It Is Never Too Soon: A Study of Kindergarten Teachers' Implementation of Multicultural Education in Florida's Classrooms

This study assesses the level of inclusion of multicultural education materials and activities in kindergarten classrooms in the State of Florida. The researcher developed a two-part questionnaire which was mailed to one thousand kindergarten teachers selected by systematic sampling. Part one of the questionnaire contained seventy-eight items regarding the teacher, the students and the classroom structure. Part two asked teachers to respond to forty-three items relating to the physical environment of the classroom, instructional strategies, the curriculum and various content areas. The items in Part Two were based on three levels of inclusion with Level I indicating inclusion more than 80% of the time. Four hundred and seventy-seven teachers from fifty-four of Florida's sixty seven counties responded to the survey. Although there were some areas where teachers did include materials and activities such as ethnic holiday celebrations, overall, more could be done.