Chinese Youth Students’ Intercultural Sensitivity

Author(s):

Yong WangLi Zhang

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

SES D5, Pre Conf Parallel Session

Time:

2009-09-25

15:00-16:30

Room:

HG, HS 30

Chair:

Fiona Hallett

Contribution

More and more attention has been paid to intercultural sensitivity in the multicultural and globalizing society in the past decades. Intercultural sensitivity (ICS) is defined as “the way people construe cultural difference and in the varying kinds of experience that accompany different constructions” (Bennet, 1993, p.24). So far, one of the most helpful models to explain intercultural sensitivity is Bennett( 1986, 1993, 2004)’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), which is generally used for various situations: tourism, religion, diplomacy, business, military, social welfare, education and international development. However, Shizu Yamaoto(1998) argue for its cross-cultural applicability. She applied the developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett, 1986, 1993) in Japanese Context and found that ICS development pattern of Japanese is different from DMIS because of perceptional differences. Stewart & Bennett (1991)’s claim that American, Japanese and Europeans have different ways of thinking further support Yamamoto’s view. The purpose of this study is: 1) to investigate youth students’ intercultural sensitivity in northeast of China; 2) to examine the development model of intercultural sensitivity in Chinese context.

Method

China is a country with 56 nationalities. In the northeast of China mainly reside five nationalities with the population of about 107,400,000 people, which are respectively Han , comprising 89.624% of its population; Man, 7.076%; Korean, 1.694%; Mongolia, 0.939%; Hui, 0.491% and other nationalities, 0.176% (2000 census, China). Data were collected from 138 Chinese youth students (70 girls and 68 boys) from Chang Chun Han and Korean Middle School of China and Chang Chun No.16 Middle School (59 Han, 38Koreans, 23Man, 16Hui and 2 Mongolia) through both quantitative and qualitative methods. An inventory based on IDI (Chen& Starosta, 2000 and Hammer & Bennett & 1998, 2001) with a little modification was designed to quantitatively measure the youth students’ ICS, which were translated by a bilingual (English and Chinese) doctoral candidate. A standardized open-ended interviews format according to Patricia (1997) was qualitatively measured ICS.

Expected Outcomes

Early results showed that: 1) Chinese youth students can affectively, cognitively and behaviorally comprehend and accommodate cultural differences of Han, Man, Hui and Korean culture; 2) Chinese youth students perceive cultural difference of Han, Man, Hui and Korean culture as facts.

References

Bennett, M.J.(1986 a). Towards ethno relativism: A developmental model of intercultural sensitivity. In R.M. Paige. (ED.), Cross-cultural orientation: New Conceptualizations and applications (pp. 27-70). Lanham, MD: University Press. Bennett, M.J.(1993). Towards ethno relativism: A developmental model of intercultural sensitivity. In R.M. Paige. (ED.), Education for the intercultural experience. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press. Bennett, M.J.(2004). Becoming intercultural competent. In J. Wurzel(Ed.), Toward multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education ( 2nd ed., pp.62-77). Newton, MA: Intercultural Resource Corporation. Bennett, M.J. & Hammer, M.R.(1998, 2001). The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI): Manual. Portland, or: the international Communication institute. Chen , G.M. & Starosta, W.( 2000) . The development and validation of the intercultural sensitivity scale, Eric. Patric.V. (1997). Intercultural sensitivity and the Early Adolescent, Eric. Stewart, E. C. & Bennett, M.J. (1991). American cultural patterns: A cross-cultural perspective (Revised ed.). Yarmouth, MA: Intercultural Press, Inc. Yamamoto, S. (1998). Applying the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity in Japanese Context. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 2, 77-100.

Author Information

Yong Wang

University

Primary Education Department

Patras

Li Zhang

Jilin University, China

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