Diseño, aplicación y validación de un instrumento para Valorar las Actitudes hacia la Diversidad del Alumnado (VADA)

Diversity is intrinsic to our society, fundamental to the creation of a fair and egalitarian community. Understanding attitudes towards diversity is an essential element for the establishment of measures to facilitate respect for diversity. The aim of this research focused on designing, applying and validating an instrument to assess attitudes towards diversity in students younger than six years old. A group of 125 students of ages ranging between three and six participated in the study. Additionally, six experts in the fields of research methodology and attention to diversity were chosen as inter-judges to determine the validity of the instrument. Results show that students display a positive attitude towards diversity, but that they consider lack of academic ability in students with disabilities to be a considerable limitation. These findings prove the need to start an educational intervention to eliminate prejudices and build new knowledge based on the equality of diversity.