, multiculturalism and egalitarianism entail differing viewson intergroup contact and on how acculturation should take place(Park & Judd, 2005). Teachers with multicultural beliefs can beexpected to be more accepting of cultural differencesda necessarycondition for the integration of other cultures into mainstreamsocietydand hence to have more positive attitudes toward accul-turation than teachers with egalitarian beliefs, whose focus is moreon equality.

5.3. Authoritarianism

Social-psychological research in the U.S. context has shown thatauthoritarianism is correlated with political conservatism and withopposition to societal change and progress (Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski,& Sulloway, 2003). Accepting different cultural influences in schoolsrequires a certain level of openness to changing societal structures,but also to the shortcomings of one’s own culture and openness tonewpoints of view. Petzel,Wagner, vanDick, Stellmacher, and Lenke(1997) found that high teacher authoritarianism correlated nega-tively with what they called “pedagogically useful” conflict solving(e.g., discussion). The authors argued that authoritarian teachersshow higher approval for hierarchical school structures and are lessopen to emancipated teacherestudent relationships. Moreover,authoritarianism often seems to be associated with ethnic preju-dices, rather than with respectful attitudes toward other cultures(Petzel, Wagner, van Dick, et al., 1997; Zick & Six, 1997).

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996992

We therefore expected scores on the multiculturalism subscaleto be negatively correlated with authoritarianism. Egalitarianbeliefs, in contrast, are largely compatible with traditional Westernbeliefs of equality and thus do not require openness to differentviewpoints and to societal changes. Hence, we did not expect scoreson the egalitarian subscale to show any relationship withauthoritarianism.

5.4. Method

5.4.1. Participants and procedureA total of N¼ 340 students (233 women) sampled from

a German university participated in this questionnaire study. Of theparticipants, 79% (n¼ 254) were of German nationality and 21%(n¼ 68) had an immigrant background. Ages ranged from 19 to 55years (M¼ 25, SD¼ 5). The sample comprised 266 (81%) teachercandidates; the remaining 19% (n¼ 62) were studying educationalscience. Overall, 55% (n¼ 182) had already taught at schools or incomparable settings (63%, n¼ 166, of the teacher candidates, and23%, n¼ 13, of the educational science students answered ‘yes’when asked whether they had teaching experience). Of those withteaching experience (n¼ 175), 83% (n¼ 146) reported havingworked with immigrant students (88%, n¼ 142, of the teachercandidates and 31%, n¼ 4, of the educational science students).About half of the participants (47%, n¼ 145) had worked withimmigrant children beyond the academic setting (e.g., as a campcounselor), and 61% (n¼ 195) reported having discussed issues ofintercultural education in their professional education courses.

Students were recruited in their university seminars, butparticipationwas voluntary. APA ethical standards were followed inthe conduct of the study. The study questionnairewas administeredin the last 10 min of the class, and participants received chocolatebars as an incentive.

5.4.2. InstrumentsThe questionnaire included a shortened version of the TCBS

containing four multiculturalism items and four egalitarianismitems. The questionnaire also included items assessing prejudicesand motivation to control prejudiced behavior, attitudes towardpluralism and acculturation, and authoritarianism. Additionally,socio-demographic data were assessed.

5.4.2.1. Prejudices and motivation to control prejudiced behav-ior. The behavior control subscale from the German version of theMotivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions scale (Banse &Gawronski, 2003) was used to assess participants’ motivation tocontrol prejudiced behavior. Participants gave their responses ona 5-point agreeedisagree scale, with higher scores reflecting higherself-control and higher motivation to control prejudiced behavior.

Table 4Descriptive statistics for scales administered in study 2.

Scale Example item

MC In the classroom, it is important to be responsive to differences beEG In the classroom, it is important that students of different origins r

similarities that exist between them.MCPRa One should never say anything derogatory about minorities in pubPrejudicesa Foreigners living in Germany should seek their spouses within thePADAA Cultural diversity is a valuable resource and should be preserved.ACS It would be good if all ethnic groups in Germany maintained theirAUTa The most important things for learning are discipline and obedienc

MC: multiculturalism; EG: egalitarianism; MCPR: Motivation to Control Prejudiced ReacPADAA: Pluralism and Diversity Attitude Assessment; ACS: Acculturation scale; AUT: au

a Scale ranged from 1 to 5; all other scales ranged from 1 to 6. SD: Standard deviation

Participants’ prejudices toward foreigners living in Germany wereassessed with four prejudiced statements taken from the GermanGeneral Social Survey (Ganter, 2001). Again, participants gave theirresponses on a 5-point agreeedisagree scale, with higher scoresreflecting more prejudiced views toward foreigners.

5.4.2.2. Attitudes toward pluralism and acculturation. Two scalesassessed attitudes toward pluralism and acculturation: a translatedand slightly adapted and shortened version of the PADAA (Stanley,1996) and the German Acculturation scale (van Dick, Wagner,Adams, & Petzel, 1997). The original items of the PADAA weredesigned for physical education teachers. For the purposes of thepresent study, physical education was replaced by lessons ingeneral. Participants gave their responses on a 6-point agreeedisagree scale, with higher scores reflecting higher endorsement ofpluralism. We further administered the 10 items of the integrationand assimilation (reverse-recoded) subscales from the GermanAcculturation scale (van Dick et al., 1997). Participants gave theirresponses on a 6-point agreeedisagree scale, with higher scoresreflecting more favorable views on cultural integration.

5.4.2.3. Authoritarianism. We used a teacher-specific authoritari-anism scale (Petzel, Wagner, Nicolai, & van Dick, 1997) to measurethe tendency toward an authoritarian teaching style. Responseswere made on 5-point agreeedisagree scales, with higher scoresindicating higher agreement with authoritarianism.

The psychometric properties of all scales are reported in Table 4.All scales had acceptable or good reliabilities.

5.5. Analyses and results

5.5.1. Measurement model of the TCBSAs in study 1, we used Mplus to perform CFA to test for the

hypothesized factor structure of the TCBS. The two-dimensionalmodel showed good fit, c2(19)¼ 26.789, CFI¼ .990, TLI¼ .985,RMSEA¼ .035, SRMR¼ .024; more importantly, it fared better thana one-dimensional model, c2(20)¼ 78.783, CFI¼ .924, TLI¼ .893,RMSEA¼ .093, SRMR¼ .051, and the chi-square difference test wassignificant: Dc2(1)¼ 51.994, p< .001. All factor loadings werestatistically significant (see Table 1, column 3). The correlationbetween the two subscales was r¼ .54, p< .001. This replication ofthe results of study 1 in a different sample is evidence for thestability and generalizability of the instrument.

5.5.2. Validation of the TCBSTo validate the multiculturalism and egalitarianism scales, we

estimated a fully identified path model with the two subscales ofthe TCBS as predictors and the other scales as outcome variables.The advantage of a path model over simple correlations was that

Numberof items

Mean SD Cronbach’salpha

tween cultures. 4 4.91 .78 .68ecognize the 4 4.95 .87 .81

lic. 7 3.68 .72 .76ir own ethnic group. 4 1.76 .57 .64

12 5.04 .54 .75cultural identity. 10 3.96 .61 .74e. 8 2.60 .61 .73

tions scale (behavior control subscale); prejudices: German General Social Survey;thoritarianism..

Table 5Standardized path coefficients of multiculturalism and egalitarianism on control andavoidance of prejudices, attitudes toward diversity, and authoritarian teaching style.

R2 Multiculturalism Egalitarianism

Estimate SE t Estimate SE t

Control and avoidance of prejudicesMCPRa 12.7% .224 .057 3.933* .190 .058 3.272*Prejudicesa 15.6% �.368 .054 �6.795* �.051 .057 �0.893

Attitudes toward diversityPADAA 26.3% .389 .050 7.741* .196 .053 3.782*ACS 10.3% .321 .057 5.662* 0 .059 �0.003

Authoritarian teaching styleAUTa 7.1% �.242 .059 �4.132* �.044 .060 �0.734

MCPR:Motivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions scale (behavior control subscale);prejudices: German General Social Survey; PADAA: Pluralism and Diversity AttitudeAssessment; ACS: Acculturation scale; AUT: authoritarianism.

a Scale ranged from 1 to 5; all other scales ranged from 1 to 6. N¼ 339, *p< .001(two-tailed).

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996 993

we were able to control for the effects of the respective othersubscale and to analyze the relationships between the twosubscales and the outcomes simultaneously. The results of the pathmodel are presented in Table 5.

We tested for differential effects by imposing equalityconstraints on the unstandardized paths of the effects of multi-culturalism and egalitarianism on the respective outcomes andcomparing the fit of the models.1 In the following, we report resultsfrom the path model for (a) prejudices and the motivation tocontrol prejudiced behavior, (b) attitudes toward pluralism andacculturation, and (c) authoritarianism, separately.

5.5.2.1. Prejudices and the motivation to control prejudicedbehavior. Based on previous research, we expected multicultur-alism and egalitarianism to be equally associated with the moti-vation to control prejudiced behavior. This hypothesis wassupported by the results of the path analysis: multiculturalismand egalitarianism were both positively and significantly relatedto the motivation to control prejudiced behavior. To test fordifferential effects, we set the coefficients of multiculturalism andegalitarianism to be equal for motivation to control prejudicedbehavior. In line with our expectations, there was no significantdecrease the fit of the model, Dc2(1)¼ 0.302, ns. Hence, themulticultural and the egalitarian subscales both assess beliefs thatinvolve the motivation to end discrimination.

We expected multiculturalism and egalitarianism to be differ-entially related to prejudices, and the relationship betweenmulticulturalism and prejudices to be negative. We indeed foundsignificant negative relations of prejudices with multiculturalism,but no significant relationswith egalitarianism. Again, we tested fordifferential effects. Imposing equality constraints on the effects ofmulticulturalism and egalitarianism on prejudices decreased themodel fit significantly, Dc2(1)¼ 11.554, p< .001. Hence, the multi-culturalism subscale assesses a belief that is negatively related toprejudices, whereas the egalitarian subscale does not. Participantsscoring high on multiculturalism opposed prejudiced statementssignificantly more strongly than did participants scoring high onegalitarianism.

5.5.2.2. Attitudes toward pluralism and acculturation. We expectedboth multiculturalism and egalitarianism to be positively related to

1 We re-ran the analyses using z transformation of multiculturalism and egali-tarianism. The pattern of results remained qualitatively similar; hence, we reportonly the results for the unstandardized paths coefficients.

the appreciation of pluralism. Indeed, our results showed positivecorrelations of the two scales with the PADAA. The more stronglyparticipants endorsed multiculturalism or egalitarianism, the morestrongly they supported pluralism.

At the same time, given its emphasis on appreciating diversity, weexpected multiculturalism to show a stronger relationship withpluralism than egalitarianism, which is more concerned with equalrights than with the benefits of diversity. Consistent with thisexpectation, model fit decreased significantly when we imposedequality constraints on the effects of multiculturalism and egalitari-anism on the PADAA, Dc2(1)¼ 5.826, p< .05. As expected, the rela-tionship was stronger for multiculturalism than for egalitarianism.

For attitudes toward acculturation, we hypothesized a positiverelationship with multiculturalism but not with egalitarianism. Asexpected, multiculturalism was significantly and positively relatedto acculturation, whereas the results for egalitarianism were notsignificant. The difference between multiculturalism and egalitar-ianism was significant. In line with our expectations, model fitdecreased significantly when equality constraints were imposed onthe effects of multiculturalism and egalitarianism on the Accul-turation scale, Dc2(1)¼ 10.875, p< .001.

5.5.2.3. Authoritarianism. Research has shown that proponents ofmulticulturalism are more appreciative and tolerant of differencesthan are proponents of egalitarianism. Consequently, we expectedauthoritarianism to be negatively related to multiculturalism.Indeed, results showed a significant negative correlation betweenauthoritarianism and multiculturalism, but not egalitarianism.Imposing equality constraints decreased the model fit significantly,Dc2(1)¼ 4.219, p< .05. We can therefore conclude that endorse-ment of multiculturalism is significantly associated with lowerauthoritarianism.

5.6. Discussion

In sum, the results of study 2 were consistent with our expec-tations that the multiculturalism and egalitarianism subscales ofthe TCBS measure two beliefs about cultural diversity that sharea motivation to control prejudiced behavior but that are distinctlyrelated to beliefs about pluralism and acculturation, prejudicestoward immigrants, and authoritarianism.

Both subscales were related to openness to pluralism in schoolsand to a higher motivation to control prejudiced behavior. Partici-pants with multicultural and egalitarian beliefs shared the moti-vation to control prejudiced behavior, but appreciation of pluralismwas significantly more strongly related to multiculturalism than toegalitarianism. We also found differential relationships betweenthe two subscales and several other outcomes: prejudices, attitudesabout acculturation, and authoritarianism. Multiculturalism wasassociated with all three outcomes, whereas egalitarianism wasnot, with proponents of multiculturalism being less likely to agreewith prejudiced statements, having more integrative views onacculturation, and showing a lower tendency toward an authori-tarian teaching style.

These results suggest thatdalthough often promoted as thepreferable strategydegalitarian beliefs may in fact be the lesseffective response to culturally diverse classrooms.

6. General discussion

The aim of the present studies was to establish the newlydeveloped Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale (TCBS) for use in futureresearch. To this end, we tested and validated the TCBS in twodifferent samples. The TCBS was designed to measure two beliefsabout how to deal with cultural diversity in the classroom.

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996994

Multiculturalism, on the one hand, combines a general appreciationof cultural differences with the belief that such differences shouldbe accommodated in teaching practice. Egalitarianism, on the otherhand, emphasizes cultural similarities and stresses the importanceof treating all students equally, regardless of their culturalbackground.

Study 1 confirmed the hypothesized two-factor structure of thescale and showed that both beliefs can be reliably assesseddtwonecessary prerequisites for the implementation of the TCBS in futureresearch. Tests ofmeasurement invariance confirmed both subscalesto have equal factor structure across beginning teachers in differentcohorts and school tracks. Nonetheless, we found mean differencesin the endorsement of multiculturalism and egalitarianism betweenparticipants with differing experience of cultural diversity (in termsof school track and immigrant background). In Germany, mostvocational-track schools have a higher proportion of immigrantstudents than do college-track schools, meaning that teachers invocational-track schools experience more cultural diversity in theireveryday school practice than do teachers in college-track schools.Our results show that beginning teachers in vocational-track schoolsendorsed multiculturalism significantly more strongly than didbeginning teachers in college-track schools. Similarly, participantswith immigrant backgrounds endorsed multiculturalism morestrongly than did participants without immigrant backgrounds.

The restriction of the study 1 sample to beginning teachers inthe teaching placement phase is certainly a limitation of the study.Further research is needed to test the factorial structure of the TCBSin samples of teachers with more teaching experience. Anotherlimitation is the use of school track as a proxy for experience ofcultural diversity. Future studies should aim at assessing personalexperience of cultural diversity more directly and in more detail toinvestigate how this experience influences cultural beliefs. Finally,further research should consider how multiculturalism and egali-tarianism relate to negative beliefs about cultural diversity (e.g.,assimilationist beliefs). A further limitation is the quantitativenature of the study, which we discuss below.

In study 2, we investigated the construct validity of the twosubscales by investigating their correlations with (a) prejudices andthe motivation to control prejudiced behavior, (b) attitudes towardpluralism and acculturation, and (c) authoritarianism. Bothsubscales theoretically imply favorable attitudes toward immigrantstudents, which should be reflected in a motivation to controlprejudiced behavior and a general appreciation of pluralism.However, previous research in non-educational contexts has shownthat the two beliefs may differentially affect prejudices. Forexample, focusing on equality and trying to ignore cultural differ-ences can lead to racial bias and to negative interracial interactions(Richeson & Nussbaum, 2004; Vorauer et al., 2009; Wolsko et al.,2000). In line with these findings, the results of study 2 showedthat multiculturalism and egalitarianism were equally related tothe motivation to control prejudiced behavior but not to oppositionto prejudiced statements. Multiculturalism was negatively relatedto prejudiced statements, whereas egalitarianism was not relatedto this scale at all. This finding again shows that motivation tocontrol prejudiced behavior is not necessarily synonymous withnot harboring prejudicial thoughts. Although our results do notwarrant the conclusion that focusing on equality can lead to prej-udice, they show that an egalitarian perspectiveddespite itscorrelation with the motivation to control prejudicesdis not atodds with prejudicial thoughts. Multiculturalism, on the otherhand, was strongly negatively related to prejudicial thoughts. Inother words, holding multicultural beliefs in fact means disagree-ing with prejudicial sentiments, whereas holding egalitarian beliefssolely reflects a will to control them, but is unrelated to theircontent.

The results showed positive and significant correlations ofpluralism with both multiculturalism and egalitarianism. As ex-pected, however, the relationship was significantly stronger formulticulturalism than for egalitarianism. Our results for views onacculturation were similar. Theoretically, the two beliefs entaildiffering views on how acculturation should take place. The dataconfirmed that, relative to proponents of egalitarianism, propo-nents of multiculturalism were more strongly in favor of the inte-gration of minority cultures into mainstream society.

We also investigated correlations with authoritarianism.Previous research has shown that authoritarianism stands infundamental contrast to an open and tolerant attitude (Zick & Six,1997). Because multiculturalism is defined as open and tolerant,we expected it to be negatively related to authoritarianism, and ourresults confirmed this hypothesis. Egalitarianism showed no rela-tionship with authoritarianism, again confirming that an egali-tarian perspective, unlike multicultural beliefs, is not at odds withauthoritarianism.

Further research is needed to investigate how different beliefstranslate into teaching practices. The finding that multicultural andegalitarian beliefs are differentially related to authoritarian viewson teaching gives a first hint of their importance for teaching.

We acknowledge that teachers’ beliefs about diversity can bemanifold and that assessing only multicultural and egalitarianbeliefs cannot provide a full picture. Qualitative approaches mayprovide deeper insights into the complexity and interrelatedness ofbeliefs about cultural diversitydfor example, by exploring howbeliefs are constructed in discourse and interaction. As discussedabove, however, previous social-psychological research demon-strating the relevance of multicultural and egalitarian beliefs forinterethnic interaction has implications for the educational context.We therefore drew on instruments that have been successfullyapplied in quantitative social-psychological research to develop theTCBS. Additionally, our aim was to provide a validated instrumentthat can be used in future studies with larger samples. The presentstudies were not conducted to investigate how multicultural andegalitarian beliefs develop or how they translate into behavior incertain situations. Rather, the aimwas to validate the new scale forapplication in future research that might, for example, investigatethe role of personal experiences or compare the beliefs of differentgroups of teachers, such as majority and minority teachers (Castro,2010). To further the understanding of teachers’ belief systems ingeneral and beliefs about cultural diversity in particular, futurestudies should incorporate both quantitative and qualitativeapproaches.

In sum, the results of our two studies suggest that multicultur-alismandegalitarianismare twodistinct and fundamentally differentapproaches to dealing with cultural diversity and to accommodatingimmigrant students in the classroom. In investigating teachers’multicultural and egalitarian beliefs, we have crossed the borderbetween social-psychological and educational research. The twobeliefs have previously been studied primarily in the field of socialpsychology; instruments assessing the multicultural and egalitarianbeliefs of teachers, in particular, were lacking. Our studies thusrepresent the first necessary steps toward research assessing multi-cultural and egalitarian beliefs in the educational context. Withincreasing diversity in schools around the globe, teachers inWesternsocieties need to be prepared to teach in culturally heterogeneousschools and to challenge their own beliefs about cultural diversity.Our findings provide support for the idea that teachers’ culturalbeliefs directly impact their teaching practices. However, research onthe implications of multicultural and egalitarian beliefs in theeducational context and research on how teachers’ beliefs manifestthemselves in everyday classroom behavior is still scarce or nonex-istent. First evidence for the importance of cultural beliefs comes

A. Hachfeld et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 986e996 995

from the employment context. Plaut and colleagues found thatWhiteco-workers’ multiculturalism positively predicted their minority co-workers’ psychological engagement (Plaut et al., 2009). In a similarvein, educational research should probe for differential effects ofteachers’multicultural and egalitarianbeliefs on immigrant students’engagement, learning progress, and school achievement. The newlydeveloped TCBS provides a useful tool for assessing teachers’ multi-cultural and egalitarian beliefs. Future research should investigatewhether favorable attitudes toward immigrant students are suffi-cient to create anatmosphere inwhich students fromall backgroundscan excel or whether multicultural and egalitarian beliefs are asso-ciated with distinct strategies that are differentially beneficial forimmigrant students. The ultimate aim must be to improve thelearning outcomes of immigrant students and thereby reduce theachievement gap between students with and without an immigrantbackgroundda challenge that needs to be addressed by themajorityof the OECD countries (see Stanat & Christensen, 2006).

Acknowledgement

The COACTIV-R research project at the Max Planck Institute forHuman Development was funded by the Max Planck Society’sStrategic Innovation Fund (2008e2010).

The authors thank Bernadette Park and Chick Judd for helpfuldiscussions on multiculturalism and color-blindness, and for theirhelp with adapting the constructs for the educational context.Many thanks go to Susannah Goss for her editorial assistance.

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