The Development and Validation of an Instrument to Assess Attitudes toward Cultural Diversity and Pluralism among Preservice Physical Educators

Abstract

The development and validation of an instrument to assess attitudes toward cultural diversity and cultural pluralism are described. The initial instrument consisted of 60 questions and was completed by 215 preservice teachers in physical education who were enrolled in the final 2 years of their program at 11 selected universities. Factor-analytic procedures produced a conceptually meaningful four-factor solution with internal consistency reliabilities in the range of .72 to .85 for the four factors. The final instrument, the Pluralism and Diversity Attitude Assessment (PADAA), consists of 19 statements. The PADAA measures the degree to which a respondent possesses positive attitudes toward cultural pluralism and whether an individual is comfortable or uncomfortable with diversity. The four scales are Appreciate Cultural Pluralism, Value Cultural Pluralism, Implement Cultural Pluralism, and Uncomfortable with Cultural Diversity.