Original scientific paper
Determinants of intercultural sensitivity of teacher education students: Contribution of multicultural experience and socio-demographic characteristics
Denis Jurković
orcid.org/0000-0003-4408-5117
; Department of Teacher Education Studies in Gospić, Croatia
*
Marija Buterin Mičić
; Department of Pedagogy, University of Zadar, Croatia
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Modern societies are increasingly culturally pluralistic and more and more people are coming into contact with other cultures. These encounters with different cultures do not always lead to mutual understanding and acceptance. In this context, the importance of promoting and developing intercultural sensitivity is recognized as one of the fundamental tasks of (future) teachers in modern schools, which presupposes that they themselves are interculturally sensitive and express this sensitivity. With this in mind, the aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which multicultural experiences and certain socio-demographic characteristics of prospective teachers contribute to explaining their intercultural sensitivity. 630 students from all teacher education programs in the Republic of Croatia participated in the study. The survey
consisted of a questionnaire on socio-demographic data, an Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Chen & Starosta, 2000) and a modified Multicultural Experience Questionnaire (Narvaez et al., 2017). The research findings suggest that certain socio-demographic characteristics and multicultural experiences contribute significantly to the level of intercultural sensitivity of prospective teachers. In addition to considering the role of intercultural sensitivity and multicultural experiences in the affirmation of intercultural education in schools, implications for initial teacher education and recommendations for future research are provided based on the research findings obtained.
Keywords
multicultural experience; intercultural sensitivity; intercultural competence; future teachers; teacher studies students
Hrčak ID:
319343
URI
Publication date:
17.7.2024.
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