Document Type

Dissertation

Major/Program

Curriculum and Instruction

First Advisor's Name

Mohammed K. Farouk

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Hilary Landorf

Third Advisor's Name

Bruce Nissen

Fourth Advisor's Name

Leonard Bliss

Keywords

Global education, students' perceptions, global citizenship, global workforce, global awareness, students' attitudes

Date of Defense

3-22-2011

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure high school students’ perceptions of global awareness and attitudes towards global issues. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) Can acceptable validity and reliability estimates be established for an instrument developed to measure high schools students' global awareness? (b) Can acceptable validity and reliability estimates be established for an instrument developed to measure high schools students' attitudes towards global issues? (c) What is the relationship between high school students’ GPA, race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, parents’ education, reading and listening habits, the number of classes taken in the social sciences, whether they speak a second language, and have experienced living in or visiting other countries, and their perception of global awareness and attitudes toward global issues?

An ex post facto research design was used and the data were collected using a 4-point Likert-type survey. It was administered in 14 schools in the Miami-Dade County area to 704 students. A factor analysis with an orthogonal varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying constructs that were being measured by the instrument – global education, global citizenship, and global workforce. This was done to estimate construct validity. However, the findings indicated two different factors that included the content of the three constructs but had to be labeled differently. They were: factor 1 – self- perception of global awareness and factor 2 – attitudes towards global social issues. Cronbach’s alpha was used to estimate the reliability of the instrument. These findings helped answer the first two research questions.

A hierarchical multiple regression was also used. The findings helped determine the relationship of the two factors to the demographics. The overall model indicated that the demographic variables accounted for significant amounts of variance of each of the factor constructs identified. Among the findings, the independent variables, ethnicity and parents’ education were statistically significant for self-perception of global awareness (factor 1). Gender and SES were statistically significant for attitude toward global social issues (factor 2).

Identifier

FI11050306

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