The relationship of students in the helping professions toward multiculturalism in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The presented article focuses on the issue of the relationship toward multiculturalism of university students who are preparing to work in assisting professions. In particular, this issue concerns future educators, social educators, healthcare and social workers. Considering the fact that the Czech Republic has become a target country for a number of immigrants in recent years, there is a more than urgent need to educate students with regard to multiculturalism. The lack of preparedness of workers in the helping professions is negatively reflected in mutual communication and the provision of adequate services. The main objective in our study was to map how university students in the first year of their study of the assisting professions perceive their relationship toward multiculturalism. The pilot study was conducted among students of Social Pedagogy and Health and Social Work in the first year at the Faculty of Humanities at Tomas Bata University in Zlin in the academic year 2017/2018. To obtain the data an Osgood's semantic differential was used to identify the students' relationship toward the multiculturalism. The research sample consisted of 158 university students. The results of the survey pointed to the fact that students have low awareness and an insufficiently defined relationship to multiculturalism. Following on from these alarming results, the conclusion of our study includes a methodological recommendation for pedagogical practice, which should contribute to raising students' awareness and creating a positive relationship toward multiculturalism.