Assessing the intercultural sensitivity of high school students attending an international school

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory study was to measure the level of intercultural sensitivity (ICS) of high school students attending an international school. ICS was defined as “sensitivity to the importance of cultural differences and to the points of view of people in other cultures” (Int. J. Intercultural Relat. 16(4) (1992) 413). Students ranged in age from 13 to 19 years and came from over 40 different countries. The intercultural development inventory (IDI) (IDI manual, 1998) was used to quantify participants’ levels of ICS based on Bennett's (Int. J. Intercultural Relat. 10 (1986) 179; Education for the Intercultural Experience, Intercultural Press, Yarmouthl, ME, p. 21) conceptualization of ICS in his 6 stage Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS). Three hundred and thirty six students participated in the study, from which 13 were further selected to participate in structured interviews. The data from the quantitative and qualitative analysis were then compared. The results showed that 97% of the students were operating in Bennett's Acceptance or Cognitive Adaptation stages from the DMIS. Levels of ICS were positively correlated with the length of time that the student had attended international schools. Implications for this study are discussed for leadership, curriculum, and policy development at the school level. Use of the IDI with other national school and international school secondary students is needed for comparison purposes.