Effects of Selected Demographic Variables on Music Student Teachers’ Self-Reported Cross-Cultural Competence

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of race/ethnicity and school community setting for early field experience practica and student teaching on music student teachers’ self-reported cross-cultural competence. Participants (N = 337) from 36 colleges and universities across the United States completed a survey designed to examine the extent of cross-cultural competence as specified by three constructs: (a) factors fostering readiness to teach in culturally diverse educational environments, (b) factors constraining readiness to teach in culturally diverse educational environments, and (c) educational experiences during teacher preparation relative to multicultural education and multicultural music education. The “Foster,” “Constrain,” and “Teacher Preparation” dimension subscales served as the dependent variables. Results indicated no significant main effect of school community setting on participants’ cross-cultural competence; however, a significant main effect of race/ethnicity (p < .05) was observed for the Constrain subscale of the survey.