A follow-up comparison of the attitudes of teachers who either did or did not participate in a Human Relations Institute

The thesis uses data provided by the Research Center at Houston Baptist College to compare the attitudes of a group of teachers (IP) who participated in Human Relations Institutes with the attitudes of a random sample of teachers (RS) from the same schools who did not participate in the Institutes. The first hypothesis is that the difference between the means of the white IP and the white RS will be greater than the difference between the means of the black IP and the black RS. The second hypothesis is that the difference between the means of the IP and RS will be greater on the attitude scale "Attitudes to Segregation," than on the experience scale "Previous Behavior Patterns with People of the Opposite Race." The third hypothesis is used to test the assumption that the IP and the RS are parallel groups. It is hypothesized that the attitude pattern created by stratifying the IP by age, sex, and marital status will be similar to the attitude pattern of the RS stratified by age, sex, and marital status. Subjects for this study consist of an experimental group of institute participants and a random group. There were 203 teachers who were IP subjects and 262 RS subjects whc were teachers drawn at random from the same schools as the IP subjects. From the total of both IP and RS subjects, 350 usable questionnaires were obtained. Raw score data profiles were tabulated for the two groups and analyzed statistically by computer. When testing for significance of difference between the IP and RS, the Z-test was used. When testing for significance of difference for variables within the IP, or within the RS, the t-test for significance of difference between two groups was used. The first hypothesis is confirmed at a high level of confidence by the data. There is significantly more difference between the white IP and the white RS than between the black IP and the black RS. The second hypothesis is partially confirmed by the data on black subjects. The data on the white subjects showed no difference in the response to an experience scale and an attitude scale. The results indicate that the black IP and the black RS are parallel groups and that the IP is insignificantly different from the RS due to the experience of human relations training. The white IP and the white RS are not parallel and the difference between the white IP and the white RS cannot be accredited to human relations training on the basis of this data. It is concluded that there is a wide range of attitude among white teachers concerning members of the black race, and that those who volunteer for human relations training tend to be those with the most favorable attitudes.