Intercultural communication has reached new levels with economic globalization, increased sophistication of communication technologies, and "internationalization" of education. As a critical tool for intercultural effectiveness, having a multicultural personality shapes the nature of interaction with people from other cultural backgrounds. In the university context, to advance internationalization, tertiary institutions need to be real international centers for teaching and learning with respect to people's world views. This study aimed to explore intercultural effectiveness of university students by using the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). With this purpose in mind, 493 students from the University of Notre Dame (ND), Sydney participated in a survey utilizing the MPQ. This study ascertained differences in dimensions of the MPQ for several demographic variables such as traditional (<24 years of age) vs. non-traditional (>24 years of age) university students, gender, religious affiliation, bicultural status, and level of study. This study confirmed significant differences in intercultural effectiveness across various countries as well as gender, non-traditional students, and bicultural study. It also stressed the role of curriculum changes at universities to strengthen intercultural effectiveness.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (ATSI), it is expected that non-ATSI health-care professionals become culturally aware; however, participants’ perceptions of the relative merit of cultural awareness training (CAT) formats is uncertain. Design/methodology/approach The authors compared undergraduate students’ perceptions of an asynchronous online format with onsite delivery formats of CAT using a mixed-method design. Students from five successive cohorts (n = 64) in an undergraduate programme were invited to complete a post-training survey which gathered quantitative and qualitative data. Findings Whilst feedback was positive regarding both formats, the onsite format was preferred qualitatively with several valuable learning outcome themes emerging from the results. These themes included; “perceived benefits of self-evaluation of students’ own culture whilst learning about Aboriginal culture”; “encouraging to be provided with scenarios, examples and exercises to enhance cultural awareness” and “engagement with the interactive facilitator approach”. There were differing views about the benefits of learning the history of oppression which warrant further research. Research limitations/implications Results may be applicable to undergraduate allied health students who participate in clinical immersion placements (CIPs) who participate in Aboriginal CAT. Practical implications Given the changing dynamic in education forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, more resources may need to be directed to improving online training and possibly combining formats in course delivery. Social implications The strength of the study is that the authors achieved a response rate of 100%, thus the results are highly significant for the sample. This sample represents 41.3% of chiropractic students who attended CAT and CIPs at this university over the course of 9 years, thus the results could be generalized to chiropractic students who participated in these types of placements. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to compare student perceptions of different formats of Aboriginal CAT for final year chiropractic undergraduate students in Australia.
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