Perceptions of administrators and PTA officers on the acceptability of the National Council for the Social Studies curriculum guidelines for multicultural education

This qualitative study examined the perceptions of 10 middle school administrators and 10 PTA officers in the following areas: (a) the concept of multicultural education; (b) experiences with children in the middle school setting; (c) the concept of controversy; and (d) the age-appropriateness and level of controversy of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Curriculum Guidelines for Multicultural Education. The 20 participants were selected from a city in the Southern Region of the United States by the method of purposive sampling. A pledge of anonymity was given to the superintendent of schools as well as to each participant. The research instrument was a self-designed interview schedule. The interview schedule was piloted with a middle school administrator in a school system near the location of the study. Data collection was conducted through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Audiotaped recordings of the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed throughout the data collection process. Data analysis was conducted simultaneously as data was collected, also known as the constant comparison method. Data was presented descriptively as emergent categories and outcomes addressing three research questions. This included the investigation of the participants\u27 perceptions in regards to determining if any of the NCSS Curriculum Guidelines were age-appropriate or controversial. Furthermore, the responses of the administrators and PTA officers were analyzed for compatibility and systematic differences. Compatibility of the administrators and PTA officers was achieved in several of the NCSS Curriculum Guidelines for their age-appropriateness. The majority of the participants were in agreement of each guideline being age-appropriate. However, there were systematic differences in their responses to the controversy of the 16 guidelines. Differences were especially illuminating when the administrative group had no participants that stated the guideline was controversial while several PTA officers found the same guideline to be controversial and vice versa