Multicultural Competence as a Teacher’s Metacognition to Achieve a Positive School Climate

Abstract

Our modern times are marked by socio-economic and cultural processes whose effects are rapidly crossing national borders and creating a global community for which multiculturalism is no longer just a concept but a social reality. As a key tool for its harmonization, intercultural education is determined, which provides conditions for interaction between cultures and prepares multicultural individuals. There is a need for the teacher to acquire the appropriate intercultural readiness and competence to enable her to posit the climate in the classroom. At the same time, there is a lack of research on the psychological climate in culturally mixed classrooms, characteristic of most schools today. The aim of the study is to investigate the importance of teachers’ “intercultural readiness” factors for achieving a positive psychological climate in a multicultural educational environment. The research instrument synthesizes questionnaires on the classroom, on the organization of the educational environment and on the psychological climate and adapts them to the level of primary school education. The sample consisted of 95 teachers from Attica in Greece. The data were analyzed with the statistical package SPSS and one-way ANOVA was applied. The research assumption is confirmed that universities preparing pedagogical specialists are responsible for developing master’s degree programs in intercultural education or courses for additional professional qualification with a focus on the formation of intercultural competence as a teacher’s metacognition.