Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
Intercultural competency influences the quality of international relations as cultural and global perceptions impact individual and collective attitudes and levels of participation. Research addressing differences and causes of varying levels of intercultural competency could ultimately provide insight, understanding, and progress towards enhancing global awareness. The purpose of this study was to compare American undergraduate university students' intercultural competency to that of Russian undergraduate university students. This study was theoretically based on the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), developed by Bennett (1986). The DMIS described six stages of intercultural competency: (a) Denial or Unaware; (b) Polarization or Defense; (c) Minimization; (d) Acceptance; (e) Adaptation; and (f) Integration. The research subjects for this study included 26 persons, 18 to 30 years old, who were enrolled in the North-Eastern State University, Magadan (NESU), and 26 persons, 18 to 30 years old, who were enrolled in Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSU). This study assessed intercultural competency with the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) (Hammer & Bennett, 1998, 2001, 2010). Based on the DMIS, the IDI consisted of fifty, Likert-type items that can be answered in 20 to 30 minutes. All students completed the IDI on-line in their first language. The investigators used the group mean scores to evaluate whether any significant indicators of differences or similarities were observed in intercultural competency. Results indicated statistically significant differences in orientation to cultural differences between Russian and American undergraduate university students.
This is a English translated preprint version provided by author Sandell.
© Санделл Е. Дж., Лоренц Е.А., Клыпа О.В., Воскресенский О.В., 2016
© Sandell, E. J., Lohrenz, E. A., Klypa, O. V., Voskresensky, O., 2016
Department
Elementary and Early Childhood Education
Publication Title
Ценности и смыслы [Values and Meanings]
Recommended Citation
Sandell, E. J., Klypa, O. V., Lohrenz, E. A., and Voskresensky, O. (2016). Comparison of Intercultural Competency between Russian and American University Students. Сравнение межкультурной компетенции студентов российских и американских университетов. Ценности и смыслы [Values and Meanings], 44(4), 104 – 117.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
