Cultural Awareness Inventory.

Mexican American and Anglo secondary school teacher perceptions of Mexican American students were investigated and compared. The instrument used to retrieve the data was administered to 112 teachers in the three Dona Ana (N.M.) county school districts. Six constructs resulted from the factor analysis of the instrument, namely, achievement, time orientation, acculturation, family identification, economic, and religiousity. Reliability of factors was established through Cronbach's Co-efficient Alpha, and item reliability was obtained through item analysis. Forty of the original 50 items were used to compare the groups on each of the six dimensions. Using ethnicity, age, and teaching experience as variables, t tests were computed to test for significant differences. Differences with respect to ethnicity were found in four of the constructs: achievement, time orientation, acculturation, and religiousity. Age and teaching experience were not variables influencing the differences in attitude between the two teacher groups. Educational importance, implications and recommendations based on the findings of the study conclude the paper. (Author)