THE MODERATING ROLES OF ETHNIC BACKGROUND AND EXPOSURE TO FOLKLORES ON EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION STUDENT-TEACHERS' ATTITUDE TO CORE SOCIETAL VALUES IN A CULTURALLY-RESPONSIVE TEACHING

Abstract

Sufficient research attention has not been directed at investigating the moderating  effects that ethnic background and previous exposure have on participants' learning  outcomes in culturally-responsive intervention studies. This study therefore  examined the moderating effects of ethnic background and previous exposure to  folklores on attitude of Early Childhood Education (ECE) student-teachers to Core  Societal Values (CSVs) in an intervention study that employed a Culturally 

responsive Teaching Method. (CrTM). The pretest-posttest control group quasi experimental design with 2x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. Two federal colleges  of education offering ECE programme in Southwestern Nigeria were purposively  selected. A total of 72 ECE student-teachers in year one was selected from intact  classes in the two colleges. The colleges were randomly assigned to CrTM (38) and  Conventional Method (CM-43) groups. Instruments used were Attitude to CSVs  Scale (0.90), Previous Exposure Questionnaire (0.91) and CrTM Instructional  Guide. Treatment lasted six weeks. Data were analysed using Analysis of covariance.  There was no significant main effect of ethnic background (F = 1.30; p>0.05, (1,64) 2 2 partial η = 0.02) and previous exposure to folklores (F = 0.01; p>0.05, partial η = (1,64) 0.00) on the student-teachers' attitude to CSVs. Ethnic background and previous  exposure did not have significant two-way interaction effect (F = .94; p>.05, (1,64)  2 

partial η = 0.01). This study concluded that ethnic background and previous  exposure have little or no role to play on attitude of participants in culturally responsive intervention studies.