STUDY ABROAD PARTICIPATION AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY

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Edmunds, J. (2017). STUDY ABROAD PARTICIPATION AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the intercultural sensitivity of College of Education students who participated in short-term, faculty led, study abroad programs at a large, urban, branch, university in the Southeast. The research questions in this study were addressed using a mixed methods approach. This method provided for the integration of both quantitative and qualitative data. A mixed methods design was selected because it was not possible to randomly assign students to an experimental group (study abroad) or a control group and the research was conducted after the students participated in the short-term, faculty led, study abroad course. Using this design, the researcher attempted to identify a relationship between students’ participation in a short-term, faculty led, study abroad program and intercultural sensitivity.This study’s quantitative and qualitative findings relied on the statistically valid and reliable Intercultural Development Inventory v.3 (IDI; Hammer and Bennett, 2010) to measure intercultural sensitivity. The IDI scores from the sample of College of Education students (N = 24) who participated in the research, was used to run a quantitative analysis, the themes which emerged from the qualitative information added depth to the data and provided students’ recollections of their intercultural experiences.This study provided baseline intercultural sensitivity scores, some demographic characteristics, individuals’ perception of their intercultural sensitivity, and recollections of intercultural experiences of the College of Education participants. The IDI Perceived Orientation (PO) and Developmental Orientation (DO) and mean scores for College of Education students who participated in short-term, faculty led, study abroad program were higher than College of Education students who did not participate in study abroad programs. However, caution is strongly urged in interpretation of the findings due to the small and non-representative sample. Given the low response rate (N = 24) it is recommended that additional studies with larger sample sizes be conducted to ascertain results with greater reliability.

Details
Author

Edmunds, Julia

Title

STUDY ABROAD PARTICIPATION AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY

Physical Description

1 online resource (115 pages) : PDF

Date

2017

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the intercultural sensitivity of College of Education students who participated in short-term, faculty led, study abroad programs at a large, urban, branch, university in the Southeast. The research questions in this study were addressed using a mixed methods approach. This method provided for the integration of both quantitative and qualitative data. A mixed methods design was selected because it was not possible to randomly assign students to an experimental group (study abroad) or a control group and the research was conducted after the students participated in the short-term, faculty led, study abroad course. Using this design, the researcher attempted to identify a relationship between students’ participation in a short-term, faculty led, study abroad program and intercultural sensitivity.This study’s quantitative and qualitative findings relied on the statistically valid and reliable Intercultural Development Inventory v.3 (IDI; Hammer and Bennett, 2010) to measure intercultural sensitivity. The IDI scores from the sample of College of Education students (N = 24) who participated in the research, was used to run a quantitative analysis, the themes which emerged from the qualitative information added depth to the data and provided students’ recollections of their intercultural experiences.This study provided baseline intercultural sensitivity scores, some demographic characteristics, individuals’ perception of their intercultural sensitivity, and recollections of intercultural experiences of the College of Education participants. The IDI Perceived Orientation (PO) and Developmental Orientation (DO) and mean scores for College of Education students who participated in short-term, faculty led, study abroad program were higher than College of Education students who did not participate in study abroad programs. However, caution is strongly urged in interpretation of the findings due to the small and non-representative sample. Given the low response rate (N = 24) it is recommended that additional studies with larger sample sizes be conducted to ascertain results with greater reliability.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Educational leadership
Foreign study

Degree

D.Ed.

Keywords

Study Abroad

Subject Area

Educational Leadership

Advisor(s)

Shore, Rebbeca

Committee Members

Shore, Rebecca
Lambert, Rich
Wang, Chuang
Medina, Adriana

Degree Note

Thesis (D.Ed.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Edmunds_uncc_0694D_11566

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1131