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Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Professional Development: Investigating Online Instructor Ethnocultural Empathy
Dissertation   Open access

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Professional Development: Investigating Online Instructor Ethnocultural Empathy

Brenda E. Vigo-Garcia
University of West Florida Libraries
Doctor of Education (EDD), University of West Florida
2024

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Abstract

Undergraduate learning in online higher education has progressively increased in the United States, becoming a dominant choice of education after the COVID-19 global pandemic and contributing to the higher enrollment of diverse students. Higher learning institutions have attempted to address multicultural growth by developing instructors’ cultural competence through diversity, equity, and inclusion professional development (DEI PD). The purpose of this correlational quantitative study was to investigate whether differences existed in levels of ethnocultural empathy regarding the gender of online instructors as it related to attending DEI PD at a for-profit university with campuses in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. The model of ethnocultural empathy (MEE) served as the conceptual framework for this study using a sample of 118 online instructors. I collected and analyzed data to test the MEE conceptual framework using the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE) to measure the degree of cultural competence. I computed Mann-Whitney U tests to analyze the group between genders, SEE total score, and four subscale factors. The results suggested statistical significance with regard to SEE total score and EFE Factor 1 score. The results offer value toward measuring differences between genders after participating in DEI PD to determine whether the learning was transformative. The results provide insight to guide future professional development decisions and contribute to existing literature and DEI PD policy in higher learning institutions. Future research should include nonprofit online institutions and be generalizable to gender, in particular for men, relative to understanding the differences in transformative learning.
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