Teachers’ beliefs and characteristics predictive of their willingness to cultivate a safe, ethnically inclusive school environment

Abstract

This study fills an important gap in our understanding of how teachers’ beliefs and characteristics influence their willingness to engage in classroom practices that promote ethnic inclusivity and prevent ethnicity-based exclusion and conflicts among students. A sample of 454 in-service Russian teachers completed an online survey that included questions asking about teachers’ own ethnic background, the ethnic diversity of their school, their beliefs about multiculturalism, empathic anger experienced in response to witnessing ethnicity-based mistreatment, and job satisfaction. The results revealed that positive multicultural beliefs, empathic anger, and job satisfaction were positively predictive of teachers’ willingness to promote ethnic inclusivity in the classroom.