Abstract

Colleges and universities across the nation are responding in a variety of ways to the imperative of increasing students’ intercultural sensitivity in emerging diverse environments. Intercultural sensitivity is defined and conceptualized in this article as “sensitivity to the importance of cultural differences and to the points of view of people from other cultures.” It is also important to note that empirical evidence on instruments and other methods of assessing the impact of these varying experiences for developing intercultural sensitivity has been very limited to date and remains a challenge. This research examines shifts in students’ attitudes toward cultural difference while students participated in a semester long diversity consciousness course. The course is offered every semester but the data reported in this study was secured from three consecutive semesters beginning in the fall of 2008 thru fall of 2009. Our research question: “Students’ participation in a diversity consciousness-raising course can effect positive changes in developing students’ intercultural sensitivity.” By employing a developmental model of intercultural sensitivity and an associated survey instrument, we measured students’ degrees of sensitivity toward cultural difference and how they may have changed following intercultural exposure through lectures, discussions and hands-on experiences. Preliminary results indicate that attitudes shifted on one dimension of intercultural sensitivity in the predicted direction of greater openness to other cultures. The most notable shift was toward greater engagement with Minimization of cultural difference. Students began the semester with the predominant orientations of Denial/ Defense, but after taking the course, most students moved slightly into the orientation of Minimization where emphasis is on commonality of human beings in terms of physiological similarity as a way of approaching different cultures, e.g., “After all, we’re all human” (Bennett, 1986, 1993). The findings suggest that a combination of diversity related course offerings, special cultural events on and off campus, and a campus that is welcoming and inclusive in nature can make an enormous contribution to the development of greater intercultural understanding.