The Impacts of Ethnocentrism and Stereotype on Inter-Cultural Relations of Ethiopian Higher Education Student

Mekonnen Hailemariam Zikargae

doi:10.29333/ojcmt/2450

Abstract

This research is intended to understand the impacts of ethnocentrism and stereotypes on the ICRs among students of higher education. Qualitative research method was used in data collection and analyses. The instruments were observation, interview, and FGD. 43 research participants were purposefully selected. The findings reveal that ethnic, cultural and religious dislikes on campuses are manifested in acts ranging from hateful speeches to physical violence. Besides, both verbal disputes and physical confrontations are the results of wrong perception, misunderstanding on certain issues, criticism, misbehavior, defamation, inflammatory words, wrong attributions, indirect domination, undermining cultures of other, humor, disrespect, ideological differences, lack of unity among students etc. Ignorance of the others‟ cultures, religions and identities, ethnocentric attitudes, bias, supporting political parties along ethnic lines and exaggerated group differences are, thus, the major causes of ICRs problems among the students. On top of these, the disturbing counterattacks consisting of incidents of bigotry and intergroup strife are also prevalent. Hence, these affect the integrity and performance of the students that will affect the society at large.

Highlights

An inter-cultural relation is committed to activities that provide students an opportunity to engage in meaningful inter-cultural dialogues around cultural, religious, ethnic and diversity issues in a multicultural environment
In accurate and unfavorable than their stereotypes of other cultures and ethnic groups, cause them to misinterpret the messages they receive from members of those cultures and ethnic groups
Among the students, leads to a rejection of the diversity, knowledge, believes attitudes, judgments and worldviews or perspectives of other cultural and ethnic groups. It denies the cultural background, perceptions, understanding of the significant others, and positive regard for others among the students which could be manifested in the cafeteria, classrooms, library etc

Summary

Introduction

An inter-cultural relation is committed to activities that provide students an opportunity to engage in meaningful inter-cultural dialogues around cultural, religious, ethnic and diversity issues in a multicultural environment. It is based on the belief that students must be provided with this opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations which broaden their intercultural competence of diversity to include the concept of inter-culturalism. If students are to become successful in a diverse world, a large part of that source will be the ability to communicate and negotiate among diverse cultures (Banks, 2001) and brings about inter-cultural competence, which is the capacity to change one‟s attitudes, values, and behavior so as to be open and flexible with other cultures, religious and ethnic groups which have become increasingly crucial for individuals to survive in our increasingly globalized society. Taylor (1994) defined intercultural competency as a transformative process whereby the “stranger” develops adaptive capacity, altering his or her perspective to understand and accommodate the demands of the host culture, religion and ethnic effectively. The process allows individuals to incorporate intercultural knowledge into their high level cognitive schema

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion