Cultural factors relevant to secondary school students in Australia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia: Relative differences and congruencies

College

College of Liberal Arts

Department/Unit

Philosophy

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling

Volume

19

Issue

2

First Page

161

Last Page

178

Publication Date

12-1-2009

Abstract

Waldrip and Fisher (2000) proposed seven culturally relevant factors that are salient in the educational setting (gender equity, collaboration, competition, deference, modelling, teacher authority, congruence). In relation to these factors, the present study examined differences and congruencies in factor structure (i.e., differences of kind) and mean scores (i.e., differences of degree) among secondary school students in Australia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia. The Cultural Learning Environment Questionnaire (CLEQ; Waldrip & Fisher, 2000) was administered to 920 students (n = 230 for each country, with boys and girls equally represented; mean age = 16 years). Factor analyses showed congruencies across the four samples on five factors. Interestingly, items pertaining to students' deference to and modelling of teachers and peers grouped into one factor for the Australian sample, but separated into two factors (peers and teacher) for the South-East Asian samples. In terms of mean scores on each factor, Australian students were higher than the Singaporean, Filipino and Indonesian students in their inclination to challenge or disagree with the teacher. On the other hand, the three groups of South-East Asian students scored higher than the Australian students in their preferences for collaboration and conformity in the classroom. Implications for counselling relevant to multicultural classroom and school contexts were discussed.

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Digitial Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1375/ajgc.19.2.161

Disciplines

Educational Psychology | Psychology

Keywords

Student response systems—Cross-cultural studies; High school students—Cross-cultural studies; Cross-cultural counseling

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