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- All Subjects: Intercultural communication
- Creators: Brown, Kermit Austin
Description
This study assessed ways that culture influences our communication and the development of both professional and personal relationships with people from different cultural backgrounds. My goal was to provide the theoretical base and practical application of concepts that will improve overall effectiveness in communicating with members of different cultural groups across the globe. The action research involved in this project will ultimately guide my community of practice toward a critical understanding of the importance of increasing student’s social awareness through intercultural communication, awareness, discourse and action. This increased awareness will ultimately guide them to becoming architects of social change. The data analysis assessed the experiences of undergraduates at a major four-year University (ASU). The study also gathered responses to a questionnaire that measure perceptions and experiences of the campus cultural climate. The participants were students of various ages from Arizona State University. Results revealed significant differences between racial and ethnic groups on multiple dimensions of the campus cultural climate.
The outcome was an intercultural communication class that advanced innovative intercultural communication curriculum that also provides students an opportunity to discuss cultural issues related to race, culture and social injustices. The research was aimed at finding ways to encourage student’s civic participation, activism, enlightenment, and inspiration to speak out, and be heard. Research Design: Mixed-methods research design involving the following data from one section of quantitative analyses (analysis of covariance) of pre-post surveys, qualitative analyses of semi-structured interviews, and analysis of student assignments. The innovation, as a whole, focuses on the improvement of diversity, activism, and increasing sociocultural learning and participation, with particular interest in understanding how academic programs are engaged in this activity.
The outcome was an intercultural communication class that advanced innovative intercultural communication curriculum that also provides students an opportunity to discuss cultural issues related to race, culture and social injustices. The research was aimed at finding ways to encourage student’s civic participation, activism, enlightenment, and inspiration to speak out, and be heard. Research Design: Mixed-methods research design involving the following data from one section of quantitative analyses (analysis of covariance) of pre-post surveys, qualitative analyses of semi-structured interviews, and analysis of student assignments. The innovation, as a whole, focuses on the improvement of diversity, activism, and increasing sociocultural learning and participation, with particular interest in understanding how academic programs are engaged in this activity.
ContributorsBrown, Kermit Austin (Author) / Jordan, Michelle (Thesis advisor) / Bertrand, Melanie (Committee member) / City-Carroll, Raquel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The field of intercultural communication emerged from demonstrated need in the public sector and has roots in cultural anthropology. There is continued need in academic and practitioner domains for improved ways to effectively engage across cultures. To do so, it is necessary to develop approaches that enable a person to take the emic perspective of an intercultural Other. Worldview is a promising concept in several fields, such as anthropology and cross-cultural psychology, but remains undeveloped in the field of intercultural competence. In addition, existing conceptualizations and approaches to identify worldviews are too comprehensive or ambiguous to be useful. The purpose of this project was to propose a novel worldview framework synthesizing existing literature. The resulting construct is constituted by the composite universals, morality, agency, and positionality (MAP). Worldview MAP was applied to intercultural interactions between members of two distinct sociocultural groups working together on a two-week global management project in a multinational organization in Japan. Three research questions focused on identifying intercultural difficulties, worldview assumptions of each party, and relationships between the difficulties and worldviews. Inter-rater reliability was calculated for three morality subdimensions most underdeveloped in the literature. Findings include worldview descriptions for both culture groups across MAP and ways in which worldviews are interconnected with and illuminate three complex intercultural difficulties. Further, five meta-level worldview findings show how implicit worldviews were indirectly revealed in narrative data. Limitations of the study and implications for future work are discussed.
ContributorsSteiner, Elena (Author) / Corman, Steven R. (Thesis advisor) / Kim, Heewon (Committee member) / Tsuda, Takeyuki (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019