Antecedentes Internacionales

The underlying theory for this study is that of developmental learning. A developmental model helps understand a progressive process and provides guidance for continued development. Piaget (1977), who has suggested many comprehensive developmental theories; Adaptation and Organization are the two major principles that guide intellectual growth and biological development.

For the first principle of Adaptation, individuals must be adaptable to physical and mental stimuli in order to survive in an environment. Along the Adaptation process, there involves both assimilation and accommodation. According to Piaget (1977),

28 human beings have mental structures that are capable to adapt to new, uncommon, and constantly changing aspects of the external environment, and convert them to fit their mental structures.

The second principle of Organization is about the nature of these adaptive mental structures. Piaget suggests that the mind is organized in complex and integrated ways. At the simplest level, there is a schema that consists of a mental representation of some physical or mental action for an object, event, or phenomenon. Piaget recognized development to four factors: a) maturation; b) physical experience; c) social experience and feedback; and, d) self-regulation. He stressed that social experience is a crucial factor in development. Based on Piaget’s development model, Dupont (1994) further stated that in the course of development, consciousness, cognition and emotions are transformed through construction and reconstruction.

Bennett (1986, 1993) developed a scale named Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) to measure how people interpret cultural differences. In the DMIS, Bennett posited a framework for conceptualizing dimensions of intercultural competence. The DMIS is organized into six “stages” of increasing sensitivity to cultural difference. These “stages” identify the basic cognitive orientations individuals use to understand cultural difference. Along the continuum, each “stage” shows increasingly complex perceptual organizations of cultural difference, which consecutively allow increasingly sophisticated experiences of other cultures. When the underlying experience of cultural difference is recognized, predictions about behaviour and attitudes can be made and education can be adapted to enable development along the continuum.

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Figure 1: Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) (Bennett, 1986 & 1993)

There are six distinct stages of experience spread across the continuum from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism. The first three DMIS stages which are Denial,

Defense and Minimization are conceptualized as more ethnocentric, meaning that one’s

own culture is experienced as central to reality in some way.

It all begins with Denial of cultural difference, which is the default condition of typical, monocultural primary socialization. At this stage, the individual views his/her own culture as the only real one, and avoids other cultures by psychological and/or physical isolation from differences. People at this stage show no interest in cultural difference. However, they may act aggressively to eliminate a difference if it impinges on them.

Moving up next is Defense against cultural difference. People at this stage are threatened by cultural difference because they view their own culture (or an adopted culture) as the only good one. In their eyes, the world is organized into "us and them," where "we" are superior and "they" are inferior. Hence, they tend to be highly critical of other cultures, regardless of whether the others are their hosts, their guests or cultural newcomers to their society.

30 After Defense, comes Minimization of cultural difference where people view their own culture as universal. They expect similarities, and they may insist about correcting others' behaviour to match their expectations. As a result, other cultures may be trivialized or romanticized. People at the Minimization level, especially those of dominant cultures, tend to mask recognition of their own culture (ethnicity) and the institutional privilege it affords its members.

Moving up the scale, individuals have the opportunity to progress towards the ethnorelative stages, meaning that one’s own culture is experienced in the context of other cultures. At the second three DMIS stages which are Acceptance, Adaptation and

Integration, these ethnocentric views are replaced by ethnorelative views.

Acceptance of cultural difference is the state in which one's own culture is

experienced as just one of a number of equally complex worldviews. People at the

Acceptance level are able to acknowledge others as different from themselves, but who

are equally human. They are curious about and respectful toward cultural difference.

Moving up next is the Adaptation to cultural difference where people at this stage experience another culture and produce perception and behaviour which are appropriate to that culture. People at the Adaptation level expand their worldview to include ideas from other worldviews; they are able to look at the world "through different eyes" and may purposely change their behaviour to communicate more effectively in another culture.

Moving up from Adaptation is the stage of Integration where the people at this stage often deal with issues related to their own "cultural marginality”, which may have two forms: a) an encapsulated form, where the separation from culture is experienced as

31 isolation; and b) a constructive form, in which movements in and out of cultures are a necessary and positive part of one’s identity. This stage is not necessarily better than

Adaptation in most situations demanding intercultural competence, but it is common

among non-dominant minority groups, long-term expatriates and "global nomads".

Together, these six stages comprise a continuum from least culturally competent to most culturally competent, and illustrate a dynamic way of modeling the development of intercultural competence (Sinicrope, C., Norris, J. & Wataname, Y., 2007). In general, the more ethnocentric orientations can be regarded as ways of avoiding cultural difference, either by denying its existence, by raising defenses against it, or by minimizing its importance. The more ethnorelative worldviews are ways of seeking cultural difference, either by accepting its importance, by adapting its perspective, or by integrating the whole concept into a definition of identity (Hammer, M. R., Bennett, M. J., & Wiseman, R., 2003).

In general, researchers who emphasize in the field behaviour and development are focusing on studies related to the particulars of people acting in specific environments and the many complex factors of human body and mind that contribute to action and thought (Wozniak and Fischer, 1993). Activities are now being evaluated based on everyday situations rather than laboratory settings. Children’s active construction of the world around them is treated as primarily social in nature, occurring in families, with peers and in cultures. Behaviours are being examined as a dynamic change over hours, days and years.

The instrument chosen and the underlying theoretical base for this study are focused on multiculturalism as a developmental continuum with evident stages (Randal,

32 Aigner, & Stimpfl, 1994; Moore, 1995). The progress from one stage to another is influenced by reconstruction of knowledge, through challenger to existing values and beliefs (Moore, 1995). Sears, Freedman and Peplau (1985) advocated that the field of social psychology has recognized the roles of developmental and social learning theories in the explanation of prejudice and discrimination. It is from this base of social psychology, with an emphasis on the dynamic effects of learning on attitudes and behaviour that this study emerged.