Intercultural sensitivity of primary school teachers of Georgia

Type Journal Article - International Journal of Education and Research
Title Intercultural sensitivity of primary school teachers of Georgia
Author(s)
Volume 2
Issue 6
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
Page numbers 281-300
URL http://ijern.com/journal/June-2014/23.pdf
Abstract
The research explored intercultural sensitivity of 395 teachers randomly sampled from Georgian
primary schools. The questionnaire based on Bennett’s Development Model of Intercultural
Sensitivity was developed as a research instrument and adopted to Georgian context in order to
measure interculturalism among the teachers. According to the research, the majority of teachers
are in ethnocentric phase of intercultural sensitivity as by Bennett; Specifically: (a) Teachers are
differently sensitive towards sources of cultural differences whereas tolerance towards social or
physical differences does not impact non-tolerant attitude towards racial, linguistic, religious,
ethnic differences; (b) Teachers are selectively tolerant to different groups within the same source
of cultural difference. (c) Teachers are more sensitive to so called “easily changed” differences as
social background/status, geographical location, age, health state while sensitivity is low towards
“steady/invariable” or “rarely changeable” sources as ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual
orientation.(d) The education level is positively correlative to the level of a teachers intercultural
sensitivity.

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