Portrait of an interculturalist: Moral ambiguity, value challenges and transformational learning in the search for intercultural leadership

This dissertation is an experimental, mixed-methods inquiry conducted as a multifaceted exploration into non-rational transformational learning in the intercultural context. The dissertation project is situated as an example of writing as inquiry (Richardson, 1994). The presentation incorporates the traditional academic textual approach with the representative reporting style of portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997) and uses archetypal imagery to convey meaning across the written boundary.;The written text explores four issues faced by international sojourners: (1) the nature of moral ambiguity and value challenges when an individual becomes embedded into a host culture that is not his or her own; (2) the coping strategies and processes utilized by sojourner participants when negotiating the stress of experiencing culturally relevant dilemmas; (3) the process of transformative learning that occurs for the individual in this context; and (4) the perception and enactment of intercultural leadership.;In order to embody the complexity of the intercultural state, the painting metaphor of Impressionism and narrative texts serve as an example of praxis that bridges both the theoretical issues of the acculturation and adaptation conundrum and the lived experience of a challenging intercultural relationship.;Data from 48 individuals who met the sojourner criteria were collected across four generational age groups through a mixed-methods on-line survey and oral interviews. Participants also took the Meyers-Briggs Temperament Indicator-Form M (Briggs & Myers, 1998). These Indicator typologies were used in content analysis of the qualitative data to uncover the nature of the transformative process of personal growth and change.;Statistical operations tested constructs of identity flexibility, adaptation and acculturation, and support was found for the use of pre-departure orientation training in order to increase moral orientation development as proposed by Kegan (1982) and Kohlberg (1981). Content analysis of qualitative data further supported these findings by presenting a portrait of an individual's growth process through tension (Mezirow, 1981, 1985, 1990, 1991, 2000) revealing the crossing and re-crossing of Jung's (1957/1960) proposed transcendent point. Finally, life-path metaphors from the participants were analyzed and explored as devices for transformation and guidance in difficult intercultural situations.