Scrutinising local students’ accounts of positive intercultural interactions: A multidimensional analysis

This study examined local students’ subjective accounts of their positive intercultural interactions on a university campus. A multidimensional framework was adopted to explore the complexity of intercultural interactions. Key dimensions of positive intercultural interactions were identified and used to analyse the data, including agency, cultural interest, duration, context, affect and self-disclosure. These dimensions were theoretically driven, empirically informed or inductively generated from the data. Systematic analysis of intercultural interactions using the multidimensional framework revealed the magnitude of qualitative differences in students’ positive intercultural interaction experiences. While some stories displayed consistently deep or shallow experiences across dimensions, agency, operationalised as the initiation of a positive intercultural interaction, emerged as a distinct dimension. Four meaningful patterns of relationship between agency and intercultural transformation were identified. When agency was limited, intercultural transformation could still be achieved and reciprocally when a positive intercultural interaction was initiated, it did not necessarily lead to transformational outcomes. Cultural interest appeared to play a special role in the development of intercultural transformation.