revues sur l'interculturel

The INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS is dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding of theory, practice, and research in intergroup relations. The contents encompass theoretical developments, field-based evaluations of training techniques, empirical discussions of cultural similarities and differences, and critical descriptions of new training approaches. Papers selected for publication in IJIR are judged to increase our understanding of intergroup tensions and harmony. Issue-oriented and cross-discipline discussion is encouraged.

The highest priority is given to manuscripts that join theory, practice, and field research design. By theory, we mean conceptual schemes focused on the nature of cultural differences and similarities. Practice refers to techniques of intercultural training that are both theoretically well founded and usable in the field. The research design we are looking for should: (a) be field-based rather than laboratory-based and (b) pit the training technique under consideration against other approaches. Whereas true experiments in the field are ideal, they are also hard to come by, and we expect many will more closely resemble quasi-experimental models. It is recognized that it may not be possible to include all of the above elements in a given manuscript. However, the authors should attempt such inclusion whenever possible.

No restriction is made on the definition of "culture" as proper subject matter for a manuscript. Acceptable studies may deal with any of the following: national, cross-cultural, racial, social class, sex differences, and even management versus union differences, among others. However, it is the responsibility of the authors to show that the groups under consideration actually form a culture.

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Volume 29, Number 2, March 2005

ABSTRACTS

Intercultural communication competence : Identifying key components from multicultural perspectives

Lily A. Arasaratnam, Department of Speech Communication, Oregon State University, USA

Marya L. Doerfel, Department of Communication, The State University of New Jersey, USA

Intercultural communication competence (ICC) is an area of study that is becoming more relevant in the increasingly multicultural communities that we live in. Though much progress has been made in this area of research since Hall [(1959). The silent language. New York: Anchor Books], a satisfactory model of ICC and a scale that translates well into different cultures is yet to be developed. This paper presents a review of past research in ICC and describes a unique approach to identifying variables that contribute toward perceived ICC. Specifically, this study triangulates and updates past research on ICC by integrating the theoretical backgrounds of social psychology, interpersonal communication, and anthropology to construct a multidimensional understanding of ICC. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews with participants representing 15 different countries and responses were analyzed using semantic network analysis. A definition of intercultural communication was derived from the responses, and knowledge and motivation were identified as important components of ICC. Additions to a multidimensional definition of ICC include listening skills, prior cross-cultural experiences, having a global outlook as opposed to an ethnocentric one, and an other-centered style of communication. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

Keywords : Intercultural communication; Competence; Semantic network analysis

Culture, gender, organizational role, and styles of conflict resolution: A meta-analysis

Jennifer L. Holt, Holt Enterprises Consulting Services, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Cynthia James DeVore, Inver Hills Community College, Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076

The popularity of self-report five-style conflict resolution instruments, spawned by Blake and Mouton's [(1964). The managerial grid. Houston, TX Gulf Publishing] dual concerns theory, resulted in a plethora of research studies examining possible differences in culture, gender and organizational role. Using the Managerial Grid, dual concerns theory postulates that conflict involves balancing the desire to meet production goals (x) versus concern for personal relationships (y). Five styles of managing conflict are then revealed: smoothing, withdrawing, compromising, problem-solving, and forcing. Numerous studies using instruments derived from this theory validate its basic premises, but results have provided confusing results.

Given the disparity of results, a meta-analysis was conducted to provide a clearer overall picture for the variables of culture (individualistic versus collectivistic), gender, and organizational role (superior, subordinate, and peer). Based upon 123 paired comparisons within 36 empirical studies, the results of the meta-analysis indicate: (1) individualistic cultures choose forcing as a conflict style more than collectivistic cultures; (2) collectivistic cultures prefer the styles of withdrawing, compromising, and problem-solving more than individualistic cultures; (3) in individualistic cultures, compromising is endorsed more frequently by females; (4) females are more likely to endorse the use of compromising than males, regardless of culture; (5) males are more likely to report using forcing than females in individualistic cultures; and (6) with regard to organizational role, males are more likely than females to choose a forcing style with their superiors.

Keywords : Conflict; Conflict resolution; Conflict resolution style; Gender; Culture; Organizational role; Meta-analysis; Managerial grid; Dual concerns theory; Conflict styles; Blake and Mouton; Conflict management survey; CMS; Rahim organizational conflict inventory; ROCI-I; ROCI-II; Employee conflict inventory; ECI; Thomas and Kilmann; Management-of-differences exercise; MODE

Becoming friends or remaining foes : An empirical test of a causal model of intergroup contact across two cultures

Sharon G. Goto, Department of Psychology, Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA

Darius K.-S. Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong

This study examined the antecedents and consequences of intergroup contact between African Americans and White Americans. In Triandis's [(1992). Paper presented at the meeting of the international congress of psychology, Brussels, Belgium; Triandis, Kurowski, & Gelfand (1994). Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 4, 2nd ed.) (pp. 769-827). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press] model for dealing with cultural diversity, culturally based perceptions (i.e., perceptions of knowledge of outgroup culture, history of conflict, and cultural similarity) were hypothesized to influence perceptions of similarity. This, in turn, was hypothesized to influence (d is) satisfaction with the contact experience. Satisfaction with contact was predicted to influence intergroup attitude, and desire for future interactions. In a test using structural equations modeling, the model received support, although some model modifications by group were necessary. For White Americans, perceived cultural similarity influenced intergroup attitude directly through contact, in addition to the hypothesized effects through contact. For African Americans, contrary to expectation, perceived history of conflict failed to predict intergroup attitudes through perceptions of similarity. Instead, perceived history of conflict influenced intergroup attitude directly. Results are discussed with respect to dominant and non-dominant status, and the need for universal and culture-specific models of intergroup contact.

Keywords: Intergroup dynamics; Race and ethnic discrimination; Race and ethnic difference

Transformation abroad : Sojourning and the perceived enhancement of self-efficacy

Tema Milstein, Department of Communication, University of Washington, Seattle, WA , USA

This paper empirically examines communication self-efficacy as a possible profound payoff of sojourning. A review of relevant literature explores the interrelationships of communication, sojourning, and personal growth. Questionnaire data from an international sample of 212 Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) alumni are used to test hypotheses about the sojourn and perceived changes in communication self-efficacy. Data analysis revealed that 95.5% of the sample retrospectively reported a perceived increase in self-efficacy. In addition, positive correlations were found between self-reported challenge of sojourn and reported perceived change in self-efficacy, and between self-reported success of sojourn and perceived communication self-efficacy scores. Discussion addresses these findings as well as study limitations, possible future research directions, and implications for practice.

Keywords: Self-efficacy; Sojourner; Transformation; Growth; Intercultural adaptation; Culture shock; Reentry

Self-construal and depression among Vietnamese-American adolescents

Brian Trung Lam, California State University, Long Beach, CA, USA

This study examined the role of self-construal and its direct and indirect impact on depression through various correlates, including family cohesion, peer support, and selfesteem. Using structural equation modeling, the proposed model was tested on 152 Vietnamese-American adolescents from a high school in Southern California. The results demonstrated that dimensions of self-construal (i.e., interdependent self and independent self) contributed to depression only through indirect pathways. Interdependent self-construal was associated with high family cohesion, which bolstered adolescents' self-esteem and, in turn, contributed to less depression. However, independent self-construal was associated with depression through peer support and self-esteem. Better peer support and high self-esteem was found to mediate the relationship between higher independent self-construal and lower depression.

Keywords: Self-construal; Depression; Vietnamese-American adolescents; Self-esteem; Family cohesion; Peer support

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Volume 29, Number 3, May 2005

ABSTRACTS

The role of demographic variables and acculturation attitudes in predicting sociocultural and psychological adaptation in Moroccans in the Netherlands

Otmane Ait Ouarasse, Fons J.R. van de Vijver, Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

The goals of the present study were two-fold : (i) to test the independence of the attitudes of second-generation migrants toward their culture of origin and toward the culture of the host society; and (ii) to test a path model in which these acculturation attitudes moderate and/or mediate the relationship between demographic factors (age, gender, occupation, education, and length of stay) and acculturation outcomes (including psychological adjustment, as measured by mental health and sociocultural acculturation as measured by school success, work success). Both hypotheses were to a large extent confirmed in a group of 155 secondgeneration Moroccans in the Netherlands. The results suggest that the two underlying dimensions of acculturation attitudes were largely independent across migrants and slightly negatively related within migrants; furthermore, there were some indications that ethnic culture was to some extent more liked in the personal domain and the host culture more in the public domain. Acculturation attitudes mediated the relationship between demographic variables and sociocultural adaptation. In turn, sociocultural adaptation mediated the relationship between acculturation attitudes and psychological adaptation. The results showed also that sociocultural and psychological adaptation had their own predictors; psychological adaptation was directly predicted by background variables while sociocultural adaptation was directly predicted by acculturation attitudes.

Keywords: Acculturation; Sociocultural adaptation; Psychological adaptation; Moroccans; The Netherlands

The role of majority attitudes towards out-group in the perception of the acculturation strategies of immigrants

Ankica Kosic, Rohert Schuman Centre for Advanced studies, European University Institute, Italy

Lucia Mannetti, Dipartimento di Psicologia dei Processi di Sviluppo e Socializzazione, Università di Roma, "La Sapienza", Italy

David Lackland Sam, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Norway

The aim of this study was to examine host group members 'towards immigrants' acculturation strategy preferences and the relationship between these attitudes and the level of prejudice towards immigrants. A questionnaire containing different prejudice scales was administered to 160 Italian participants living in Rome. In addition respondents were presented with vignettes depicting different acculturation strategies: Assimilation, Integration, Separation, or Marginalization. Respondents received a vignette each describing only one acculturation strategy. Results showed that prejudice towards immigrants affected the evaluation of acculturation strategies. The more prejudice the respondent was, the more negative was his or her attitude towards Separation and Marginalization and the more positive was his or her attitude towards Assimilation.

Keywords: Acculturation strategies; Prejudice; Immigrants

Re-examining the role of training in contributing to international project success : A literature review and an outline of a new model training program

Daniel J. Kealey, David R. Protheroe, Doug MacDonald, Thomas Vulpe, Center for Intercultural Learning, Canadian Foreign Service Institute, Bisson Campus, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

International projects face greater obstacles to success and fail more often than do similar domestic projects, even those with a multicultural workforce. Cross-cultural training of individuals has been the standard response, and has no doubt been generally effective in equipping personnel with most of the knowledge and skills needed to live and work successfully in another culture. But the question is raised here: Is there a gap between the needs of international projects and what the current approaches to cross-cultural training offer for meeting those needs? The authors contend that current cross-cultural training fails to address adequately the organizational and environmental factors which impact significantly on the overall success of international projects. After reviewing a selection of studies from the literature dealing with the causes of success and failure of international projects, the authors propose the elements of a new model training program intended to equip international personnel with a broader range of the knowledge and skills needed to enhance the chances of project success.

Keywords: Cross-cultural training; Cross-cultural skills; Cultural differences; International projects; Organizational culture; Cross-cultural management

Language, ethnic identity, and the adaptation of Turkish immigrant youth in the Netherlands and Sweden

Paul Vedder, Center for the Study of Education and Instruction, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Erkki Virta, Stockholm University and University of Helsinki, Finland

This study analyzes the relationships between immigrant adolescents' ethnic identity, their first and second language proficiency and their psychological and sociocultural adaptation using three models: the ethnic identity model, the language assimilation model, and the language integration model. The study explores what model best explains adaptation processes of second-generation immigrant youth in the Netherlands and Sweden. Participants were 158 Turkish adolescents in the Netherlands and 237 in Sweden (13-18 years). As expected we found support for the ethnic identity model in the Swedish sample and for the language assimilation model in the Netherlands. We also found weak support for the integration model in the Swedish sample. Overall the findings support a notion that in terms of adaptation outcomes there is no such thing as a preferred acculturation strategy that is valid for all times and places. This paper shows that possibilities for optimizing adaptation outcomes as well as choices of acculturation strategies may vary by context with regard to immigrant language policy and corresponding experiences.

Keywords: Immigrant youth; Identity; Adaptation

Developing criteria for expatriate effectiveness : time to jump off the adjustment bandwagon

Stefan T. Mol, Marise Ph. Born, Henk T. van der Molen, Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

While job performance is quintessential to assessing expatriate effectiveness, significant domestic advances in performance measurement have seldom been applied to evaluating expatriate training and selection practices. Based on a critical assessment of expatriate research and deliberations about the conversion of these domestic taxonomies to the expatriate domain, this theoretical paper voices a number of propositions that should serve to benefit the field. Specifically, it is proposed that : (1) Dependent variables that have been employed thus far within the field of expatriate effectiveness are best construed as mediators between their predictors and yet to be delineated criteria of expatriate effectiveness that actually sample expatriate job performance; more adequate sampling of the expatriate job performance domain is called for; (2) behaviorally specific criteria, such as those developed by Tett et al., (Human Performance, 2000, 13(3) 205) are essential to the adequate assessment of expatriate job performance; (3) the dimensions of adaptive performance which were developed by Pulakos and colleagues (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2000, 85(4) 612; Human Performance, 2002, 15(4) 299) constitute an important subdomain of expatriate job performance; and (4) an over reliance on the generalization of domestic taxonomies will result in criterion deficiency, as expatriate specific criteria to complement these generalized criteria need to be developed.

Keywords : Expatriate; Selection; Criteria; Adjustment; Performance; Bandwidth; Fidelity

Ethnicity and perceptions of being a "typical American" in relationship to ethnic identity development

Robert S. Weisskirch, Liberal Studies Department, California State University, Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA, USA

Individuals who are ethnic minorities in the US form both an ethnic identity and an American identity. Some ethnic minorities may not view themselves as part of being a typical American. A total of 372 college students (female = 350, male = 22) completed the multigroup ethnic identity measure (MEIM) [Phinney, 1992. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 156-176] and responded to a questionnaire on perceptions of being like and unlike a "typical American." In this study, Asian Americans and Latinos have the highest levels of ethnic identity and see themselves as not being typical Americans more than other ethnic groups. However, Latinos who report not being typical Americans have higher levels of ethnic identity. For Asian Americans, perception of being a typical American made no difference in levels of ethnic identity.

Keywords: American identity; Ethnic identity; Latinos; Asian Americans; Ethnic minorities

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Volume 29, Number 4, July 2005

ABSTRACTS

The influence of comparative media use on acculturation, acculturative stress, and family relationships of Chinese international students

Susan L. Kline, School of Communication, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH , USA

Fan Liu

The purpose of the study was to explore the media use and relational communication practices Chinese international students use to maintain their family relationships, and the association of these practices to acculturation, stress, and family cohesion. The media use and communication practices of Chinese international students studying at a large US university were analyzed. Consistent with media niche theory, Chinese students preferred to use and did use the telephone more often than email to contact family members. In comparison to email, they used the telephone to communicate with family more often per week, covered a greater diversity of conversation topics, used a greater number of relational maintenance themes, and had a greater level of openness in their communicative exchanges. Gender, phone contacts per week and email topic diversity predicted students' acculturative stress levels, while phone topic diversity and open phone communication predicted acculturation level. Open phone and email communication predicted family cohesion. Consistencies in particular topics and relational message themes were also discovered, with similar relational message themes occurring in email as well as in the telephone context. However, that a greater variety of topics and relational message themes were used in the telephone than in the email context supports the idea that phone conversations may more likely be used to convey emotional information than email.

Keywords : International students; Email; Family communication; Acculturative stress; Long-distance relationships

Expatriate leadership : An organizational resource for collaboration

Patricia A. Cassiday, Sasebo, Japan

This qualitative research study asked : (a) What are the deeply held values, beliefs, and assumptions of effective organizational leaders with international experience ? and (b) How do the internally held values, beliefs, and assumptions of the leader affect leadership practices in an international setting and within the global organization ?

The 11 research participants were middle and upper level managers with a minimum of 2 years international experience. The six women and five men ranged in age from 29 to 68 with an average age of 45. They were employed by 11 different organizations, and in 11 different career fields. Collectively, they had a total of 96 years of experience in 16 foreign countries. Seven participants were US Americans and one participant was born in each of the following countries : Canada, Jordan, Taiwan and (formerly East) Germany. The diverse demographics of the participants and the uniqueness of their individual experiences added to the richness of the study.

All participants were screened using the Intercultural Development Inventory. Only participants in an ethnorelative stage of development on the IDI were included in the research. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant. The interview data were recorded and transcribed. The transcribed data were analyzed, using QSR NUD*IST, version 5 software. Each participant also completed a Values Management Inventory, providing an objective assessment of personal values and leadership style. Values Technology analyzed the data from the VML The values expressed by the expatriate leaders who participated in this study clustered in Hall's cycle four of leadership development. In this cycle, Hall reports an enormous shift of consciousness, and an opportunity for significant growth.

Findings revealed that these expatriate leaders were able to maintain creative tension between two or more worldviews, which precipitated their ability to work across cultures. Participants described relationship-building skills that allowed them to synthesize best practices from different cultures toward a competitive advantage. Policy implications for selection of successful expatriate candidates, as well as, suggestions for in-country support of leadership development emerged from this study. An "In-Country" model for support of expatriate leaders allows organizations to garner greater knowledge and insight from their own expatriates. These leaders were often found to be an untapped resource of first hand international experience, intercultural knowledge and cross-cultural skills.

A cross-cultural investigation of time management practices and job outcomes

S.A. Nonis, C.W. Ford, Department of Management and Marketing, Arkansas State University, AR , USA

J.K. Teng, Department of Management Information Systems, Barry University, Miami shoes, FL, USA

The study compared separate monochronic and polychronic time cultures with regard to time management and its influence on key job outcomes. Results support the notion that positive effects of time management practices may not be limited only to Western cultures, and that selected time management dimensions may be more effective in improving job performance perceptions and job satisfaction in certain cultures than in others. Furthermore, the impact that time management practices have on job performance was more evident for individuals who were polychronics as compared to monochronics, regardless of cultural differences. Discussion includes implication for management.

Keywords : Monochronic and polychronic time orientation; Polychronicity; Time management; Job outcomes; Sri Lanka

Goal interdependence for working across cultural boundaries : Chinese employees with foreign managers

Yi-feng Chen, Dean Tjosvold, Department of Management, Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, N. T, Hong Kong

Sofia Fang Su, Finance School Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, PR China

The interaction between foreign managers and local employees is critical in helping them combine their expertise to innovate. However, their diverse cultural values can make developing a productive leader-member relationship challenging. This study proposes that goal interdependence is an important antecedent of an open-minded discussion of opposing views, innovation, and commitment. One hundred and eleven Chinese employees each described a specific interaction with their foreign manager and then responded to questions that were later used in the statistical analyses. The correlational and structural equation analysis indicated that cooperative but not competitive goals facilitated constructive controversy, which in turn promoted innovation and job commitment. These results suggest that Chinese employees and foreign managers can use the theory of cooperation and competition to develop their relationship, which help them integrate their ideas and abilities to implement useful innovations and heighten their commitment.

Keywords : Goal interdependence; Constructive controversy; Innovation; Commitment

Cultural diversity and learning teams : The impact on desired academic team processes

Warren E. Watson, Anat BarNir, Department of Management, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

Robert Pavur, Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA

This research developed a cultural model in order to extend typical definitions of cultural diversity and observe these variables' effect on desired academic team process outcomes. We employed an established learning team procedure longitudinally and examined the learning process, namely, by observing individual cultural characteristics and adding a heterogeneity analysis of these characteristics. The model shows the influence of these diversity metrics on team processes that affect team performance. Results supported the use of a more extended cultural model. Discussion is given regarding the importance of understanding the composition of learning teams.

Keywords : Cultural diversity; Learning teams; Team processes

Application of the scenario questionnaire of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism to the assessment of cultural distance and cultural fit

Valery 1. Chirkov, Sora Niwa, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

Martin Lynch, Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, New York, USA

The article reports the results of the development and application of a scenario questionnaire for the assessment of four cultural orientations: horizontal individualism (HI) and collectivism (HC) and vertical individualism (VI) and collectivism (VC). The 12-item questionnaire which is designed for application in the academic domain among university students has acceptable internal reliability and construct validity. This questionnaire was used to create the indices of cultural distance and cultural fit, and the hypotheses about their relations with cultural adaptation and the psychological well-being of international, Canadian-born and US-born students were supported. International students, who arrived mostly from China, Japan and South Korea see their home academic settings as more collectivistic (HC and VC) and less HI in comparison to Canada. A discrepancy between these students' home country and Canada regarding the VC orientation was associated with higher depression. International as well as North American students had various degrees of fit to the culture of their university. The most predictive orientations with regard to the indicators of well-being and social adaptation were vertical orientations (VC and VI). Results are discussed in terms of the applicability of the developed questionnaire to study acculturation and in terms of the different role of horizontal versus vertical dimensions in cultural adaptation.

Keywords : Scenario questionnaire; Cultural orientations; Cultural distance; Cultural fit

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Volume 29, Number 5, September 2005

ABSTRACTS

The effects of self-construals and embarrassability on predicament response strategies

Noreen D. Tarr, Min-Sun Kim, William F. Sharkey, Department of Speech, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA

The purpose of this study was to discover the relationship between self-construals, embarrassability, and predicament response strategies such as apologies, excuses, justifications, and denials. It was predicted that independent self-construals would be negatively correlated with embarrassability, which, in turn, would lead to the higher likelihood of using more assertive predicament responses such as justifications or denials. On the other hand, it was proposed that interdependent self-construals would be positively correlated with embarrassability, which, in turn, would lead to the higher likelihood of using more mitigating predicament responses such as apologies and excuses. One hundred and eighty students at the University of Hawaii participated in this study which consisted of reading two hypothetical situations involving self-induced social predicaments and then rating the likelihood of using the corresponding predicament response statements. The participants were also given Leung and Kim's [1997. A modified version of self-construal scale. Manoa: University of Hawaii] revised self-construal scale and Modigliani's [1968. Embarrassment and embarrassability. Sociometry, 31, 313-326] embarrassability scale. As expected, interdependent self-construals were positively correlated with embarrassability, which in turn, led to the greater likelihood of use of apologies and excuses; however, the expectation for independent self-construals to be negatively correlated to embarrassability was not borne out by the data. Additionally, the relationship between self-construals and embarrassability was not significantly linked to justification or denial. Discussion of these results and suggestions for future research is provided.

Keywords : Self-construals; Embarrassability; Strategies; Culture; Predicaments; Responses; Tactics

Learning styles and typologies of cultural differences : A theoretical and empirical comparison

Yoshitaka Yamazaki, Graduate School of International Management, International University of Japan, Kokusai-cho, Minami Uonuma, Niigata , Japan

This study presents the relationship between six typologies of cultural differences and the learning styles of Kolb's learning model. Several cross-cultural studies about learning styles indicate that learning styles may differ from one culture to another, but few studies have addressed the question of which culture is related to which learning style or ability. The present study concerns this inquiry. Exploration of this inquiry has been made in two parts. The first part investigates conceptual analogies and relationships between Kolb's model and the six cultural typologies in the domains of anthropology, crosscultural management, and cross-cultural psychology. The second part focuses on the empirical results of six comparative studies about cross-cultural differences in learning styles in the past and discusses how six propositions generated from the first theoretical examination can reflect upon their past empirical results. Those two examinations suggest that particular culture, as categorized in those domains, relates to certain learning styles or abilities.

Uncertainty, anxiety, and avoidance in communication with strangers

Patricia M. Duronto, Graduate School of Information Media Studies, University of Library and Information Science, lbaraki-ken, Tsukuba-shi, Japan

Tsukasa Nishida, Department of Intercultural Relations, College of International Relations, Nihon University, Mishima, Japan

Shin-ichi Nakayama, Research Center for Knowledge Communities, Institute of Library and Information Science, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken, Tsukuba-shi, Japan

Anxiety/uncertainty management theory explains interpersonal and intergroup communication. It suggests that managing uncertainty and anxiety are central processes that affect our communication with strangers and that the anxiety and uncertainty that we experience when we communicate with others are related to each other. This research is concerned with the association of anxiety and uncertainty with avoidance in interpersonal and intercultural communication. The effect of anxiety and uncertainty on avoidance was examined through communication between strangers of the same and different cultures. The results indicate that anxiety and uncertainty are associated with avoidance in communication with strangers from both the same and different cultures. Furthermore, the data suggest that anxiety and uncertainty may be good predictors of avoidance. When studying communication between strangers of a different culture, anxiety and uncertainty were found to be associated with one another. Nevertheless, anxiety and uncertainty were not related to each other in communication between strangers of the same culture. These results provide partial support for AUM theory.

Predicting Asian international students' sociocultural adjustment: A test of two mediation models

Andrew Li, Michael B. Gasser, Department of Psychology, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA

Integrating a number of theoretical perspectives, this paper examined predictors of Asian international students' sociocultural adjustment. A total of 117 students (aged 18-46 years) from 17 Asian countries and regions completed questionnaires about their sociocultural adjustment, contact with the hosts, ethnic identity, and cross-cultural self-efficacy. As hypothesized, contact with the hosts partially mediated the effect of cross-cultural self-efficacy on sociocultural adjustment. The hypothesis that contact with the hosts would mediate the effect of ethnic identity on sociocultural adjustment was not supported.

Keywords : Sociocultural adjustment; Ethnic identity; Self-efficacy; Cross-cultural contact

Skilled immigrants and selection bias : A theory-based field study from New Zealand

Kim Coates, Stuart C. Carr, School of Psychology, Te Kura Hinengaro Tangata, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

Skilled immigrants often find it difficult to secure jobs that match their qualifications, raising the possibility of selection biases operating against particular countries-of-origin. Focusing on occupations germane to businesses in New Zealand, 80 subject matter experts, representing recruitment agencies, practitioners in 1/0 psychology, and members of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand, predicted probable selection patterns regarding finely balanced, equally matched job candidates who ostensibly happened to originate from New Zealand versus other countries in Australasia, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific. These selection policy experts predicted clear preferences, or biases, which also increased with (a) perceived intercultural similarity to, and (b) perceived socio-economic dominance of the candidates' country- of-o rigin. An exception is (c) close neighbour Australia, whose socio-economic standing over New Zealand was not questioned, but whose candidates were preferred less. Through their consistency with principles of (a) Similarity-Attraction, (b) Social Dominance, and (c) Inverse Resonance (from Social Identity Theory), these data signal a range of opportunities for 1/0 psychology to make a difference in managing regional cooperation, knowledge waves, and boundary-less careers.

Keywords : Immigration; Development; Selection; Ethnicity; Discrimination

Attachment styles and majority members' attitudes towards adaptation strategies of immigrants

Jacomijn Hofstra, Jan Pieter van Oudenhoven, Brain P. Buunk, Department of Psychology, University of Groningen,The Netherlands

The present study examined the relationship between attachment styles and majority members' attitudes towards adaptation strategies of immigrants. A second purpose was to determine the construct validity and the stability of the Attachment Styles Questionnaire. A group of 177 first-year psychology students (Study 1), and a more representative group of 260 adults (Study 2) filled out the questionnaire about attachment, model of self, trust in others, and attitude towards adaptation strategies of immigrants. During the follow-up, roughly one year later, both groups filled out the attachment styles questionnaire a second time. In addition, the students answered the questions about the adaptation strategies. The construct validity and stability of the Attachment Styles Questionnaire were satisfactory. Furthermore, the secure attachment style appeared to be positively related to the attitude towards integration (Study 2). Fearful attachment was positively associated with the attitude towards assimilation (Study 1), and negatively with the attitude towards integration (Study 2). Dismissive attachment was negatively related to integration (Study 1) and positively to separation (Study 2). The preoccupied attachment style appeared to be positively related to marginalization (Study 1). Moreover, the attachment styles predicted-to some extent--the attitudes towards adaptation strategies of immigrants over a period of roughly one year.

Keywords : Attachment styles; Majority members; Immigrants; Attitude; Adaptation strategies

Intercultural communication competence in the healthcare context

DeWan Gibson, Mei Zhong, San Diego, CA, USA

This study examined the intercultural. communication competence of medical providers at a healthcare organization, including patient perceptions of the medical provider's ability to communicate with a diverse patient population. Surveys were given to medical providers and patients at a large healthcare organization. One survey asked medical providers to rate their own ability to communicate across cultures, and the other survey instructed patients to rate the intercultural communication competence of their medical providers. Analysis of variance and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to analyze the data from 45 medical providers and 91 patients. The findings demonstrate that empathy, bilingualism, and intercultural experience are related to intercultural communication competence.

Keywords: Intercultural; Healthcare; Communication competence

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Volume 29, Number 6, November 2005

ABSTRACTS

Building trust among enemies: The central challenge for international conflict resolution

Herbert C. Kelman, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

The article presents an approach to the gradual building of trust among enemies, who-even when they have an interest in making peace-are afraid to extend trust to each other lest it jeopardize their own existence. Efforts to resolve the conflict, therefore, confront a basic dilemma: Parties cannot enter into a peace process without some degree of mutual trust, but they cannot build trust without entering into a peace process. The article discusses the ways in which interactive problem solving-a form of unofficial diplomacy, which the author has applied most extensively to the Israeli-Palestinian case-attempts to deal with this dilemma. It describes five concepts that have proven useful to confronting this dilemma in problem-solving workshops with politically influential Israelis and Palestinians and that should also be relevant to trust building in the larger peace process: the view of movement toward peace as a process of successive approximations, in which the level of commitment gradually increases with the level of reassurance; the role of the third party as a repository of trust, particularly in the early stages of the process; the focus on "working trust" in the other's seriousness about peace based on their own interests (rather than interpersonal trust based on good will); the view of the relationship between participants in the peace process as an uneasy coalition-, and the development of a systematic process of mutual reassurance, based on responsiveness and reciprocity.

Keywords : International conflict; Problem-solving workshops; Trust; Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Culture and conflict: Understanding, negotiating, and reconciling conflicting constructions of reality

Anthony J. Marsella, Department of psychology, University of Haivaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

The paper explores the relations between culture and conflict that emerge when parties with differing constructions of reality come into contention regarding the distribution of power, control, and influence. While differences in the construction of reality do not necessarily mean conflict, and while conflict does not necessarily lead to violence, differences in the construction of reality that are codified and embedded in "unassailable" belief systems, such as those associated with fundamentalist political, economic, and religious systems, can elicit and sustain serious forms of violence, including ethnic and religious cleansing, genocide, and torture. This paper argues that we must recognize the power of culture in constructing our realities, and the reluctance we have as human beings to tolerate challenges to these realities because they introduce unacceptable levels of uncertainty and doubt. The consideration of culture in the mediation of conflict broadens options for resolution by introducing possibilities outside the limits of one's own cultural spectrum, including an improved understanding of the role of history and life contexts in generating shared meanings and behavior patterns. Following a discussion of various examples of cultures in conflict associated with political and religious fundamentalism, the paper advances a series of recommendations for understanding, negotiating, and mediating conflict via the use of cultural understanding, learning, and the development of cultures of peace.

Keywords : Culture; Conflict; Peace; War; Conflict negotiation; Global problems

The Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory : A conceptual framework and measure of intercultural conflict resolution approaches

Mitchell R. Hammer, Hammer Consulting Group, LLC, International Peace and Conflict Resolution, American University, Ocean Pines, MD, USA

Grounded in the pragmatics of human communication perspective, the current study examined how disagreements and emotion function across cultural context in resolving conflict. Specifically, the research effort developed the Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS) inventory, a 36-item measure of intercultural conflict resolution style based on two core dimensions : Direct vs. indirect approaches to dealing with disagreements and emotionally expressive vs. emotionally restrained patterns for dealing with the affective dimension of conflict interaction. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) found the proposed two-factor model was a good fit to the data. Analysis of the CFA findings identified a final set of 18 direct/indirect items and 18 emotional expressiveness/restraint items. The direct/indirect scale obtained a coefficient alpha of .73 and the emotional expressiveness/restraint scale achieved .85 reliability. Validity testing of the scales found no significant effects by gender, education or previous intercultural living experience. A theoretical framework for understanding differences in conflict resolution styles grounded in the development of this inventory, a practical, four-quadrant intercultural conflict resolution style model is proposed based on high/low levels of directness and high/low levels of emotional expressiveness: (1) discussion style (direct & emotionally restrained), (2) engagement style (direct & emotionally expressive), (3) accommodation style (indirect & emotionally restrained) and (4) dynamic style (indirect and emotionally expressive).

Acculturation : Living successfully in two cultures

John W. Berry, Psychology Department, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

The theme of this conference focusses attention on conflict and negotiation. In this paper, I take one example of these issues, and examine the cultural and psychological aspects of these phenomena that take place during the process of acculturation. During acculturation, groups of people and their individual members engage in intercultural contact, producing a potential for conflict, and the need for negotiation in order to achieve outcomes that are adaptive for both parties. Research on acculturation, including acculturation strategies, changes in behaviours, and acculturative stress are reviewed. There are large group and individual differences in bow people (in both groups in contact) go about their acculturation (described in terms of the integration, assimilation, separation and marginalisation strategies), in how much stress they experience, and how well they adapt psychologically and socioculturally. Generally, those pursuing the integration strategy experience less stress, and achieve better adaptations than those pursuing marginalisation; the outcomes for those pursuing assimilation and separation experience intermediate levels of stress and adaptation. Implications for public policy and personal orientations towards acculturation are proposed. With respect to the conference theme, since integration requires substantial negotiation, but results in the least conflict, the concepts and findings reviewed here can provide some guidance for the betterment of intercultural relations.

Keywords : Acculturation; Intergroup relations; Immigrants

Culture and mediation : A contemporary processual analysis from southwestern Gambia

Mark Davldheiser, Nova Southeastern University, Lauderdale, FL, USA

This paper draws on archival sources and data gleaned from over two years of intensive fieldwork in The Gambia to provide a processual analysis of culture in mediation. The literature on the salience of culture in facilitated dispute settlement includes several purported cross-cultural models, and, in some cases, these have been used to support assertions about the widespread applicability of generic approaches of conflict resolution.

The results of this study uncovered remarkable variance in societal preferences for structuring mediation, thereby problematizing the notion of widespread cross-cultural process similarities in the process. The idea of an intrinsic structure to the mediation process was further contravened by the remarkable diversity found at lower levels of analysis. Gambian mediators-even those sharing many similar attributes--exhibited remarkable diversity in their approaches. Significant variation occurred in relation to all mediation activities except setting the stage and ritualization. In fact, individual mediators often reacted to situational constraints by employing divergent process structures in different cases.

The project findings suggest that theorizing about peacemaking behaviors must delve much further than the meta-level of comparison and that constructs such as individualism versus collectivism and high- and low-context societies must be used cautiously. Societal perspectives are highly uneven and culture operates on multiple levels and is continually at work, although its effects may not always be observable. Mediators are impacted by structural constraints such as socio-cultural patterning, but they are also agents who are able to adjust their behaviors in reaction to contextual factors and according to their personal preferences.

Keywords : Conflict resolution; The Gambia; West Africa

Culture's role in conflict and conflict management : Some suggestions, many questions

Stephen Worchel, University of Hawaii at Hilo, HI, USA

The contributions to this edition of the Journal are viewed as identifying two roles of culture in intergroup conflict. One is that culture separates people into an in-group and out-group based on the criterion of whether or not they share a common culture. According to social identity theory, this division creates the necessary condition for intergroup (intercultural) conflict. The second role is that culture shapes the individual's perception of conflict and how he or she will respond to the conflict. It is argued that embedded within the history and myths of a culture are stories that identify specific out-groups as likely protagonists. A model for achieving peaceful co-existence between cultural groups is presented. Peaceful co-existence has three components: cognition (acceptance of the right of the out-group to exist), emotion (low fear of the out-group), and behavior (willingness to engage in cooperative interaction with the out-group). It is argued that in order to achieve peaceful co-existence between cultural groups, intergroup contract must promote the security and identity of the ingroup, reduce the perceived threat of the out-group, and promote the perception of diversity within the outgroup. The difficulties of achieving positive relations between cultural groups is recognized, and that a focus on intercultural relations should be prevention of hostility rather than reducing violent conflict after it has occurred.

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Volume 30, Number 1, January 2006

ABSTRACTS

Understanding multicultural attitudes : The role of group status, identification, friendships, and justifying ideologies

Maykel Verkuyten, Faculty of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Borja Martinovic

Questions of multiculturalism and the management of cultural diversity are much debated in many countries. The present research aims to further the understanding of people's attitude toward multiculturalism by examining ethnic majority and minority group adolescents in the Netherlands. In two studies, the endorsement of multiculturalism was examined in relation to ingroup identification, perceived structural discrimination, outgroup friendships (Studies I and 2) and the ideological notions, communalism and individualism (Study 2). The ethnic minority group participants were found to be much more in favor of multiculturalism than the majority group. Furthermore, ingroup identification, perceived discrimination, outgroup friendships, and the two ideological notions appeared to be related independently to multiculturalism. However, high ethnic identification was related to lower endorsement of multiculturalism among the majority group and to higher endorsement of multiculturalism among the minority group. In addition, outgroup friendships only had a positive effect on multiculturalism for the majority group. The effects for perceived structural discrimination and communalism were positive and similar for both groups of participants. Individualism had a negative effect on multiculturalism for both groups.

Keywords : Multiculturalism; Group status; Identification; Ideologies

The relationship between attitudes toward language study and cross-cultural attitudes

Toshiyuki Sakuragi, Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, USA

This study investigated the relationship between attitudes toward foreign language study (a general attitude toward language study; attitudes toward specific languages-Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish; and instrumental and integrative attitudes) and cross-cultural attitudes (world-mindedness and social distance). The results of a survey of US college students (N = 151) indicated that: (1) a general attitude toward foreign language study was significantly related to world-mindedness and social distance; (2) attitudes toward Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish were significantly related to both world-mindedness and social distance, whereas an attitude toward French was not significantly related to either world-mindedness or social distance; and (3) an integrative attitude was significantly related to social distance, whereas an instrumental attitude was not significantly related to either world-mindedness or social distance.

Keywords : Foreign language study; Cross-cultural attitude; Chinese; French; Japanese; Spanish

Immediacy and out-of-class communication : A cross-cultural comparison

Qin Zhang, Department of Communication, Fairfield University, CT, USA

The objective of the present study is to extend out-of-class communication (OCC) research by comparing OCC frequency, content, and satisfaction, and examining the influence of instructor immediacy on OCC in Chinese and US college classrooms. The survey of relevant literature suggests this study represents the first direct empirical cross-cultural comparison of OCC, which reports five major findings: (a) Chinese students engage in more OCC than US students; (b) Chinese OCC is more personal problem oriented, but US OCC focuses on coursework; (c) US students have a significantly higher OCC satisfaction than Chinese counterparts; (d) Chinese and US students differ in OCC forms. Chinese students visit instructors' office more often, but US students email their instructors more; (e) US instructor immediacy is not correlated significantly with OCC frequency and satisfaction, whereas Chinese instructor verbal immediacy is correlated significantly with OCC frequency and satisfaction. Chinese nonverbal immediacy is associated significantly with OCC frequency, but not with OCC satisfaction.

Keywords : Immediacy; Out-of-class communication; Cross-cultural comparison; Chinese classrooms; US classrooms

Emotion expression and the locution "I love you" : A cross-cultural study

Richard Wilkins, Elisabeth Gareis, Department of Communication Studies, Baruch College/CUNY, New York, NY, USA

This exploratory study is aimed to advance the understanding of emotion expression across cultures by focusing on the declaration of love and studying its expression across cultures. In particular, the use of the locution "I love you" was investigated. Results indicate that the use of the locution "I love you" fluctuates greatly across cultures: It is used exclusively for romantic declarations of love in some cultures, but has a much wider distribution in others. Interestingly, normative speakers seem to use the locution "I love you" more in English than their native language. Differences are also noticeable within cultures, particularly across genders and age groups. Thus, females tend to use the expression more often than males. In addition, there seems to be more widespread use of the locution now than just a few decades ago.

Keywords : Emotion expression; Love; Intercultural communication

Ethnographic preparation for short-term study and residence in the target culture

Jane Jackson, Department of English, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T, Hong Kong SAR, China

This article focuses on the central role of ethnography in an experiential language and cultural immersion program for Hong Kong English majors. At their home institution, the students were introduced to the theory and practice of this mode of research. Through weekly tasks and debriefing sessions, they honed the skills of participant observation, note-taking, reflexive interviewing, data analysis, and report-writing. Using the tools of ethnographic research, the students conducted a project to explore a sub-culture (e.g. the discourse and culture of Mahjong players, the life of a Filipino amah (maid) in a Chinese family). Then, during a 5-week stay in England, the students investigated a cultural scene of their choice (e.g. their homestay). In both settings, their responses to ethnographic preparation and fieldwork were carefully monitored, revealing that this approach encouraged them to take a more active role in the world around them; most became more conscious of the uniqueness of their own culture and developed an understanding and appreciation of other worldviews. The author highlights the benefits and challenges involved with preparing advanced foreign language learners to undertake ethnographic research, as one means of enhancing their language skills, intercultural awareness, and personal growth in short-term study abroad programs.

Keywords : Study and residence abroad; Ethnography; Pre-sojourn preparation; Intercultural training; Experiential learning; Fieldwork

Psychological adaptation and autonomy among adolescents in Australia : A comparison of Anglo-Celtic and three Asian groups

Cynthia Leung, Wally Karnilowicz, Victoria University, Australia

Rogelia Pe-Pua b, School of Social Science and Policy, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

A questionnaire was administered to 426 adolescents to investigate ethnic group differences on eight variables. It was hypothesized that Asian (Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese) adolescents would score higher on parental authority values, school adjustment and psychological symptoms; and lower on gender relationship/children's rights values, sense of mastery, self-esteem, life satisfaction and behavior problems than Anglo-Australians. Females were hypothesized to report higher scores on psychological symptoms but lower scores on behavior problems and sense of mastery. The results showed all three Asian groups scoring higher on parental authority values. Chinese-Australians reported higher school adjustment scores than Anglo-Australians. The three Asian groups scored significantly lower on gender relationship/children's rights values and behavior problems. But only the Vietnamese-Australians scored lower on life satisfaction; and only the Chinese- Australians reported a lower sense of mastery than Anglo-Australians. There was no group difference on selfesteem. Generation status did not exert an influence on values; but there was an interaction effect (with ethnicity) with regards to self-esteem, life satisfaction and school adjustment. The implications in relation to cultural and migration-related factors and cultural values were discussed.

Hawaiian attributional perspectives on intercultural interactions in higher education: Development of an intercultural sensitizer

Kenoalani C.K. Dela Cruz, Counseling and Support Services Center, Hawai'i Community College, Hilo, Hawai'i, USA

Michael B. Salzman, Department of Counselor Education, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA

Richard Brislin, College of Business Administration, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA

Naomi Losch, Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literature, University of Halvai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA

Counselors, academic advisors and educators working in educational institutions must address the increasingly diverse mental health and academic needs of culturally diverse groups. In Hawai'i, Native Hawaiians are a cultural minority. To alleviate the negative effects of current culturally inappropriate counseling and teaching methods, university personnel would benefit from intercultural training. The Intercultural Sensitizer (ICS) is a well-researched tool used in attribution training. The purpose of this study was to develop a Hawaiian ICS to train non-Hawaiian university personnel. The researcher gathered critical incidents from Hawaiian university students (N = 113); presented 20 edited, critical incidents to a bicultural Hawaiian panel (N = 6) to elicit culturally relevant attributions, and investigated the meanings Hawaiian students and non-Hawaiian students (N = 285) attributed to the critical incidents. Statistical tests indicated 3 of 20 critical incidents and 14 attributions were statistically significant, revealing finite, cultural differences between the Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian samples. Counseling and educational implications are suggested that should increase the chances of success among Hawaiian students enrolled in college.

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INTERCULTURAL EDUCATION

(Formerly European Journal of Intercultural Studies)

Intercultural Education is a peer-reviewed journal published three or four times a year by Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE, UK.

tel. +44(0)207 583 9855.

"European Journal of Intercultural Studies" et "Intercultural Education" se trouvent à la Bibliothèque de l'Interculturel (SIETAR-France) à Paris

Volume 16, Number 1, March 2005

ABSTRACTS

Identity, beliefs and community: LDS (Mormon) pre-service secondary teacher views about diversity

Grace Huerta, Associate Professor, and Leslie Flemmer, University of Utah, USA

Research shows that pre-service teachers must engage in a self-examination of identity, attitudes and assumptions concerning such issues as privilege, group membership, religion, gender and language before entering a classroom. However, this is no easy task for students with little experience of living in or learning about diverse communities. Such a state is Utah in the US, a region whose historical roots are rural and-unlike any other American state-whose citizens, political leaders and educators are predominately Euro-American and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), commonly known as Mormons. While some teacher educators encourage their predominantly LDS secondary pre-service teachers to utilize critical pedagogy, it becomes clear that students' religious identity comes into conflict with issues associated with race, class, language and gender. The following qualitative case study examines how the theology of the LDS Church informs the identity and educational belief systems of six female, LDS pre-service secondary educators as they prepare to teach in diverse communities across the US.

Teaching intercultural awareness to first-year medical students via experiential exercises

Keith R. Aronson, Rhonda Venable, Nicholas Sieveking and Bonnie Miller The Pennsylvania State University, USA

This study assessed the extent to which a one-time experiential intervention improved intercultural awareness and sensitivity among first-year medical students. The students participated in group activities in which they shared personal experiences, solved a hypothetical problem, and engaged in team building exercises. Post-intervention, students reported less intercultural awareness, but a greater commitment to improving the intercultural climate of the medical school and an increased willingness to work in diverse groups during their medical training. The results of the study suggest that experiential interventions may provide an important complement to didactics around issues of intercultural awareness and sensitivity with medical students. Importantly, experiential interventions must provide students with sufficient time to reflect upon and discuss feelings, thoughts and attitudes that emerge during this kind of intercultural awareness training.

"This is American get punished" : unpacking narratives of Southeast Asian refugees in the US

Gail Hickey, School of Education, Indiana University - Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA

This paper explores acculturative experiences and perceptions of Southeast Asian refugees residing in the Midwestern US through analysis of oral history narratives of Southeast Asian refugees representing the countries and/or cultures of Burma, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. Through this paper, I seek to add to the sparse research base on Southeast Asians residing in the US, to shed light on the experiences of young refugees' attempts to negotiate identities in the host society, and to inform educators and others who work with refugee populations.

Limits of the effectiveness of intercultural education and the conceptualisation of school knowledge

Klara Ermenc, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

1 argue in this paper that the hidden and official curriculum of Slovenian public elementary schools work together to develop an ethnocentric and Eurocentric frame of mind when judging other cultures. This presents an obstacle for the professed promotion of intercultural learning and valuation, and fosters the social marginalisation of ethnic minorities. The arguments for this claim can be found in: (1) the existing dichotomy of 'pluralistic' and 'nationalistic' objectives of education, which can be traced to the core documents of the Slovenian public elementary school (a nine-year school); (2) the prevalence of 'national' objectives over 'pluralistic' ones, which is only further strengthened by the operationalisation of objectives and learning topics., and (3) the matching of the contents of selected school subjects. which place pluralistic, intercultural objectives high on their agenda, and school practice-this matching can be seen in the emphasis on 'national' objectives, accompanied by the strengthening of ethno- and Eurocentric judgements.

International and intercultural issues in English teaching textbooks : the case of Spain

Maria del Carmen Méndez Garcia, Universidad de Jaén, Spain

The sociocultural content of foreign language textbooks has become a concern of scholars and practitioners owing to the fact that the traditional emphasis on purely linguistic issues has been expanded to embrace a language in context approach. This paper studies the English-speaking communities that are described in English language teaching textbooks marketed in Spain. It examines to what extent an international and/or intercultural approach is a constituent element in their design.

Interculturally trained Finnish teachers' conceptions of diversity and intercultural competence

Katri Jokikokko, University of Oulu, Finland

As schools become increasingly multicultural, teachers need special sensitivity to recognize differences and intercultural competences to be able to support the personal and academic growth of diverse students. This paper introduces newly qualified teachers' conceptions of diversity and intercultural competence in a Finnish context. The teachers in the study graduated from a Masters of Education International Teacher Education Programme, which focuses on intercultural aspects of education and teachers' work. Data for this research were collected and analysed qualitatively by applying a phenomenographical research approach. On the basis of the data interpretation, three different diversity categories were formed: visible and invisible group level differences and individual differences. Conceptions of intercultural competence in educational contexts also formed three qualitatively different categories (1) an ethical orientation including values, interpersonal characteristics and basic orientation towards other people and the world; (2) efficiency orientation including organizational skills and ability to act in various roles and situations; and (3) pedagogical orientation including intercultural pedagogical competences.

Challenges for ESL teacher professionalization in the US : a case study

Manka Varghese, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

and Susan Jenkins, St. Michael's College, Vermont, USA;

As the language minority student population in the US increases at a rapid pace, a larger number of teachers are pursuing a primary or secondary certification in English as a Second Language (ESL). This case study describes the professional development efforts to provide an ESL endorsement to a group of K-12 teachers in a large mid-western university. It describes the systemic nature underlying their professional development, highlighting the influence of different constituencies. These range from federal, state, county and district levels to the university teacher preparation program, as well as the teachers themselves. By understanding how these factors influence teachers' professional development, the authors identify important lessons that can be learned by teacher educators

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Volume 16, Number 2, May 2005

SPECIAL ISSUE

HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION

ABSTRACTS

EDITORIAL

Transformative learning and human rights education : taking a closer look

Felisa Tibbitts, Human rights Education Associates (HREA), Cambridge, MA, USA

A working definition of Justice needs to be focused on peace building, and personal and social transformation.

Human rights education as a tool of grassroots organizing and social transformation: a case study from Turkey

Pinar Ilkkaracan and Liz Ercevik Amado, Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR)-New Ways, Istanbul,Turkey

Women for Women's Human Rights (WWHR)-New Ways has been carrying out a Human Rights Education Program for Women throughout Turkey for over a decade, in cooperation with community centers. The training has a holistic, comprehensive nature, linking several areas of human rights through a critical gender perspective lens. One of the overarching aims of the program is to support women's grassroots organizing in economically disadvantaged areas by equipping women to mobilize around self-identified needs. This article focuses on the impact of the program on women, methodological factors that contribute to its success and its role as a catalyst to promote social transformation at the local level.

Learning and transforming reality : women from Rosario's neighborhoods demand access to public health services free of discrimination

Susana Chiarotti, University of Rosario, Argentina

This article focuses on the activities of two women's groups in Argentina-CLADEM and INSGENAR. CLADEM, which has a much broader presence in Latin America, aims to give a feminist perspective to the construction of real democracies with social justice, free of discrimination and with full exercise of human rights. INSGENAR is a local, non-governmental organization based in Rosario in the Province of Santa Fe, one of the provincial chapters of CLADEM-Argentina. We describe the human rights workshops that have been conducted with women in the past few years and their transformative impact.

Pedagogy of human rights education : a Latin American perspective

Abraham Magendzo, UNESCO, Santiago, Chile

Because we started to work with teachers on human rights education in Latin American in the middle of the 1980s, with dictatorial regimes in power, we understood that our pedagogical approach needed to be a critical one. This transformative process of change has not been easy. Many personal, social, political and cultural challenges have been faced. In this article I mention some of those challenges, especially : (1) the lack of a critical approach; and (2) the cultural 'incapacity' to recognize the 'other' as a legitimate 'other' and to accept the existence of social and cultural diversity. Finally, the article gives theoretical and practical recommendations on how to overcome these two main obstacles.

Early adolescents' reflections on social justice : Facing History and Ourselves in practice and assessment

Dennis J. Barr, Facing History and Ourselves, Brookline, MA, USA

This article describes Facing History and Ourselves, an international moral, character and civic education program, and introduces an assessment instrument used to explore young people's perspectives on their and others' choices in relation to social exclusion and teasing among peers. The instrument, developed collaboratively by educational researchers and practitioners, is based on a theory of psychosocial development and core themes and practices of the program. The assessment elicits students' responses to a true story about a girl who had been ostracized by peers and is then invited to join them in teasing another girl. A rubric is introduced for analyzing perspectives on the girls' choices as a bystander to teasing.

Coming to Justice : a program for youth around issues of international justice

Barry van Driel, Anne Frank Stichting, The Netherlands

In this article I describe the origins, aims and content of a program developed by the Anne Frank House around issues of international justice. The program, designed for high school and university students who are 17-years-old and older, and entitled Coming to Justice, takes the betrayal of Jews during the Holocaust as its starting point. Students from different countries critically examine through interactive exercises the history of the Nuremberg trials and then shift their focus to a genocide that took place during their lifetime : the conflict in Bosnia. Part of the program involves attending an actual trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague. Internal evaluations show that attending a trial leaves a lasting impression on the student and a desire to remain focused on human rights issues.

Using transformative learning as a model for human rights education : a case study of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation's International Human Rights Training Program

Vincenza Nazzari, Paul McAdams and Daniel Roy, Canadian Human Rights Foundation, Montréal, Canada

This paper examines the essential practices and conditions for fostering transformative learning using the Canadian Human Rights Foundation's International Human Rights Training Program as a case study. It suggests that the program's participants challenge their own values and assumptions about human rights, their work and their society through critical reflection. Consequently, it argues that if human rights educators are to contribute to the transformative education of others, it is necessary for them to understand the theoretical and practical underpinnings of the learning process associated with human rights education.

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Volume 16, Number 3, August 2005

ABSTRACTS

Intercultural teaching in higher education

Theresa Man Ling Lee, Department of Political Science, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

In this paper I examine the difference between a multicultural curriculum and an intercultural one. I argue that such a distinction is important because it helps teachers in universities and colleges to move beyond the canon debate and its politics, and focus on the more fundamental task of fostering intercultural thinking. 1 assert here that interculturalism in teaching is not about covering multiple cultures; rather it is about working through a dialogue between cultures. A dialogue, of course, requires minimally a party of two. Once that requirement is satisfied, in my view the focus should then be on the dialogue itself rather than on the multiplicity of voices for the sake of inclusivity.

Critical reflective thinking through service-learning in multicultural teacher education

Xin Li and Shirley Lal, California State University, Long Beach, CA, USA

This paper describes and discusses the effect of service-leaming on students' reflective thinking about their own knowledge in multicultural teacher education at a state university in Southern California (USA). Two versions of students' multicultural autobiographies, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the course, were examined to determine their individual progress. Two classes, one with a service-learning assignment and the other without, were involved to identify differences. Using King and Kitchener's model of reflective judgment, this study compares and contrasts the progress of student critical reflective thinking and differences between the two classes. The research suggests that service-learning stimulated and increased students' reflective thinking about their own knowledge in multicultural education.

Are there children to educate for peace in conflict-ridden areas? A critical essay on peace and coexistence education

Zvi Bekerman, Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel

In this paper, 1 reflect on the education that is being conducted in two Israeli schools, often held up as exemplary, that have the declared educational aim of cultivating tolerance and recognition of otherness. What is 'going on' with those presumed to be the primary beneficiaries (the children studying at these schools) of an integrated educational enterprise ? Should the focus for future peace be on these children at all. 1 take a critical look at the way we are attempting to forge a peaceful future through our young.

Emerging from the cocoon of Romani pride : The first graduates of the Gandhi Secondary School in Hungary

Susan Roberta Katz, University of San Francisco, CA, USA

Despite recent educational reforms in Hungary, only 33% of Roma who enter primary school subsequently enroll in secondary school, and a mere 0.2% progress to higher education. To address this situation, in 1994 the Gandhi Secondary School opened its doors as the first college preparatory school for Roma in Europe. In 2000, the school graduated 18 of its original 56 students. Based on interviews conducted in 2004 with 10 of these students, two of the school's founders and two teachers, this paper documents the graduates' reflections on their experiences during high school and beyond. Data revealed that students found a second family at the school - indeed a protective cocoon - but did not always feel equipped to handle the racism they encountered later in both the workplace and university.

Research-based teacher education for multicultural contexts

Judith K. Bernhard, Carlos F. Diaz and Ilene Allgood, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Graduate programs in education face the challenge of preparing teachers and specialists in education to work with English Language Learners (ELLs). Programs must be culturally responsive, while at the same time respecting state and federal standards for scientifically based practice according to best evidence. The focus of the present study is a graduate program in education that sought to prepare graduate students to address the needs of ELL students. Among the articulated goals of the program grant were that teachers enrolled would be able to: (1) use effective English for Speakers of Other Languages and bilingual educational strategies and methods. (2) use findings from testing, assessment and research functionally; and (3) promote multilingualism, and, in a broader sense, respect and equitable treatment of the heritages of home languages. The extent to which graduates of the master's program who were working as teachers and administrators at the time of the study were able to make culturally competent connections with ELL students and to establish a repertoire of scientific evidence, based on research findings that they could then use to support their teaching theory and practice, is discussed. Findings reflecting the responses of 57 graduates of the program were as follows: (a) the training provided by the master's program was rated as more useful than the in-service provided by the state because its emphasis on research allowed graduates to judge the merits of proposed educational reforms and to clarify their own pedagogy; (b) the ability to cite research reports enabled graduates to be heard by colleagues and to depoliticize discussions regarding curricular reforms. (c) in developing their 'communities of practice', graduates made connections with others who had been trained in the use of scientific research in education. The study illustrates how a graduate education program focused on transformation and the encouragement of home language use can prepare teachers to work effectively in a political context of 'evidence-based practice'.

Foreign students' attitudes in Portuguese language classrooms : an exploratory study

Maria Cabral, University of the Algarve, Faro, Portugal

This exploratory study aims to investigate the attitudes and motivation of four English-speaking students in two Portuguese public schools towards their Portuguese and English language classes. Our research revealed that the needs of these students were not met in their Portuguese language classes nor their English language classes. This can be attributed to various factors, including traditional teaching methods and classroom environments that largely ignored the fact that foreign students were sharing the classroom.

Promoting interculturality in Spain : assessing the use of the Jigsaw classroom method

Miguel A. Santos Rego and M. Del Mar Lorenzo Moledo, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

This note examines the effectiveness of a program in Spain that uses the Jigsaw learning technique, as an educational intervention. We used a quasi-experimental research design with two groups, two measures and an independent variable (the program). Use of the Jigsaw technique is shown to have been fairly effective on a series of measures.

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Volume 16, Number 4, October 2005

ABSTRACTS

Understanding the discipline gap through a cultural lens: implications for the education of African American students

Carla R. Monroe, College of Charleston, SC, USA

African American students are disciplined at rates that are disproportionately higher than Black students' statistical representation in public schools. Coined as the discipline gap, racial and ethnic disparities are present in virtually every major school system across the United States. Because African American students seldom share the cultural frameworks of their teachers, the overrepresentation of Black students on measures of school discipline may, in part, be a function of cultural mismatches in the classroom. This article contains a synopsis of what is currently known about the discipline gap, and sets forth suggestions to address the issue. Recommendations focus on the roles of culturally responsive discipline, teacher recruitment and cultural immersion experiences. Irvine's construct of cultural synchronization serves as the article's interpretive basis.

Interculturalizing education in Bulgaria : the contribution of the National Helpdesk for intercultural learning materials

Richard Fay, University of Manchester, UK

and Leah Davcheva , British Council, Bulgaria

Whilst there has been extensive discussion of the models and policies concerning intercultural education in Bulgaria, there has been to date surprisingly little work undertaken regarding the potential contribution of Bulgarian school textbooks across the curriculum towards the objectives of intercultural education. The National Helpdesk for Intercultural Learning Materials has been established to address this need. In this article, we describe the context against which the Helpdesk needs to be understood before discussing its mission statement, evaluation model, textbook evaluation project and ongoing activities.

Identity, boundary and schooling: perspectives on the experiences and perceptions of refugee children

Leslie Bash, Anglia Polytechnic University, UK

In assuming ethnic/national identity as problematic, we examine its dynamic aspects in the context of refugee children and their educational experiences. While the starting point of our analysis is a deconstruction of ethnic/national identity in conventional terms of language, religion, education etc., the emerging focus is the notion of boundary. On the one hand. we look at the relevance of fluid boundaries for identity formation, while on the other hand, the experience of crossing boundaries will also be examined, particularly in the case of forced migration and displacement. Boundaries are conceptualised in the context of a continuum in which the experiences of refugee children range across school, home, locality and country. To illustrate the central arguments two case studies will be highlighted : a child refugee from Kosovo, the older of two brothers arriving in the UK about four years ago, who now attends a north London primary school; and several young minors, mainly from Kosovo, who attend a youth club in south London. Preliminary observations of the child, together with subsequent small group discussions and semi-structured interviews, serve to identify how the child relates to the various spaces in the school. The analysis of his drawings forms the main part of the argument. In the case of the youth club users, observations and conversations show how these young people construct their individual and social identities by accessing global resources in response to local interests.

Learning from genocide ? A study in the failure of Holocaust education

Geoffrey Short, University of Hertfordshire, UK

The importance of learning lessons from die Holocaust and from the mass slaughter in Rwanda was recognised in the theme underpinning Britain's Holocaust Memorial Day in 2004. This article is principally concerned with the lessons learnt from the Holocaust by a culturally diverse group of students aged 14 to 16. They all attended schools in an outer London borough and were interviewed after taking part in a local event held to mark the 2004 commemoration. The article concludes with a discussion of the main findings of the investigation.

Social representations of diversity : multi/intercultural education in a South African urban school

Nicole Carignan, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada

Roland G. Pourdavood, Cleveland State University, USA

Lonnie C. King and Nosisi Feza, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa

The story of School X started in South Africa in 1875. At that time, the school was built for white children only. More than hundred years later, the 1994 elections demarcated the end of the apartheid era and the school enrolled black Xhosa-speaking children for the first time. As a result, in 2004, 90% of the students were black Xhosa-spcaking. The theoretical perspectives of our study are based on notions of multicultural and intercultural education, and of diversity. Our study is embedded in a socio-constructivist inquiry paradigm. Using questionnaires and interviews, we aimed to understand the social representations regarding diversity of a principal, a teacher, seven students and four parents in a K-7 open school. We examined diversity of values, cultures, religions, languages, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, etc. regarding a multi/intercultural perspective in education. We attempted to discern what the participants' understandings of diversity were, how they identified diversity, and why they justified their practices and actions with respect to diversity.

Integrating ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and multicultural aspects within a classroom : the SAIL (Specialized Animated Interactive Learning) project

Michelle Caruana-Dingli, University of Malta, Malta

The implementation of technology in the primary school sector during the last few years has resulted in issues being raised relating to teachers' knowledge of technology and their propensities for incorporating ICT into an already packed curriculum. Teachers in Malta were faced with challenges to their various teaching professional knowledge and to their prior and developing understanding of the conceptual and procedural aspects of technology. SAIL provided opportunities for teachers to develop their understandings of minorities in Europe within a community of teachers, while at the same time promoting technology both as a process and a product.

The influence of a multicultural teacher education program on teachers' multicultural practices

Kezia McNeal, Georgia State University, USA

This study examined the multicultural classroom practices of two novice secondary English teachers employed by the same US school district that serves a diverse student population. Findings indicated a high level of consistency between the teachers' intended multicultural practices and their implemented practices. Based on classroom observations, both teachers implemented the general multicultural practices of critical pedagogy, real life application, student choice, multicultural literature, individual student attention, cultural physical adaptation, active learning and cooperative grouping. The factors supporting multicultural infusion were the teachers' previous experiences with diverse populations, the teachers' own previous meaningful high school experiences and the teachers' backgrounds that were similar to their students. The impeding factors were the structure of the school, time constraints, racism and tracking.

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Volume 16, Number 5, December 2005

ABSTRACTS

Teachers' initial training in cultural diversity in Spain : attitudes and pedagogical strategies

Odet Moliner Garcia, Universitat Jaume I, Spain and Rafaela Garcia Lopez, Universitat de Valencia, Spain

This paper examines a number of issues relating to educational responsibility for increasing social cohesion and preventing the segregation of people from different cultures who have to pass through the Spanish educational system. Using a descriptive analysis, we review the present situation. Our review shows that the treatment of cultural diversity by Spanish universities is, in general, insufficient with respect to the training needs that students will demand from the educational system both now and in the future. Simply taking a single course on intercultural issues is not enough to prepare teachers to cope with cultural diversity in the school and classroom. Therefore, educational approaches, curriculum planning, teacher organization and teaching methodology all need to change in the earliest stages of teacher training. A important first step would be to develop positive attitudes toward diversity and inclusion, which can then guide new educational approaches. In turn, these can focus on innovation within an intercultural framework in order to allow the implementation of increasingly committed and complex projects and educational experiences (investigation-action, social action projects, etc.). Such developments are intended to provide teachers with teaching-learning strategies in five fundamental core areas. These represent the minimum content of any intercultural education program: friendship with people from other cultures, multicultural coexistence, coexistence and learning about other cultures at school, intercultural cooperation and respect for cultural diversity.

Support programmes for Roma children: do they help or promote exclusion?

Kazuyo Igarashi, JICA Tanzania Office, Tanzania

This article critically examines current education programmes for Roma primary school students in the Czech Republic and the impact of these programmes. The research described here, based on in-depth case studies, challenges popular beliefs in the 'success' of Roma oriented programmes, as well as the stereotypical negative images of Roma parents. The studies also explore the dilemmas experienced by teaching staff and their views of both Roma and the majority 'non-Roma' children.

Teaching and learning in multicultural contexts : a comparative analysis of language teaching and learning in a Norwegian and Dutch primary school classroom

Jeff Bezemer, University of London, UK

Astri Heen Wold, Lutine de Wal Pastoor, Else Ryen, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Sjaak Kroon, University of Oslo, Norway

In this paper, multicultural primary school classes in Norway and the Netherlands are compared in terms of language teaching and learning. Drawing on observations, interviews, and school and policy documents, four dimensions of comparison are discussed. First, we deal with the different ways in which separate language classes for language minority pupils were organized in the two cases. Secondly, the different ways of teaching and the underlying views on learning language are characterized. Thirdly, we analyse how these ways of teaching affect on language minority pupils. Fourthly, we address the question as to how these approaches relate to the educational policies, traditions and discourses of the respective countries.

Across continents or across the street: using local resources to cultivate intercultural awareness

Carla R. Chamberlin-Quinlisk, Penn State Abington College, USA

This paper describes a project designed for college students unlikely to participate in international exchange programs but who, nonetheless, can learn much about intercultural communication through available resources in their own communities. The project involved a mentoring program between third and fourth year university students and first and second year ESL students at the same institution. The project was conducted over a 15-week semester-long course, and learning outcomes were documented through journal entries, written reflective statements, class discussions, oral presentations and instructor observations. A qualitative analysis of these data sources, framed through transformative learning theory, revealed outcomes leading to increased intercultural awareness. While engaging in face-to-face conversations, students transformed their prior knowledge about 'others' into a deeper understanding of themselves, their culture and their intercultural relationships.

Learning to be seen: the depiction of encounters between Israeli and newcomer children in children's literature

Deborah Golden and Tatyana Drubetskoy, University of Haifa, Israel

Books written for and about children may serve to convey central cultural tenets to new members of society. This paper looks at the depiction of encounters between newcomer and locally born children in contemporary Hebrew literature aimed at teenage readers and presents the major resources and practices by means of which the newcomer protagonists are portrayed as coming to find their place in the new society. The paper suggests that, rather than introducing Israeli-born readers to newcomer cultures, as might be expected in the current ideological climate of cultural pluralism, these books serve as a means of conveying to children and young people socially sanctioned modes of coming to belong to Israeli society.

School adaptation of Roma children

Encho Gerganov, Silvia Varbanova and Hristo Kyuchukov, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria

This paper examines the degree of school adaptation among Roma children who were included in a program for the desegregation of Roma schools in Bulgaria. More specifically, the program requires Roma children to attend mixed classes with Bulgarian students and Roma teacher assistants to work with them. The Bulgarian version of the Questionnaire on School Adaptation, developed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education was used. A factorial experimental design was applied to test the hypothesis that Roma children adapt better to school when they study in mixed classes with the support of a Roma teacher assistant rather than in homogeneous classes. As predicted, the results reveal that Roma students in mixed classes with Roma teacher assistants adapt better than Roma students in homogeneous classes on the most important indicators of adaptation.

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