Journal of Danubian Studies and Research, Vol 9, No 1 (2019)

Abstract

Findings from the studies conducted by Hofstede and other scholars have shown that the four cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity vs. femininity) of social interactions impact classroom interactions and teaching. This study tests the observance and influence of these cultural dimensions in classroom communication between lecturers and students of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan. An adapted and validated instrument on cultural dimensions was administered online on undergraduate students of the Department; data were analyzed using inferential statistics and multi-layer perception network structure. A strong positive correlation was not found for gender, ethnicity and level as predictors of power distance (r=.250), individualism (r=.248), collectivism (r=.186), uncertainty avoidance (r=.066) and masculinity/femininity (r=.194), and the regression model predicted 6.3%, 6.2%,3.5%, 0.4% and 3.8% of the variance respectively. The linear regression model did not explain power distance (F=1.760, P>.05), individualism (F=1.730, P>.05), collectivism (F=.942, P>.05), uncertainty avoidance (F=.116, P>.05) and masculinity/femininity (F=1.034, P>.05). Multi-layer Perception Network Structure indicated that students in 200 level are the most connected with cultural dimensions especially power distance. Management of the Department of Communication and Language Arts may need to empower lecturers on classroom cultural management strategy towards the reduction of high power distance and uncertainty situation during teaching and learning; lecturers need to also use more of collectivistic teaching strategies.