Assessing Intercultural Competencies: Risks of Transferring Instruments From the Global North to the Global South

• In Event: International Educational Research

Abstract

Internationalization is an important and growing phenomenon in Higher Education, especially study abroad programs for undergraduate students. Psychometric tests measuring student development are commonly used instruments to assess study abroad programs and justify universities’ investment in them. Institutions in the so called “global south” tend to adopt these kinds of instruments that have been primarily designed in a different context. Normative groups that inform the design and validation of these tests possess observed and unobserved characteristics that are significantly different from socioculturally different groups, thus affecting the instrument’s validity and reliability. Findings suggest that, using an instrument that was not designed considering these differences, may lead to an interpretation of the results that are not accurately describing that population’s situation.

Author

• Santiago Castiello, The University of Arizona