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Institute of International Education
Department of Education
Testing and Examining Intercultural
Transfer: Case Study of an International
University Cohort
Assignment for the course
Introduction to Educational Research Methods
Aljaz Kovac
(May 2015)
2
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND 3
MULTICULTURALISM & GLOBALIZATION 3
MULTICULTURAL VS. INTERCULTURAL 6
INTERCULTURAL TRANSFER (ICT) & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EI) 8
PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING OF “INTERCULTURAL TRANSFER” 9
AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 10
LIMITATIONS AND DELIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH 13
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH 14
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 15
REVIEW OF RELEVANT CONCEPTS 17
MULTICULTURALISM & ICT 17
PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING: TEIQUE, BIG 5 PERSONALITY TEST, STANFORD-BINET
IQ TEST, RAVEN’S MATRICES TEST 18
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH 20
QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS 22
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 22
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS 23
CONCLUSION & RESEARCH SCHEDULE 24
REFERENCES 25
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Introduction & Background
Multiculturalism & Globalization
In 1962 Marshall McLuhan, the man who predicted the Word Wide Web and coined
the term “global village”, said that our world is now a world of “simultaneous events
and overall awareness” (McLuhan, 1962, p. 40) where the distinction between
cultures, nationalities or “us” and “them” has become blurred. This has happened due
to communication and transportation networks that have brought various cultures,
races and religions into a web of “interdependence and a common fate.” (Kim, 2008,
p. 359) This, of course, presents us with specific challenges: the democratic vision of
a diverse and peaceful world is constantly challenged by particular group identities
dominating the notion of cosmopolitan citizenry. Often overlooked in the identity
polemics are the ideals of multiculturalism that promote a coexistence and a mutual
understanding with the ability to learn from each other rather than encroach on
specific forms of knowledge that the individual groups may possess.
Nowhere do these struggles come to the fore more than in a true multicultural
context “where individuals from multiple cultures or nations are operating in a foreign
culture, and their actions or behaviors in this context are referred to as international
performance.” (Burke, Watkins, & Guzman, 2009, p. 475) This type of performance
differs significantly from cross-cultural performance where individuals from the same
background or culture work and perform in a host environment. A multi-cultural
performance entails an additional aspect to simply working in a foreign country:
individuals need to interact with and adjust to other similar individuals who are also
4
foreigners in their common host culture. Interestingly enough, “empirical evidence
demonstrates a negative relationship between visible cultural differences and
adaptation to a new living environment” (ib.) There are several other definitions of
multiculturalism: Dolce describes multiculturalism as “a reflection of a value system
which emphasizes acceptance of behavioral differences deriving from differing
cultural systems and an active support of the right of such differences to exist.”
(Dolce, 1973, p. 283) Here is another, more comprehensive definition:
Firstly, multiculturalism can refer to a demographic feature, more specifically the poly-ethnic
composition of a society. Secondly, the concept is used by policymakers to denote a specific type of
policy about cultural diversity . . . Thirdly, multiculturalism as a psychological concept is an attitude
related to the political ideology, which refers to the acceptance of, and support for, the culturally
heterogeneous composition of the population of a society.” (Vijver, R., Breaugelmans, Schalk-Soekar,
& G., 2008, p. 93)
But what enables us to assume a psychological stance of multiculturalism and to build
such interpersonal relationships? Researchers mention a specific type of empathy, a
“culturally oriented empathy”, meaning “the ability of taking another person’s
ethnocultural perspective and sharing others’ experiences and feelings of being
discriminated.” (Albiero & Matricardi, 2013, p. 648) Here we arrive at an intersection
between culture theory and psychology: how can we investigate the difference
between a multicultural setting and the psychological factors that determine the
outcome of such a setting? A good starting point would be to make the distinction
between multiculturalism and interculturalism, the two terms frequently used in
literature on cultural diversity. Although a clear distinction between them does not
exist, they are clearly not synonyms either: their semantic meaning and usage in
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scientific literature show that “multicultural” denotes “cultural plurality in a particular
context”, while “intercultural” denotes “a form of exchange or interaction between
cultures or cultural perspectives.” (Arasaratnam, 2013, p. 2) In other words,
“multicultural” describes a pluralistic state, whereas “intercultural” describes a
process that occurs, to a greater or lesser extent, in such a state:
For example, Halualani (2010) speaks of intercultural interactions in a multicultural university, in her
study of students and how they define intercultural interactions. Similarly, Ippolito (2007) refers to
intercultural education in multicultural universities, making the distinction between cultural plurality in
an environment (multicultural university) and the process of understanding how to socially operate in
that environment (intercultural learning).” (ib., p. 2)
Intercultural interaction is therefore a prerequisite for multicultural coexistence! It
would thus make sense to try and understand the dynamics and factors of intercultural
interaction before applying ourselves to political agendas that promote a vague notion
of multiculturalism. A multicultural setting in itself will not be enough to ensure the
promotion of multicultural ideals: several studies show that what tends to happen in a
multicultural setting instead of intercultural interaction is actually plain and simple
acculturation where the majority favor the minority to adapt and the minority favors
cultural autonomy: a genuine cul-de-sac!
Based on findings from three studies conducted in the United Kingdom, Tip et al. (2012) found that
when members of the majority group perceived that minority group members want to maintain their
original culture, they (the majority group) feel threatened by it, resulting in unfavorable attitudes
toward multiculturalism. The converse was also found to be true.” (ib., p. 4)
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But what happens in a multicultural environment that is set on equal ground, for
example, among an international group of equal members? Studies show that more
equality among members or the extent to which both or all groups are willing to give
up some of their ground “plays an important role in the construction of a truly
multicultural society.” (Liu, 2007, p. 771)
This is a vital piece of information for the implementation of the romantic
ideals of multiculturalism! Translated into psychological lingo, it means that
personality or emotional intelligence traits, as well as several other factors, such as
self-motivation; expectation and cultural background; gender and educational level;
etc. (Dandy & Pepua, 2010) play a key part in what I call “intercultural transfer”. I
define “intercultural transfer” or ICT as the “transfer of cultural and personal
knowledge”.
Multicultural vs. Intercultural
The main reason why I posit “intercultural transfer” as a notion of its own is that the
results from several studies show that while individuals might live in a multicultural
community and thus by default take part in intercultural interaction, this in no way
means that this interaction will increase their sense of diversity or lead to “the
development of richer cognitive frameworks with which to relate to others.”
(Arasaratnam, 2013, p. 5) Furthermore, there seems to be a need for several factors to
combine in order for individuals to form identities that will allow them to “develop
attitudes that are associated with effective intercultural communication.” (ib., p. 7)
This process of developing such an identity or, due to the financial terminology
employed, the observable end-result of such an identity, I call intercultural transfer or
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ICT. One of the aims of this paper will be to examine the factors that contribute to
ICT and the psychological dynamics of the very process.
There seems to be considerable confusion or vagueness in the field that would
grant such an exploratory examination: a search on the prominent ScienceDirect.com
for terms “differential psychology” and “intercultural” yields 1390 results: together
they combine into a plethora of theories, concepts and interpretations, with little
consensus! This is partly because intercultural communication is a relatively new
domain and it thus needs to establish itself with a flow of original theories “grounded
in detailed case research.” (Howell, 1979) The research that this paper proposes is
very much in that vein, aiming to ground the theory of intercultural transfer with a
detailed case study of a first-year university cohort at the department of International
and Comparative Education at Stockholm University.
Such a cohort seems to be the perfect setting for a detailed examination of the
factors of intercultural transfer. The department website states:
“IIE is an "international" institute, in the true meaning of the word. It has successfully created a multi-
cultural and multi-disciplinary research and teaching environment which attracts a number of visiting
scholars and lecturers as well as students from many parts of the world.” (University)
The actors on this “multicultural and multi-disciplinary” stage are equals among each
other, meaning that the process of acculturation will not be a factor. The controlled
environment of a university setting enables us to measure and observe the nature of
intercultural transfer. Intercultural communication has long been part of the academic
offer at business schools because “intercultural communication can be envisioned as a
life skill which allows one to function effectively in his or her day-to-day activities.”
(Chiper, 2013, p. 1641)
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Intercultural Transfer (ICT) & Emotional Intelligence (EI)
This paper proposes to explore intercultural transfer through the lens of emotional
intelligence as it is understood and explained by Trait EI theory developed by Dr. K.
V. Petrides at the London Psychometric Laboratory at UCL. The difference between
Trait EI theory and other measures of emotional intelligence is that Trait EI theory
doesn’t view emotional intelligence as a skill, but rather as a personality makeup,
which it tests through self-report measures. These correlate significantly with
personality and “non-significantly with cognitive ability” (Siegling, Nielsen, &
Petrides, 2014, p. 65), whereas maximum-performance measures show the opposite
trend. (Qualter, Gardner, Pope, Hutchinson, & Whiteley, 2012) The trend to describe
EI as a skill or a tool is clearly seen in the flood of pop psychology that has penetrated
the overall discussion on knowledge and skills. A recent article in the online
Telegraph (The Telegraph) reports on a study by the education provider Kaplan,
where emotional intelligence is placed on “the full list of competencies employers
sought in graduates.” (Kaplan, 2014, p. 15) Nonetheless, emotional intelligence as a
personality makeup can be a prerequisite for acquiring the soft skills that tend to be
valued greatly in the labor market nowadays, although we need to be careful not to
mix them up with the phenomenon of “cultural fit”, as the study on hiring and cultural
matching by Lauren A. Riviera clearly shows:
Drawing from 120 interviews with employers as well as participant observation of a hiring committee,
I argue that hiring is more than just a process of skills sorting; it is also a process of cultural matching
between candidates, evaluators, and firms. Employers sought candidates who were not only competent
9
but also culturally similar to themselves in terms of leisure pursuits, experiences, and self-presentation
styles.” (Rivera, 2012, p. 999)
But does that not make emotional intelligence as a personality makeup all the more
relevant, especially in terms of intercultural transfer? Studies show that culture shapes
our sense of self and that socialization influences our cognition, emotion and
behaviors (Markus & Kitayama, 1991), meaning that being exposed to unfamiliar
cultures will sensitize us and expose us to “alternative ways of thinking and acting.”
(Chao, Kung, & Yao, 2015, p. 81) This sort of exposure might result in effective
intercultural transfer, thus leading to new and quantifiable knowledge, as well as
newly acquired soft skills or useful ways of existing and communicating within and
among different cultural schemas, or it might result in drawback. (Buchtel, 2014) This
paper proposes to explore the various factors that might influence effective
intercultural transfer and to better understand the dynamics of its process.
Psychometric Testing of “Intercultural Transfer”
Intercultural transfer can best be understood in light of psychological theories that
comprise emotional and general intelligence, meaning that psychometric testing will
need to be employed to explore the nature of intercultural transfer within the
examined cohort of the proposed case study. Empirical studies show that
psychometric tests, such as the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ),
are generally “a good predictor of socio-psychological adaptation” (Arasaratnam,
2013, p. 682) and that certain dimensions as measured and understood by certain
psychometric tests “are correlated with foreign language mastery” (ib.) or with
10
“international students’ adjustment.” (ib.) Psychometric testing with the Trait
Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), “which was developed to measure
the construct of trait EI comprehensively and has been shown to possess superior
psychometric properties over other measures” (Siegling, Nielsen, & Petrides, 2014, p.
66) has revealed correlation between high trait EI scores and leadership skills.
Statistical and empirical evidence gained so far would justify the use of such
psychometric tests as relevant measures of emotional intelligence as the latent
variable that we construct and aim to observe.
Aims and Research Questions
The aim of the proposed research is to test and to examine the dynamics of
intercultural transfer within an international university cohort at the Department of
International and Comparative Education at Stockholm University.
The research questions can be categorized as follows:
• What are the dynamics of Intercultural Transfer (ICT)?
o What are the factors of ICT?
o How do the various factors of ICT correlate?
o When is ICT most effective (checking for personality traits, cognitive
ability, motivation, expectations, etc.)?
• How is Trait Emotional Intelligence correlated with ICT?
o How are the global trait and the sub-measures of Trait EI Theory
correlated with ICT?
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o How are Trait EI theory and The Big 5 Personality test correlated as
markers of ICT?
o How can an improved understanding of EI and ICT contribute to the
educational process?
All of the above questions could be expanded upon and broken down into fragments
of minute psychological variables, but for the sake of brevity and clarity I shall not
attempt to present all of the sub-questions that every one of them entails. The nature
of the field is such that we are trying to measure concepts that are just that – concepts
based upon theory and prediction, meaning that they consist of many moving parts, or
in statistical language, they are latent variables that we attempt to observe by
measuring their so-called manifest variables. The first issue therefore is one of
construction. The second relevant issue is the question of causality: what factors
precede and cause what manifest variables? The third issue is the difficulty of
measurement: do the psychometric tests we apply really measure what we’re
attempting to measure? Considering these basic tenets the proposed research could be
placed somewhere between critical realism and interpretivism on the epistemological
scale and firmly in the constructionist tradition on the ontological scale. The latter is
easier to ascertain because constructionism suggests that the categories “do not have
built-in essences; instead, their meaning is constructed in and through interaction.”
(Bryman, 2012, p. 34) This is clearly what the categories of emotional intelligence or
personality are. The epistemological nature of the proposed research is more complex
because critical realists “are perfectly content to admit into their explanations
theoretical terms that are not directly amenable to observation” (ib., p. 29) and
“acknowledge and accept that the categories they employ to understand reality are
12
likely to be provisional,” (ib.), but the study will not employ retroductive reasoning or
aim to introduce “changes that can transform the status quo.” (ib.) The question of
causality offers great potential for the field of differential psychology, where
personality traits are generally taken to be source variables, despite theories of
personality dynamics indicating that traits should also be treated as outcome variables
(Petrides, p. 15): this research will therefore attempt to also investigate whether there
will be any change in personality traits after an intensive exposure to a multicultural
setting. Although the temptation to make causal inferences can be great, the research
will not deviate from its case study limits and will remain wary of the danger of such
conclusions. It will therefore simply observe the various variables at play and
examine their correlations under the umbrella notion of emotional intelligence. It will
therefore assume an interpretivist stance, very much in the tradition of Weber’s
Verstehen, and will employ middle-range theoretical concepts that are “much more
likely to be the focus of empirical enquiry.” (Bryman, 2012, p. 22). ICT can thus be
understood as an abstract concept, intended to help us conduct research, similar to
Goffman’s “stigma” or Hochschild’s “emotional labor.” (ib., p. 23) The approach will
therefore be deductive, but with inductive feedback to continuously reexamine the
methodology and the theory and to inform the various sub-questions that the study
will attempt to answer.
The quantitative part of the research will aim to test the following hypotheses:
H1: There will be greater intercultural transfer in students with higher Trait EI.
H1a: There will be a correlation in intercultural transfer between global Trait EI score
or certain Trait EI characteristics and certain factors of the Big 5 personality traits.
13
H2: Intercultural transfer will also depend on students’ expectations, motivation,
cognitive ability and academic achievement.
In proposing these hypotheses I am aware of the fact that Intercultural Transfer will
be quantitatively measured with factual information tests, which will rely on cognitive
ability and may thus not be a completely reliable marker of ICT as it is understood
and explained in the above theory, but the qualitative part of the research will aim to
overcome this delimitation by closely examining the respondents’ experience of ICT.
Given the fact that the TEIQue test, which has been empirically proven to be a
reliable measure of Trait Emotional Intelligence, is a self-report measure,
unstructured and semi-structured interviews may also be taken as a reliable measure
of information to which only the respondent has full access. (Petrides, p. 11)
Limitations and Delimitations of the Research
There are two kinds of limitations and delimitations that come with any research
project: the first kind has to do with time and financial constraints, or practical
constraints. The other kind has to do with the limitations that are part and parcel of the
chosen methodology and research design. In this case the research design will be a
case study, more precisely the critical case and the representative case. (Bryman,
2012, p. 70) The critical case because it will allow us “a better understanding of the
circumstances in which the hypothesis will and will not hold.” (ib.) And the
representative case because it will capture the conditions of an everyday situation
(namely a more or less typical international university cohort), although the
14
conditions of that everyday situation will be defined by a setting that is not
necessarily replicable or generalizable outside the university gates (namely a group of
equal individuals with no objectively hierarchical relations among them). The biggest
limitation of the proposed research is thus the common flaw of all case studies: it will
not be generalizable to the population, although its procedures will be replicable.
An overview of other concerns or possible limitations:
• Measurement validity: all the psychometric tests used are statistically reliable
measures. The factual information tests used to measure ICT and other
surveys used might be questionable and would need to be checked with a
statistical sample for reliability and validity.
• Internal validity: this is difficult to assess without conducting cross-sectional
design with more case studies, possibly at an early stage on the Bennett Scale.
Due to these question marks it would be dangerous to make any statistical inferences
from the research findings, although the ecological validity of the study should be
very strong indeed as there will be no intervention in the setting, which is a fairly
common university setting observed all over the world.
Significance of the Research
The first and foremost contribution that the research will attempt to make is the
introduction of an original concept to the theory of intercultural communication and
emotional intelligence, the notion of intercultural transfer or ICT, which it will aim to
15
measure and examine. In doing so it will employ several measures of psychometric
testing, which may reveal interesting and new correlations between factors such as
emotional intelligence, cognitive ability, expectations and motivation within
intercultural communication. By juxtaposing several different measures of various
concepts it will also add to the already existing literature on these existing measures
and concepts. This could prove to be a significant contribution to the theory and
praxis of multiculturalism, but also for educational studies to better understand
motivation and expectations, both important factors of educational attainment. Last
but not least, the research could also benefit the department where the case study
would be conducted: it could prove to have a relevant pedagogical impact on1st year
Master’s students who could thus be a part of research approaches and methodologies
that they are studying. In this way they might be inspired to learn more or experience
theory through a more hands-on approach. The findings could also benefit the
department by supplementing the official statistics already conducted with more in-
depth data on intercultural transfer, an important and yet vague part of learning in a
multicultural setting, and thus gain a better understanding of the internal dynamics of
the 1st year Master’s program cohort of 2015/2016. These possible gains are in line
with the recommendation of Noah & Eckstein to move more from the macro to the
micro investigation (Noah & Eckstein, 1998, p. 53) as that will make International
and Comparative Education more useful to policy-makers and administrators.
16
Ethical considerations
The research would assume a universalist stance on ethics, meaning that ethical
precepts, including harm to participants, lack of informed consent, invasion of privacy
and deception should never be broken. (Bryman, 2012, p. 133) At this point it is
relevant to note that the research proposal has not been discussed with any of the
actors whose consent and help would be necessary to conduct the research: the
proposal is therefore, at this stage, simply an exercise in theory and methodology.
Should the research proposal progress to the praxis stage, several steps would be
taken to ensure that the universalist stance on ethics is observed and maintained
throughout the research:
• Harm to participants: the nature of the study, combined with the measures
taken to ensure privacy and informed consent, ensures there would be no harm
to participants in any form or fashion. The case study would in no way
interfere with the environment observed, meaning that there would be no
“physical harm; harm to participants’ development; loss of self-esteem; stress;
and ‘inducing subjects to perform reprehensible acts’” (Bryman, 2012, p. 135)
• Informed consent: the research in itself is subject to the department’s and
students’ permission and consent to conduct psychometric testing. Students
would be fully informed of the aims and objectives of the study and would be
presented with its methodology at a brief presentation at the start of the school
year. They would then be given a short brochure to take home and study the
nature and the purpose of the study in peace. The brochure would involve a
17
statement of consent that they would have to sign and hand back within a
given timeframe if they would agree to participate in the study.
• Privacy: test scores, questionnaires and background information would be
carefully guarded and kept private. Should the qualitative part of the research
demand a certain exposure of such information to gain narrative quality or
greater insight, a statement of consent would again have to be signed by the
participants should they decide to do so.
• Deception: due to the nature of the study deception in this research is virtually
impossible. Full cooperation of the department and the respondents is needed,
meaning that all communication would have to be open and immediate.
Review of Relevant Concepts
Several of the relevant concepts and theories have already been touched upon in the
introductory pages, but I shall now expand on the most relevant of them by detailing
their application within the proposed research.
Multiculturalism & ICT
The paper has defined ICT or intercultural transfer as the “transfer of cultural and
personal knowledge”. This distinction is somewhat similar to the distinction between
factual knowledge and soft skills, but the former division is more in line with the
newest empirical findings of differential psychology which tell us that soft skills (a
18
term that derives from pop psychology), such as emotional intelligence, should be
viewed as personality traits rather than as skills or tools, and that these personality
traits are very much amenable to cognitive and situational influences (Diener, 1996):
“Personality questionnaires, then, should not be viewed as proxy indices of vague underlying causal
influences, but as important variables in their own right. Emotions are but a single, albeit fundamental,
domain of personality.” (Petrides, p. 15)
This means that multicultural environments will influence our sense of self and our
attitudes. Studies report that individuals who were born and raised in multicultural
environments report lower levels of ethnocentrism than those who grew up in
homogenous environments (Harrison, 2012), and that low levels of ethnocentrism are
supposed to be associated with interculturally competent communicators.
(Arasaratnam & Doerfel, 2005) Although “there is a discernible pattern in these
findings” (Arasaratnam L. A., 2013, p. 7) they need to be “systematically tested
through empirical means before conclusions can be drawn.” (ib.) This research will
aim to conduct such empirical investigations with the help of psychometric testing.
Psychometric testing: TEIQue, Big 5 Personality Test, Stanford-‐Binet IQ
Test, Raven’s Matrices Test
TEIQue is the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire that is underpinned by the
Trait Emotional Intelligence Theory, developed by Dr. Petrides at the London
Psychometric Laboratory at UCL. The theory, to put it simply, views “faux
intelligences as personality traits, rather than as cognitive abilities,” (Petrides, p. 1)
19
and it uses the TEIQue to test for those personality traits. The questionnaire has
shown statistical reliability and stability, while its correlations are “substantial and
similar to those observed for the Big Five,” (ib.), another prominent test of personality
traits or “emotional intelligence”.
The Big 5 Personality Test is aimed at examining the Big Five Personality
Traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
These factors are further subdivided into correlated and more specific factors. The test
has been empirically shown to have good internal validity and reliability and is
frequently used in psychometric testing and psychological research. In this research it
shall be used as a means of comparison with the TEIQue test and will thus
complement the “emotional intelligence” side of the equation.
The other side will be the cognitive aspect of our investigation, which will be
examined with two common tests, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales and the
Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test. Both tests are standard cognitive ability measures
and will be conducted online. The latter has been chosen specifically because of its
nonverbal nature, which will enable an equal playing field among the international
respondents.
Research Methodology
As described and explained in detail above, this will be a case study of an
international university cohort, which will aim to examine the nature of Intercultural
Transfer (ICT) by testing for personality traits (“emotional intelligence”), cognitive
ability, truancy, expectations and motivation. An international university cohort
20
seems to be the perfect setting for such an investigation because “academia provides a
fruitful domain for investigating individuals interacting and working in a multi-
cultural context.” (Burke, Watkins, & Guzman, 2009, p. 2)
The research will begin with a thorough quantitative investigation and will end
with a qualitative examination of the statistical outliers that the quantitative part shall
provide. Researchers have lauded the potential of such outliers (Noah & Eckstein,
1998, pp. 55-56) and one of the objectives of this study is to try and heed their advice
to catch “the fattest Loose-Fish in our ocean of exploration.” (ib., p. 56)
Quantitative Research
The research will aim to conduct the following psychometric measures:
• Trait EI
• Factual knowledge
• Expectations and motivation
• Cognitive ability (Raven’s Matrices)
I have already expounded on why we would measure Trait Emotional Intelligence,
but now for a word or two about the other measures.
Expectations and motivation are to be measured because research shows that
“expectations are the best predictor of intercultural success.” (Tucker & Benson,
1979) Cognitive ability is to be measured for several reasons: the most important of
them being the reported finding that IQ does not drive intercultural adjustment.
21
(Morris, Savani, Mor, & Cho, 2014, p. 196) But this is contrary to the traditional
belief that learning anything is mainly driven by cognitive ability: therefore the
present study would like to explore the correlation between ICT and IQ, which will
then be augmented with Trait EI scores to test whether it is true that “other aptitudes
more relevant to procedural knowledge and social information processing predict who
learns in the laboratory or adjusts in the field.” (Morris, Savani, Mor, & Cho, 2014, p.
210)
Factual knowledge tests will examine the actual Intercultural Transfer: how
much have the students learned about the cultures, habits or personalities of other
students since the beginning of the program. Closed questions and Likert scale
statements will be used, whereas the entry and exit surveys will be based on semantic
differential scales.
Quantitative measures used for psychometric testing will be the following:
• TEIQue test (paper form)
• The Big 5 Personality Test (online)
• Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test (online)
• IQ Raven’s Matrices test (online)
• Entry and Exit Survey on Expectations, Motivation and Experiences (paper
form)
• Factual Information Questionnaire (paper form)
These measures will be supplemented with official documents and statistics
conducted and gathered by the department (academic achievement, course papers,
22
course evaluation statistics, truancy) to gauge two additional quantitative factors:
truancy and academic achievement.
Quantitative Data Analysis
Quantitative data analysis will be performed using SPSS. The following correlations
will be examined:
• Pearson’s & Spearman’s Correlation (IQ & Trait EI; Trait EI & Big 5; IQ &
grades)
• Independent T-Test (gender & Trait EI; gender & grades)
• Dependent T-test (Trait EI test and Big 5 Personality Test re-administered 5
months later and compared with first test scores)
• One-Way ANOVA (age groups & Trait EI; grades groups & Trait EI)
Qualitative Research
As already stated, quantitative analysis will be followed with qualitative research that
will aim to examine either the statistical outliers produced by the first part of the
investigation or a random sample from the cohort. This will be done in order to
correlate the findings of both approaches: it may prove beneficial to supplement all
quantitative research of social concepts – which are latent variables, meaning that
there is no way to observe them directly – with qualitative investigations to ensure the
deficiencies of statistical explanatory models, such as structural equation models, do
23
not deceive us into making grand (and false) inferences. The paper’s stance to follow
Noah & Eckstein’s advice to conduct more micro investigations (Noah & Eckstein,
1998) can only be genuinely realized by probing where statistical analysis can’t reach:
“Since all people have the innate ability to narrate in their own ways, in-depth interviews provide an
opportunity for participants to tell their stories that help them to illustrate and shape their
understandings of a phenomenon.” (Dalib, Harun, & Yusoff, 2014, p. 132)
The qualitative part of the investigation will entail:
• A thematic analysis of course papers to recognize underlying themes, concepts
and constructs and to look for correlations with expectations, motivation and
Trait EI;
• Unstructured or semi-structured interviews with the outliers or a random
sample from the cohort.
The study will adopt Seidman’s interview structure (Seidman, 2006). The respondents
will therefore be guided to:
1. Reflect on their past experiences in light of ICT;
2. Provide details of their present experience of ICT;
3. Reflect on the meaning of that experience.
24
Qualitative Analysis
The approach to qualitative analysis will be one of grounded theory. To refer back to
the Aims and Research Questions section, where I state that the approach will be
“deductive, but with inductive feedback to continuously reexamine the methodology
and the theory and to inform the various sub-questions that the research will attempt
to answer,” one could say that the quantitative part of the research will be deductive
and the qualitative part of the study will provide the inductive feedback. Theoretical
or purposive sampling, a key step in grounded theory research, will be conducted
(interviews with statistical outliers), and followed up with coding until theoretical
saturation is reached. (Bryman, 2012, p. 568) Coding will be selective: a core
category, namely ICT, will be chosen as the central focus, around which other
categories will be planted. NVivo software will be used to aid with the analysis.
Conclusion & Research Schedule
The paper began by positing a distinction between the terms “multicultural” and
“intercultural”, where the former is a state of a heterogeneous cultural environment
and the latter is the process or a set of processes that occur, more or less, within such
an environment. This distinction was then grounded in intercultural communication
theory and a new, original term was proposed to examine the transfer of factual
knowledge and soft skills within a multicultural setting: intercultural transfer or ICT.
The paper then proposed to examine this notion of ICT against the backdrop of
emotional intelligence because empirical studies in differential psychology have
25
shown that EI should not be viewed as a soft skill (as is it understood by pop
psychology), but rather as a set of personality traits that can be both source and
outcome variables. The paper therefore posed the following questions: How does
Trait EI affect ICT and how does ICT affect EI? What other factors combine in
effective ICT? In examining these questions with psychometric testing the paper aims
to make an original contribution to educational studies and to further investigate the
empirically under-tested notion of multiculturalism. The research proposed would
employ a mixed-methods methodology, based on a detailed case study of an
international university cohort, with the quantitative part of the research providing a
deductive examination of hypotheses and the qualitative investigation of statistical
outliers feeding the researcher’s interpretivist and critical realist stance with in-depth
inductive feedback. The study would aim to be conducted under the following
timeframe:
• September 2015: Quantitative Data Collection: Entry Survey, TEIQue, Big 5
Personality Test, Stanford-Binet Test, Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test
• October 2015: Quantitative Data Analysis: SPSS analysis of available
correlations
• November 2015 – December 2015: Literature Review and Methodology
Refinement
• January 2016: 2nd batch of Quantitative Data Collection & Data Analysis:
Exit Survey
• February 2016: Qualitative Data Collection: Interviews
• March 2016: Qualitative Data Analysis: Coding of interviews and thematic
analysis of course papers
• April 2016: Writing the Findings
26
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