ABSTRACT

In an increasingly connected world, the industry of agriculture finds itself at the centre of the challenges of globalization, including diversity and social equity issues. Recognizing the responsibility of the academic discipline of agriculture to respond to these challenges, this study assesses the effectiveness of the interventions in a diversity consciousness raising course comprised of experiential and reflective activities grounded in critical paedagogy, social development theory, and cognitive development theory as implemented with students in small-group recitation labs. The impact of the interventions was measured in a pre-/post-test design with the Intercultural Development Inventory. As a group, participants in the study slightly increased their scores on the IDI, with forward stage movement and Perceived-Developmental Orientation gap decreases evident in roughly half of students. Implications of the findings, including the fit of the IDI for this context and limitations of the study design, are discussed.

摘要

在一个日益连接的世界中，农业产业处于全球化挑战的中心，包括多样性和社会公平问题。认识到农业学科负责应对这些挑战的责任，本研究评估了干预措施在多样性意识培养过程中的有效性，该过程包括基于批判教学法，社会发展理论和已实施的认知发展理论的经验性和反思性活动与学生在小组朗诵实验室中交流。干预措施的影响在“跨文化发展调查表”的前/后测试设计中进行了评估。作为一个整体，研究参与者在IDI上的得分略有提高，在大约一半的学生中，随着前阶段动作和感知发展取向的差距的减小，这种现象明显减少。讨论了发现的含义，包括IDI在这种情况下的适用性以及研究设计的局限性。