School Climate in the Context of Cultural Diversity: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Background. In Russian science, the issues of school climate in the context of cultural diversity have not been considered. Both theoretical coverage and experimental research on this problem are lacking.

Objective. The aim is to conduct theoretical and empirical analysis of the components of school climate related to the approach to cultural diversity as well as to test the questionnaire “Classroom Climate in the Context of Cultural Diversity” on a Russian sample empirically.

Study Participants. The experimental study was conducted in secondary comprehensive schools of Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny. The respondents were students of 7th–8th grades (N = 67). The choice of school was determined by the share of foreign minors among the total number of students (more than 30%).

Methods. The questionnaire “Classroom Climate in the Context of Cultural Diversity”, devised abroad by Civitillo et al. (Civitillo et al., 2017) was used as a research tool. It includes three scales: “equality”, “cultural pluralism”, “critical awareness of diversity”. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to calculate the effectiveness and discriminant validity of questions on the three scales.

Results. The first stage of the work consisted in achieving equivalence of the Russian translation of the questionnaire text. Next, the discriminant index was calculated to identify non-functional and empty questions. Statistical analysis showed that the discriminant index for all the questions on the three scales ranged from 0.388 to 1.

Conclusions. Based on the results of the pilot study, it can be stated that all questions and items of the questionnaire are relevant, i.e. effective and discriminative. This provides grounds for testing the questionnaire for reliability, validity and standardization on the Russian sample.

Practical Significance. The practical result of the research is the possibility of standardization of the modified version of the questionnaire to study the norms and ideology of school regarding diversity. The prospects of the work include the elaboration of a technology of complex examination of school climate in the context of cultural diversity.