Cultural Differences and Similarities in Academic Motivation: A Comparison of Indian and Australian Student Attitudes

Abstract

A comparison is made of the attitudes, motives and expectations for vocational and educational development of senior secondary and tertiary students in Australia and India. Questionnaires were administered to 440 students in South India containing questions to which responses have been made by 7,000 students in several Australian samples. Students in both countries show similar evidence of the effects of processes of urbanization against a background of common elements in the educational systems founded by British colonial administrations and subject to similar modern influences. The effects of long term cultural differences and rates of economic development are, however, strongly evident. Australian students tend to be more pragmatically oriented, more inclined to approve risk-taking with an expectation of success, while Indian students adopt a more passive, fatalistic attitude. On several curiosity items Indian students scored higher than Australians except in aspects most relevant to creativity. Indian students tend to aim for unrealistically high status occupations more than Australians who envisage a wider variety of vocational choice. Australian students express dissatisfaction with their teachers' dominant role while Indian students more readily accept one-way processes of communication.