Intercultural Competence Development through Civic Engagement

150 Pages·2016·2.08 MB·English

Antioch University
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Dissertations & Theses
2016
Intercultural Competence Development through
Civic Engagement
Ruta Shah-Gordon
Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change
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Shah-Gordon, Ruta, "Intercultural Competence Development through Civic Engagement" (2016).Dissertations & Theses. 273.
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INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

RUTA SHAH-GORDON

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program
of Antioch University
in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

June, 2016
This is to certify that the Dissertation entitled:

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

prepared by

Ruta Shah-Gordon

is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
Leadership and Change.

Approved by:

Alan Guskin, Ph.D., Chair May 14, 2016

Jon Wergin, Ph.D., Committee Member May 14, 2016

Janet Bennett, Ph.D., Committee Member May 14, 2016

Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar, Ph.D., Ed.D., External Reader May 14, 2016
Copyright 2016 Ruta Shah-Gordon
All rights reserved
Acknowledgments

It is often remarked that it takes a village to raise a child and so it does, but it also takes a
village to complete a dissertation. I have benefitted from having such a strong village that
includes wonderful, supportive family, friends, colleagues, faculty, mentors, and cohort
members.
I would like to thank my dissertation committee for their encouragement, constructive
feedback, and mentoring. Throughout my time in the program, my chair, Dr. Alan Guskin
provided unwavering support, communication, and ideas; Dr. Jon Wergin, was continuously
available to think through concepts, methods and possibilities, and Dr. Janet Bennett, from my
individual learning achievements to dissertation, was a source of inspiration and insight. I would
also like to thank Deb Baldwin, librarian extraordinaire for her assistance with copyrights as well
as a whole myriad of questions. And of course, appreciation to all the faculty and staff at the
Antioch Leadership and Change program for the conversations, learning, and support throughout
my time.
Wagner College played a huge role in the completion of this dissertation from my
colleagues who encouraged, listened, and gave feedback to the professors and students who
participated in my study and helped me think through the results, thank you. You helped to
deepen my learning and pushed me to think outside of the box. To my Antioch family, who
checked in and encouraged me, thank you. It was a privilege to be part of Cohort 11!
To my mom and dad and my family, thank you for believing in me and giving me the
confidence to pursue my education. To our friends, thanks for pitching in with the kids or
understanding when we couldn’t do something because we were “dissertating!”

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And last, but not least, enormous gratitude and love to my husband, David, and our girls,
Anjali and Kavita, for making the process attainable with their patience, feedback, and
assistance. Your involvement along the way; the family study time, talking stats, laughing at
awkward sentences and writing together made the journey a sustainable, memorable one.
Thank you to my village!

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Abstract
Today, the field of intercultural communication is becoming even more important. People are
increasingly interacting more with others from around the globe, whether for work or recreation.
Globalization is creating an increased interdependency between nations; it is critical that
institutions of higher education develop leaders who are competent in cross-cultural awareness
and practice, have a solid understanding of cultural differences and their effects on leadership
performance, and are culturally sensitive to different perspectives (Northouse, 2010). Since many
studies of intercultural competence development focus on study abroad experiences, this
dissertation focuses on developing intercultural competence in college-aged students through
civic engagement experiences. Through a mixed methods approach using the Intercultural
Development Inventory (IDI) and action research in collaboration with Wagner College students
and faculty, this study examined four learning communities as well as a group of mentors over
the course of a semester to determine the salient aspects of an intervention. The findings
indicate that with the right amount of challenge and support, sustained and meaningful
interaction, reflection, content knowledge, and mentoring, interventions allow for more
pronounced development of intercultural competence. This dissertation is available in open
access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and
OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/etd
Keywords: intercultural competence, civic engagement, Intercultural development
inventory (IDI), mentoring, reflection, training.

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Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vii
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viii
Chapter I: Introduction .....................................................................................................................1
Background of the Problem ......................................................................................................1
Theoretical Conceptual Framework .........................................................................................4
Rational for Study .....................................................................................................................7
Statement of Purpose ................................................................................................................8
Research Questions ...................................................................................................................9
Definition of Terms ................................................................................................................10
Rsearcher’s Positionality ........................................................................................................11
Scope .......................................................................................................................................12
Summary of Introduction ........................................................................................................13
Summary of Subsequent Chapters ..........................................................................................14
Chapter II: Literature Review ........................................................................................................15
History and Underpinnings of Intercultural Communication .................................................16
Models of Intercultural Competence/Sensitivity ....................................................................17
Synthesis of Intercultural Models With College Students Development Theory ...................27
Definition of Intercultural Competence ..................................................................................28
Study Abroad and Intercultural Competence .........................................................................30
Civic Engagement and Intercultural Competence ..................................................................33
Experiential Learning and Intercultural Competence .............................................................39
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Relationship Between Intercultural Competence, Experiential Learning,
Study Abroad and Civic Engagement .....................................................................................41

Summary .................................................................................................................................47
Chapter III: Methods ......................................................................................................................49
Reasoning for Mixed Methods ...............................................................................................49
Instruments and Research Questions ......................................................................................58
Participants .............................................................................................................................65
Recruitment .............................................................................................................................65
Procedures ...............................................................................................................................69
Data Analysis ..........................................................................................................................72
Limitations and Delimitations ................................................................................................73
Risks .......................................................................................................................................73
Confidentiality ........................................................................................................................74
Chapter IV: Results ........................................................................................................................76
Descriptive Statistics ..............................................................................................................79
Summary .................................................................................................................................94
Chapter V: Discussion ...................................................................................................................96
Interpretation of Findings .......................................................................................................97
Praxis of Support and Challenge ..........................................................................................101
Learning Practices for Intercultural Development and Civic Engagement Growth .............103
Reflection on Improving Practice .........................................................................................108
Personal Experience ..............................................................................................................113
Implications for Future Action and Research .......................................................................115
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................117
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Appendix ......................................................................................................................................121
Appendix A: Copyright Permisions .............................................................................................122
References ....................................................................................................................................129

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