Cross-cultural Contact and the Development of an International Perspective

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.