Cross-cultural Contact and the Development of an International Perspective

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Abstract
The hypothesis that participants in multicultural educational programs develop an internationally minded orientation, was studied unobtrusively. The focal Ss were 90 alumni of an explicitly structured multicultural program; their controls were 90 alumni of an institution with an implicit multicultural ambience. Ss were sent a questionnaire on a topic with an international perspective. The dependent variables were the return rate of completed questionnaires, and willingness to participate in further research. Although the hypothesis was confirmed-i.e. a greater proportion of focal than control Ss responded-the effect of training was confounded with prior residence abroad, and underlines a basic problem in evaluating the impact of multicultural learning programs, since participants tend to be recruited and selected partly on the basis of previous cross-cultural experience.

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