The Horizon of Nicaraguan Higher Education is based on an educational model that is committed to learning focused on the person, family, and community, taking as a reference that university education must be inclusive, intercultural, innovative, creative, and flexible with the objective of strengthening students’ creative and purposeful thinking to learn to be people and not human capital (Consejo Nacional de Universidades [CNU], 2022, p. 23). For this reason, the study of attitudes toward the practice of interculturalism is fundamental because interculturality allows the establishment of horizontal dialogues through the recognition of the differences of others to create fairer societies (Rossmann-Hooker, 2019).

In the literature some studies try to identify attitudes toward intercultural education; attitudes toward cultural diversity; beliefs about interculturality and intercultural competence. For example, Llorent and Álamo (2016) say that the evaluation of attitudes, beliefs, emotions, intentions and behavior toward cultural diversity is valuable information for the planning and implementation of teaching processes by teachers, as well as, the social interactions to generate in the formation of learning in the student body, who will need intercultural competence throughout their academic and working life (Ricardo-Barreto & Medina-Rivilla, 2013; Peñalva-Velez & López- Goñi, 2014; Figuera et al., 2021).

In accordance with the above, the purpose of this research is to design an instrument to measure attitudes towards the practice of interculturality in the context of higher education. For this, an initial questionnaire consisting of 37 items that try to characterize the affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions of the practice of interculturality is applied. The study was carried out based on expert judgment, discrimination analysis, and reliability analysis. This will help to deepen the identification and study of attitudes toward the practice of interculturality.

In intercultural higher education, the concept of attitude has been used, such as respect for cultural diversity and expansion of knowledge about the customs and beliefs of others (Aguado-Díaz et al., 2008). This means the development of intercultural attitudes, ranging from tolerance and empathy to the elimination of prejudices and stereotypes, and the improvement of personal and cultural self-concept (Yus-Ramos, 1993; Sáez, 2006). These conceptions highlight the cognitive and belief elements, their affective and evaluative load, as well as the intention and behavior related to these attitudes (Flores-López & Auzmendi, 2015).

Among the existing instruments to measure attitudes toward the practice of interculturality, Rojas-Tejada et al. (2003) propose an Inter-ethnic Endogroup Bias Test to measure acculturation, group identification, and perceived cultural enrichment, allowing its members to define their belonging to the group and their differences with the rest, through the assessment of different elements inherent to ethnic groups. While Merino-Mata and Ruíz-Román (2005) evaluate attitudes towards intercultural education through dimensions related to cultural knowledge, attention to diversity, and educational values, recognizing the reality of the multiculturalism of the student body and the need to be able to face the social conflicts in the classroom.

Rodríguez-Izquierdo (2006) develops the scale of attitudes to study intercultural education and cultural diversity with student teachers, delving into values for the recognition of a multicultural and multilingual society based on the coexistence and cultural sensitivity of the students. Likewise, Solórzano-Salas (2013) affirms that it is necessary to measure sensitivity to cultural diversity based on existing human differences in personal, cultural, and cognitive aspects. However, Llorent and Álamo (2016) evaluate attitudes, beliefs, emotions, intentions, and behaviors based on their positive presence and their negative absence in university students, highlighting that attitudes toward cultural diversity are valuable information for planning and implementation of teaching and learning processes by teachers.

For their part, Carrera-Fernández et al. (2018) analyze the joint influence of sexism, homophobia, and moral disengagement on attitudes towards cultural diversity in students between the ages of 14 and 19, highlighting the implications for an intercultural and queer educational practice (p. 17) through a critical and liberating pedagogy aimed at the socio-emotional development of the student body and training in values of justice and social commitment. On the other hand, Rodríguez-Izquierdo (2016) analyzes the beliefs that university students have about the notion of interculturality and about how educational practices in multicultural contexts should be approached, concluding that students identify interculturality with immigration, which in turn sometimes associated with problems or deficits, especially linguistic and communication.

The contribution of Ricardo-Barreto and Medina-Rivilla (2013) to analyze the attitudes and beliefs of the intercultural competence of teachers who teach through virtuality, contributes to the recognition of education with an intercultural approach through the dimensions of awareness and cultural values; cultural perspective; culturally appropriate educational strategies that teachers assume in their educational practice. In turn, the scale of citizen and intercultural competencies of Peñalva-Velez and López-Goñi (2014) contributes to the “formation of critical, communicative and social competence, but it does not ensure that citizen competence for conflict resolution is developed, that seems to demand specific training” (p. 149). Finally, Figuera et al. (2021) evaluate intercultural competencies based on the perceptions of university students, concluding that the measurement instrument is a useful tool to promote social cohesion and develop inclusive education in students.

Based on the review of the literature, the comprehensive analysis of Table 1 suggests the redistribution of the scales in three main aspects: attitudes towards intercultural education; attitudes towards cultural diversity; beliefs about interculturality and intercultural competence.

The theoretical model proposed for the present study is based on this categorization and has a three-dimensional and non-hierarchical approach. The three related first-order latent factors have the following definitions: affective, manifested through emotions and feelings of acceptance or rejection that the subject activates motivationally in the presence of the object, person, or situation that generates said attitude (Flores-López & Auzmendi, 2018); cognitive, it is manifested or expressed through perceptions, ideas, opinions, conceptions and beliefs from which the subject is placed in favor or against the expected behavior (Auzmendi, 1992); and behavioral or attitudinal constitutes the observable conduct, properly speaking, which according to Postic and De Ketele (1992), is conceived as a set of behaviors. In short, attitudes are not only beliefs about a certain object accompanied by affection regarding it, but dispositions to react to a stimulus (Flores-Auzmendi, 2018, p. 234).

In this research, an instrument has been designed to measure attitudes toward the practice of interculturality, based on the fact that an attitude is the point of view or disposition of an individual toward a particular object (Gall et al., 1996, p. 273), also, is a psychological tendency that is evaluated with a certain degree of favorable or unfavorable (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993, p. 1). Then, the particular object is the practice of interculturality, defined as the relationships and interactions that occur and are established between people of different cultures (Elboj-Saso et al., 2017), based on the construction of trust with the intention of establishing horizontal dialogues, recognizing the differences of others with the aim of creating fairer societies (Rosmann-Hooker, 2019). Based on the above, a review of the literature was carried out, a content validation (expert judgment); and a reliability analysis (discrimination index; exploratory factor analysis; and an internal consistency analysis).

Thus, it is concluded that the findings support the definition of an instrument with three-dimensional factors (affective, cognitive, and behavioral) consolidated in 25 items, coinciding with the definition of the dimensions by Llorent and Álamo (2016), which proposes factors associated with attitudes, emotions, behaviors, beliefs, and intentions, likewise, with the intercultural competence scale of Figuera et al. (2021) which raises dimensions linked to attitudes, identification and interest in a framework of intercultural competence, likewise, the proposed systems of beliefs and values on interculturality and its educational practice by Rodríguez-Izquierdo (2016); and the research developed by Ricardo-Barreto and Medina-Rivilla (2013) on attitudes and beliefs of intercultural competence that assess cultural awareness and values, cultural perspective, and culturally appropriate educational strategies.

Regarding the analysis of the discrimination index, it is concluded that most items discriminate very well because 80% obtained scores between 0.40 and 0.79. In addition, the results of the exploratory factor analysis explain that the correlations between the dimensions are statistically significant, ranging between 0.505 and 0.731, with a greater relationship between the cognitive and behavioral dimensions. Likewise, the results of the exploratory factor analysis test are excellent (KMO=0.818; Chi-square=1242.718; gl=300; Sig.<0.000; D=6.338E-9) and the factorial structure found coincides with the one proposed theoretically, made up of three factorial dimensions (affective, cognitive, and behavioral). In the case of high internal consistency (α=0.93; ω=0.93; λ2=95), these results coincide with the research by Llorent and Álamo (2016), who found high scores (α=0.93) in the construction of a scale of attitude towards cultural diversity.

It is concluded that having an attitude scale toward the practice of interculturality contributes to inquiring about the affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes which are manifested in the intercultural classroom, therefore, in students’ inter-learning. It is relevant to identify the affective, cognitive, and behavioral factors because they comprise a global gear against the design, planning and implementation of intercultural higher education, by teachers, as well as to develop the training processes to be generated in the student body (Flores-López & Auzmendi, 2018) who will continue to coexist and share interlearning and cultural actions throughout their lives. In short, it is recommended to move in advanced psychometric research with the measurement instrument to continue strengthening its factorial dimensions.