An Integrative Approach to Intercultural Communication in Context: Emprical Evidences from Higher Education
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AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN CONTEXT: EMPRICAL EVIDENCES FROM HIGHER EDUCATION By Anteneh Tsegaye Ayalew A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Language, Literature and Culture of Justus Liebieg University Giessen in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English June 2012, Giessen, Germany ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A lot of individuals and institutions contribute to the success of my PhD work. I am very thankful to all of them for their professional, financial and personal assistances. I am indebted to the professional and personal guidance of my principal supervisor Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hallet without whom the long road to my PhD work would not have been possible. I always appreciate his immediate responses to my questions in cases of difficulties. Thank you for your diligence to make my stay in Germany comfortable and fruitful. My heartfelt acknowledgment goes to Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) for funding the project and my stay in Germany. I am also thankful to the IPP team, International PhD Program in Cultural and Literary Studies, for their unreserved support. I have benefitted from your colloquiums and friendly guidance. I should also thank you for your financial support of my presentations and research trips in various countries including the United States. I do not have enough words to thank the love of my life, Liya Molla, without whom the success of my work and my life would not have been pleasant. All these years you were alone to take care of our little angel, Keti Anteneh and Olmann Anteneh. I cannot wait to join you again and share the joy of being together and caring for our daughter. I am honored to mention my mother, Tadelech Belihu, and my father, Tsegaye Ayalew, for their love and life experience that helped me reach this step of my life. I am also delighted to acknowledge all my research participants. I also thank the individuals involved in translating and typesetting the ethnographic materials. I am grateful to mention Kenenisa Beressa, Nebiyat Abebe, Henock Ayalew, and Habtachin Yilma for their regular help during the data collection period. I am also pleased to thank David Ghatei and Judy Cooper for editing the final version of the dissertation. It is a great opportunity for me to thank Claudia Weber for the German translation of the summary of this work. Lastly, but not least, I am more than happy to show gratitude to all my friends in Germany for your friendship and unlimited care. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER ONE: SETTING THE RESEARCH AGENDA 1 Background of the study 1 Problem statement and its theoretical base 5 The research questions 11 Organization of the dissertation 13 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 18 Issues in contemporary higher education and the new demand 19 Diversity in higher education 20 Internationalization of higher education 24 Multiculturalism and its promises 26 Problems with multiculturalism 30 Imperatives for intercultural communication in higher education context 32 Approaches and theories in the study of intercultural communication 41 Approaches to studying intercultural communication 43 Review of theories and models in intercultural communication 51 CHAPTER THREE: AN INTEGRATIVE MODEL TO INTERCULTURAL 72 COMMUNICATION IN CONTEXT What is new and why integrative 72 Assumptions about theory and intercultural communication 78 Assumptions about theory 78 Assumptions about intercultural communication 79 Assumptions about culture and communication 84 Conceptualizing culture 85 The nature of communication 95 The model and its analytical tools 99 Intercultural competence 101 Communication styles 107 ii Ethnic/cultural identity salience 111 Intercultural conflict resolution styles 114 Contexts 118 Power relations 122 CHAPTER FOUR: THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 129 Mixed methods research 129 Why mixed-methods research 133 The research design and the process model 134 The qualitative study 137 Data collection: Tools and procedure 138 Ethnographic interview: Participants, focus areas and procedure 139 Focus group discussions: Participants and procedure 145 Ethnographic field-notes and documents 148 Data transcription and translation 151 Qualitative data analysis and management 153 Grounded theory methodology 153 Data analysis with NVIVO 9 software 154 The quantitative study 158 Developing and piloting the Survey Form 159 Survey participants 160 The Survey Form: Variables and scales 161 Quantitative data analysis 168 CHAPTER FIVE: STUDY COUNTRY, RESEARCH SETTING AND 170 THE INTERVIEW PARTICIPANTS Study country: Sociopolitical history and political culture in Ethiopia 171 Ethiopian higher education context: An overview 175 The research setting 177 Descriptions of interview participants 181 Student participants 181 Teacher participants 188 University management participants 194 iii Descriptions of the ethnographic sites and events for field-notes 200 CHAPTER SIX: INTERCULTURAL EXPERIENCES IN ETHIOPIAN HIGHER EDUCATION: 202 AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY Diversity and multiculturalism 204 Diversity and campus composition 204 Multiculturalism as a guiding educational policy 216 The macro-level contexts: State and the University 217 The micro-level context: The University 221 The campus climate 221 Ethnicity as a stratifying factor 230 Ethnic identification 230 Ethnicity and classroom instruction 236 Ethnicity and student evaluation 242 The institutional communication 248 Intercultural communication perceptions and practices 254 Intercultural conflicts and campus unrest 267 CHAPTER SEVEN: PROMOTING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION 278 IN HIGHER EDUCATION Discontents with multiculturalism 278 Interculturalism as a guiding educational policy and institutional arrangement 282 The intercultural curriculum: mainstreaming intercultural communication 284 The intercultural campus 290 Institutional policies and strategies 291 The intercultural university teacher 298 The intercultural university leadership 300 Intercultural support and facilities 303 The new partnership: State, community and higher education 310 CHAPTER EIGHT: ASSESSMENT OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: 313 A QAUNTITATIVE STUDY Descriptive statistics: Socio-demographic profiles and campus diversity 313 Assessment of the dependent variables 319 Intercultural competence 319 iv Intercultural competency 319 Personal characteristics/qualities 321 Perceived proficiency in the host languages 323 Intercultural areas 325 Associations between intercultural competence variables 330 Predicting engagement in intercultural relations and collaborations 332 Communication styles 334 Ethnic/cultural identity salience 336 Intercultural conflict resolution styles 340 Identity salience and conflict styles 341 CHAPTER NINE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 343 Conclusions 346 Recommendations 352 REFERENCES 355 APPENDICES 383 Appendix 4.1: Interview guidelines 383 Appendix 4.2: Focus group discussion themes 384 Appendix 4.3: The Survey Form 385 v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 3.1: An integrative model to intercultural communication in context 99 Figure 4.1: Visual diagram of exploratory sequential design used to collect 136 and analyze data Figure 5.1: Map of Ethiopia 172 Figure 5.2: Addis Ababa University main campus 179 Figure 5.3: AAU Office of the President 179 Figure 5.4: Sample of pictures from the teachers’ lounge 200 Figure 5.5: Sample of pictures demonstrating students’ cultural shows 202 Table 4.1: FGD participants, home institutions and expertise 147 Table 4.2: Summary of variables, research questions and the measuring scales 163 Table 5.1: Overview of student participants’ profile 182 Table 5.2: Overview of teacher participants’ profile 189 Table 5.3: Overview of leadership participants’ profile 195 Table 6.1: Data on enrollment and graduates of AAU 205 Table 6.2: Gender representation at Sidist Kilo campus across faculties 206 Table 6.3: Regional origin of the academic staff at Sidist Kilo campus 211 Table 8.1: Socio-demographic variables: Gender, age and regional origin 315 Table 8.2: Socio-demographic variables: ethnicity, mother tongue and religion 317 Table 8.3: Reliability analysis of intercultural competency scale and components 320 Table 8.4: Correlation among components of intercultural competency 320 Table 8.5: Descriptive statistics for intercultural competency and components 321 Table 8.6: Mean values for self-reported personal attributes in home and host culture 323 Table 8.7: Assessing intercultural relationships, language preference and 327 task collaboration Table 8.8: Correlations between intercultural competence variables 332 Table 8.9: Intercultural relations regressed on intercultural competence variables 333 Table 8.10: Intercultural collaboration regressed on intercultural competence variables 334 Table 8.11: Descriptive statistics for ethnic and cultural identity salience 337 Table 8.12: Descriptive statistics for ethnic and cultural identity across ethnicities 339 Table 8.13: Descriptive statistics for intercultural conflict resolution styles 340 vi ABSTRACT Applying an exploratory mixed-methods research, ethnographic and quantitative findings were generated to describe and explain intercultural communication perceptions and experiences in a higher educational context in Ethiopia. The qualitative findings revealed that diversity has been prevalent among students but not in the staff or administration. The campus has been characterized as a divided academic community, exercising high