Acta Iadertina, Vol. 22 No. 1, 2025.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15291/ai.4851
Interculturalism in Classrooms – Insights into Teachers’ Intercultural Sensitivity
Denis JURKOVIĆ
orcid.org/0000-0003-4408-5117
; University of Zadar, Department of Teacher Education Studies in Gospić, Gospić, Croatia
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
In March 2024, a survey of intercultural sensitivity (IS) was conducted
among 300 teachers from the Republic of Croatia. The adapted and
translated (Jurković, 2023) Intercultural Sensitivity Scale - ISS (Chen
and Starosta, 2000) was used in the research. The aim of the research
was to determine the level of IS of teachers and to establish whether
there is a correlation between some socio-demographic factors and the
level of IS. In addition, an attempt was made to establish whether there
is a difference in the level of such sensitivity with respect to the aforementioned
socio-demographic factors. The results of the study indicate
that the examined teachers mostly show agreement with statements
reflecting a positive intercultural orientation (M=3.83; SD=.438),
whereby the enjoyment of interacting with members of different cultures
(M=4.22; SD=.707) was highlighted as the dimension in which
respondents expressed the highest degree of agreement, and confidence
in interaction with members of different cultures (M=3.58; SD=.596)
as dimension with the lowest level of agreement. In addition, the correlation
between teachers’ sociodemographic characteristics and IS was
examined, and it was shown that attending communication courses
is statistically significantly negatively correlated to the level of IS (ρ=-
.139; p<.05), while the average success of students is statistically significantly
positively correlated (ρ=.131; p<.05). Finally, it was checked
whether there are statistically significant differences in the level of IS
with regard to related sociodemographic variables. It has been shown
that there is a statistically significant difference in the level of IS of
teachers concerning the reported academic success of their students
(F(2,282) =4.942; p<.01) in such a way that better students’ academic
success also means a higher level of IS of teachers.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
334842
URI
Publication date:
1.9.2025.
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