Perception of Early Childhood Education Students about Their Intercultural Formation

This research aims to know the beliefs of early childhood education student teachers about multiculturalism, and to understand how intercultural competence is developed in the process of initial teacher development in the Faculty of Education of Albacete of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM, Spain). Participants were 172 students. The design is framed in the Mixed Methods paradigm, defined as the systematic integration of qualitative and quantitative research methods in a study. For this purpose, a questionnaire of 25 questions was made, their results were analyzed by using SPSS 20.0. At the same time, the scripts of the individual interviews and of the focus group discussions were written, and they were analysed by using Atlas. ti 6. Validity and reliability were guaranteed with techniques such as theoretical revision, pilot application, expert judgment and application of the Cronbach Alpha (0.861). Results showed that the development of the intercultural competence of future early childhood teachers was deficient. According to students, the curriculum did not improve their cognitive, pedagogic and emotional intercultural competence, because at the end of their studies they had prejudices and negative cultural stereotypes towards foreigners (these prejudices during their studies were soften, but not eliminated).