• Design

This study used a survey/questionnaire that included a Likert scale on twenty-five controversial topics.  Participants were asked to rate topics according to their attitude about these topics when placing orders for books and curriculum materials.  The Likert scale included four choices for participants:  strongly opposed to including, opposed to including, favorable to including, and strongly favorable to including.  The survey instrument also included three questions for participants to answer. 

 

  • Participants

The research instrument was given to media specialists and teachers in three public high schools in three northeast Georgia counties.  The participants were asked to complete the research instrument on a voluntary basis.  Approximately 120 instruments were distributed and 70 were returned.

 
  • Data Collection Technique and Data Sources
    • I distributed approximately 120 surveys to teachers and media specialists in three high schools in three northeast Georgia counties. 
    • Seventy surveys were returned.
    • I sorted through all surveys to make sure they were useable for my data collection purposes.
    • Three survey participants did not complete the Likert scale or did not complete the Likert scale correctly.  These three surveys were not used in the Likert scale analysis.
    • I then transcribed all of the data into Excel spreadsheets.

 

 

  • Analysis of Data
    • Participant responses to the Likert scale were tallied and entered into an Excel spreadsheet.
    • Charts were then created to provide a visual analysis of the Likert scale results.
    • Each chart shows media specialist and teacher attitudes for individual topics.
    • Additional Excel spreadsheets were created for participant responses to the three survey questions.
    • Responses were studied and organized according to commonalities.
    • From creating and analyzing these charts and spreadsheets, I determined which topics are most likely to be self-censored by media specialist and teachers.