Zoekresultaten

Financial behaviour in the multicultural society. A study into portfolios of ethnics and nationals in the Netherlands

Politicians and the media frequently refer to the Netherlands as a multicultural society. Everyone in the Netherlands is equal before the law. Equal people with the same starting point should, theoretically, make the same choices. But is this really the case when people choose financial distribution channels and financial products? Or is there also a cultural dimension at work, fed by origin and affinity with a specific group? And are people really equal when it comes to financial products? The paper looks at which variables and constructs should play a role in studying these aspects and what techniques are necessary to arrive at an explanation of choice behaviour.

Controversial issues in multicultural secondary classroom discussions

Professional development of teachers using a research based approach to clarify their challenges in multicultural classrooms: a case study of Dutch senior secondary vocational education

This research presents a descriptive study on regarding the use of a research-based approach by teachers to clarify problems they encountered in multicultural classrooms. It analyses the outcomes of a training in which seven teachers from a Dutch Senior Secondary Vocational Education school participated conducting a research-based approach to explore the current practice of their multicultural classrooms. To determine the learning outcomes semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teachers with questions matching the domains of change in Clarke and Hollingsworth(2002) Interconnected Model of Teachers Professional Growth. Our main question was to what extent a research-based approach can help teachers to clarify the problems they encountered in their multicultural classrooms. According to the external domain of Clarke and Hollingsworth they become encouraged by sources of information from experts and literature. The teachers did not always have a positive attitude towards all research activities.

Collaborative learning in multicultural classrooms: a case study of Dutch senior secondary vocational education

Abstract This research presents a descriptive study regarding collaborative learning in a multicultural classroom at a vocational education school in The Netherlands. The study bridges two domains of research: research on culturally diverse learning environments - which has mostly concerned primary and general secondary education - and studies on collaborative learning. It analyzes current practices and perceptions of both teachers and students applying collaborative learning in a culturally diverse, competence-based learning environment. The results suggest that in a multicultural classroom, students, on the one hand, are mostly focused on their individual performance, resulting in poor collaboration among classmates. On the other hand, teachers seem unaware of their own role in affecting students' behavior and the influence of the cultural backgrounds of students on collaborative learning processes.

Multicultural attitudes mediate the relation between personality and perceived ethnic outgroup distance in the Netherlands

We focus in the current study on associations between personality, multicultural attitudes, and perceived ethnic outgroup distance in the Netherlands. Data were collected among four different ethnic groups (from low to high in terms of ethnic hierarchy): Turkish/Moroccan-Dutch, Antillean/Surinamese-Dutch, Mixed Western immigrants, and Dutch majority group members. We found support for a mediation model in which in all groups multicultural attitudes mediate the relation between personality traits, education level, and age as antecedents, and outgroup distance as outcome; age was the only antecedent that also had a direct effect on outcome. Education was positively related to multiculturalism in the groups high in the hierarchy and unrelated in the groups low in the hierarchy. The association between multicultural attitudes and outgroup distance was negative and stronger for the groups higher in the ethnic hierarchy; hierarchy was unrelated to outgroup distance. Groups higher in the hierarchy scored lower on multicultural attitudes. It was concluded that multicultural attitudes and outgroup distance are important for understanding intergroup dynamics in ethnically diverse societies.

Are some individuals more susceptible to intercultural education than others? Multicultural personality predicts the effects of an intercultural training on cultural intelligence

The development of intercultural competences has become a prominent goal for many study programs in higher education. A widely used frame to measure intercultural competence is Cultural Intelligence (CQ). While empirical research has focused extensively on the development of CQ by means of (student) mobility and long-term training, the effects of short-format trainings – a more cost-effective intervention that can be provided to a large number of participants – remain understudied. Existing findings are inconclusive, and it remains unclear under which conditions, and for whom, short-format interventions are effective in improving participants’ CQ. We propose that CQ development is contingent upon individual differences in multicultural personality traits (operationalized through the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire, MPQ). More specifically, in this study we investigate (1) whether a short-format (6-hour) training improves CQ among higher education students (n = 108), and (2) whether the development of CQ is moderated by students’ social-perceptual and stress-related MPQ trait scores prior to the training. Using a pre and post-test design we found that across the whole sample, all four facets of the CQ increased after the training. We also found that some social-perceptual traits of the MPQ moderated the development of CQ: Social initiative on Metacognitive CQ, Openmindedness on Cognitive CQ, and Social initiative and Openmindedness on Motivational CQ. Additionally, we did not find a moderator effect of stress-related MPQ traits on the development of Behavioral CQ. Based on our findings, we conclude that multicultural personality influences individuals’ susceptibility to intercultural education, underscoring the importance of individualized approaches in intercultural education.