UVM Theses and Dissertations
Format:
Print
Author:
Johnson-Flash, Lacretia
Dept./Program:
College of Education and Social Services
Year:
2010
Degree:
Ed. D.
Abstract:
In recognizing the importance and complexity of multicultural organizational development in U.S. colleges and universities, scholars and practitioners in higher education and student affairs have called for the continued development of models, frameworks, and instruments to help student affairs organizations assess and implement strategic and sustained multicultural organizational change.
The purpose of this research was to develop and test the Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs Organizations (MCSAO) questionnaire for its reliability and validity. This research builds on prior conceptual work like the Multicultural Organizational Template (Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller, 2004) and the Multicultural Organizational Checklist for Student Affairs (Grieger, 1996). Tailored primarily for college and university student affairs organizations, the MCSAO offers a new survey instrument to assist administrators and managers in the assessment of multicultural competence along several organizational dimensions (e.g., programs, services, staff recruitment, multicultural mission).
The development of the MCSAO occurred in three phases: (1) development and pilot testing of the MCSAO-Preliminary 1 questionnaire, (2) cognitive interviewing via focus groups, and (3) a final study to evaluate the psychometric properties of the MCSAO-Preliminary 2 (MCSAO-P2) questionnaire. Final testing involved 554 survey respondents at 17 institutions of higher education across the United States. These phases reduced the questionnaire item count from 156 to 79. A total of 8 factors emerged in the conceptualization of multicultural competence, with a coefficient alpha range of .850 to .949.
The purpose of this research was to develop and test the Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs Organizations (MCSAO) questionnaire for its reliability and validity. This research builds on prior conceptual work like the Multicultural Organizational Template (Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller, 2004) and the Multicultural Organizational Checklist for Student Affairs (Grieger, 1996). Tailored primarily for college and university student affairs organizations, the MCSAO offers a new survey instrument to assist administrators and managers in the assessment of multicultural competence along several organizational dimensions (e.g., programs, services, staff recruitment, multicultural mission).
The development of the MCSAO occurred in three phases: (1) development and pilot testing of the MCSAO-Preliminary 1 questionnaire, (2) cognitive interviewing via focus groups, and (3) a final study to evaluate the psychometric properties of the MCSAO-Preliminary 2 (MCSAO-P2) questionnaire. Final testing involved 554 survey respondents at 17 institutions of higher education across the United States. These phases reduced the questionnaire item count from 156 to 79. A total of 8 factors emerged in the conceptualization of multicultural competence, with a coefficient alpha range of .850 to .949.