REVIJA ZA ELEMENTARNO IZOBRAŽEVANJE JOURNAL OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 165–180, June 2022 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERCULTURAL SENSITIVITY, WORLD MUSIC PREFERENCES AND PREFERENCES FOR VISUAL ARTWORK FROM OTHER CULTURES Potrjeno/Accepted 5. 7. 2021 Objavljeno/Published 10. 6. 2022 SNJEŽANA DOBROTA 1 , MARIJO KRNIĆ 1 & MARIJA BRAJČIĆ 1 1 University of Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Split, Croatia KORESPONDENČNI AVTOR/CORRESPONDING AUTHOR dobrota@ffst.hr Keywords: intercultural sensitivity, preference for world music, preference for artwork from different cultures, teaching music, teaching visual arts and fine arts Ključne besede: medkulturna občutljivost, preference glasbe sveta, preference likovnih del različnih kultur, pouk glasbene vzgoje in umetnosti, pouk likovne vzgoje in umetnosti UDK/UDC 316.73:[37.015.31:7] Abstract/Izvleček The results do not confirm the influence of the type of secondary education completed on intercultural sensitivity, world music preferences or on preferences for visual artwork from different cultures. Neither was the influence of participants’ year of study on their level of intercultural sensitivity confirmed, but we did confirm that older students show greater preferences for world music and visual artwork from different cultures when compared to younger students. Furthermore, the study confirmed a connection between intercultural sensitivity, on the one hand, and preferences for world music and visual artwork from different cultures, on the other. Povezava medkulturne občutljivosti, preference do glasbe sveta in likovnih del iz različnih kultur Rezultati ne potrjujejo vpliva vrste zaključenega srednješolskega izobraževanja na medkulturno občutljivost, preferenco do glasbe sveta niti na preferenco do likovnih del različnih kultur. Prav tako ni potrjen vpliv študijskega letnika na raven medkulturne občutljivosti udeležencev, potrjeno pa je, da starejši študentje v primerjavi z mlajšimi kažejo večjo preferenco do glasbe sveta in likovnih del različnih kultur. Poleg tega je bila opažena povezava med medkulturno občutljivostjo na eni strani in preferenco do glasbe sveta in likovne umetnosti različnih kultur na drugi strani. DOI https://doi.org/10.18690/rei.15.2.165-180.2022 Besedilo / Text © 2022 Avtor(ji) / The Author(s) To delo je objavljeno pod licenco Creative Commons CC BY Priznanje avtorstva 4.0 Mednarodna. Uporabnikom je dovoljeno tako nekomercialno kot tudi komercialno reproduciranje, distribuiranje, dajanje v najem, javna priobčitev in predelava avtorskega dela, pod pogojem, da navedejo avtorja izvirnega dela. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 166 REVIJA ZA ELEMENTARNO IZOBRAŽEVANJE JOURNAL OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Introduction Thanks to increasingly pronounced trends of globalization and the growing cultural diversity of contemporary school, education has begun to move towards adopting a global perspective and promoting intercultural understanding and respect. Such t r e n d s h a v e a l s o a r i s e n i n t h e f i e l d o f a r t s e d u c a t i o n . Čerkez (2017) defines interculturalism in arts education in terms of pedagogical strategies that support positive attitudes toward specific aspects of cultural plurality in society. Chalmers points out that multicultural arts education is a “…unique subject where the ethno- cultural and religious differences of society are portrayed, thus these differences can be manipulated to increase students’ awareness on the various cultures, and eventually they are taught to respect these differences” (Chalmers, 1996, p. 56). The Second World Conference on Arts Education was organized in Seoul in 2010, with the aim of discussing key issues in arts education. The general conclusions of the Conference were published in a document entitled The Seoul Agenda: Goals fo r th e Development of Arts Education (UNESCO, 2010), which sets out the three main objectives of arts education: “1) the importance of ensur(ing) that arts education is accessible as a fundamental and sustainable component of a high quality renewal of education; 2) the importance of assur(ing) that arts education activities and programs are of a high quality in conception and delivery; 3) the need to apply arts education principles and practices to contribute to resolving the social and cultural challenges facing today’s world” ( UNESCO, 2010, pp. 3-8). Since the 1970s, a growing number of authors (Hargreaves and North, 2001 Swanwick, 1988; Walker, 1996) have been criticizing the western-classical paradigms of music education which had previously dominated. The need to expand the repertoire of music performed and listened to in school has been recognised, along with introducing students to a variety of musical traditions. Intercultural music education broadens students’ musical knowledge and musical abilities but also enables them to get to know and understand the cultures from which such music originates. Bond (2001) conducted a study on a sample of American students attending grade six of primary school, examining their preferences for world music and attitudes toward people from other cultures. The results show that the participants’ world music preferences are related to their attitudes towards other cultures; he therefore concludes that intercultural music education, among other things, facilitates the understanding of other cultures. Fung (1995) cites three reasons for introducing intercultural music education. S. Dobrota, M. Krnić & M. Brajčić: The Relationship Between Intercultural Sensitivity, World Music Preferences and Preferences for Visual Artwork from Other Cultures 167 The first is a social reason and relates to fostering the understanding of diverse cultures and peoples through intercultural music instruction. The second reason is related to music and focuses on familiarisation with the musical-expressive components of a range of world music. Finally, the third reason is global and emphasises the global perspective of intercultural music instruction. Campbell (2002) believes that one of the greatest advantages of intercultural music education is that students become aware of different sounds, that is, they become musically flexible, which she calls polymusicality. It is evident that intercultural music education improves the knowledge and understanding of different music, but also of other cultures. Many authors emphasise visual arts education as important for familiarisation with other cultures and openness toward them, but also for getting to know the visual language and visual artwork from a range of world cultures (Cabedo, 2017; Da Silva and Villas-Boas, 2006; Delacruz, 1996). Interculturalism in visual arts education is seen in observing artwork through which artists from other cultures send us messages. Furthermore, by taking students to museums and galleries, we influence the formation of their attitudes toward other people (Sablić, 2014). In visual arts education, it is vital to enable students to encounter visual artwork from other cultures, especially those cultures which they rarely get the chance to know. Each author has her/his own story that she/he wants to tell the observer using visual language, and the observer should experience it visually by observing the artworks (Kuščević, Brajčić, and Tomašević, 2020). This can be realised in a number of ways in visual arts classes, either by reproducing the artwork in class or by going to an exhibition, and both ways are effective if they serve to promote intercultural solidarity. All teachers have an equal responsibility to promote the values of interculturalism and to teach children that “not all people are similar, but every person is different” (Ninčević, 2009, p. 60). Intercultural communication competence refers to “an individual’s ability to achieve their communication goal while effectively and appropriately utilizing communication behaviours to negotiate between the different identities present within a culturally diverse environment” (Portalla and Chen, 2010, p. 21). This competence encompasses three dimensions: intercultural awareness (cognitive aspect), intercultural sensitivity (affective aspect), and intercultural effectiveness (behavioural aspect) (Chen and Starosta 1996). 168 REVIJA ZA ELEMENTARNO IZOBRAŽEVANJE JOURNAL OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Chen and Starosta define intercultural sensitivity as the subjects’ “active desire to motivate themselves to understand, appreciate, and accept differences among cultures” (Chen and Starosta, 1998, p. 231). According to Chen and Starosta (2000), intercultural communication sensitivity is a prerequisite for intercultural communication competence. Since only a limited number of studies have examined the relationship between intercultural sensitivity and artistic preferences, this study will examine the relationship between intercultural sensitivity, world music preferences and preferences for visual artwork from other cultures. The research aim, problem, and hypotheses The aim of the research was to examine the influence of respondents’ age / year of study and secondary education type on the level of their intercultural sensitivity, world music preferences and preferences for visual artwork from other cultures, as well as the relationship between these variables, and further to explore the influence of participants’ familiarity with the music samples and visual artwork on their musical and artistic preferences. In accordance with the formulated research aim, the following research problems were defined: 1. to examine whether the type of secondary education influences the intercultural sensitivity of students and their preferences for world music and visual artwork from other cultures. 2. to examine whether student age / year of study influences students’ intercultural sensitivity. 3. to examine whether student age / year of study influences their preferences for world music and visual artwork from other cultures. 4. to examine whether there is a connection between intercultural sensitivity, preferences for world music and visual artwork from other cultures. 5. to examine whether previous knowledge of music compositions and visual artwork influences preferences for world music and visual artwork from other cultures. Based on the defined research aim and research problems, the following hypotheses were formulated: S. Dobrota, M. Krnić & M. Brajčić: The Relationship Between Intercultural Sensitivity, World Music Preferences and Preferences for Visual Artwork from Other Cultures 169 H1: Students who have graduated from grammar schools have a higher level of intercultural sensitivity and greater appreciation of world music and visual artwork from other cultures than students from vocational schools. H2: Students in upper study levels show a higher level of intercultural sensitivity than do students at lower levels of study. H3: Students in upper study levels show greater preferences for world music and visual artworks from other cultures than do students at lower levels of study. H4: Students who show a higher level of intercultural sensitivity have greater preferences for world music and visual artwork from other cultures. H5: Students show greater preferences for world music and visual artwork from cultures with which they are familiar, compared to those with which they are unfamiliar. Method Participants The study was conducted in Split on a sample of 292 (F=289, M=3) students attending various study programs at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split. First-, second- and third-year students form one group (N=145), and fourth- and fifth-year students form another group (N=147) (Table 1). Of the total number of participants, 23.29% attend music school or had some other form of music education, while 26.37% of participants are engaged in music activities in their free time (singing in a choir or klapa, playing an instrument, etc.). As many as 25.34% of participants have never been to the theatre / a concert of art music, 69.86% of them sometimes go to such events, and 4.80% of participants often go to theatres / concerts of art music. More than half the total number of participants (54.80%) has never visited an art exhibition, 40.75% of them sometimes go to art exhibitions, and 4.45% of participants often attend such events. Table 1: Structure of the sample (N=259) GENDER N AGE N M 3 1st, 2nd, 3rd year students 145 F 289 4th, 5th year students 147 Total 292 170 REVIJA ZA ELEMENTARNO IZOBRAŽEVANJE JOURNAL OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Research instrument and procedure For the purpose of the study, a four-part questionnaire was constructed. In the first part, The General Data Questionnaire, sociodemographic data on participants were gathered (gender, year of study, study group, type of high school completed, additional music and art instruction, visits to theatres / concerts of art music and art exhibitions). The second part of the questionnaire was the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Chen and Starosta, 1996; 2000), containing twenty-four statements. Each was accompanied by a 1–15-point rating scale (1 = I strongly disagree; 5 = I strongly agree). Chen and Starosta (1996; 2000) identified five factors of intercultural sensitivity: trust (statements 3, 4, 5, 6, 10), enjoyment (statements 9, 12, 15), respect (statements 2, 7, 8, 16, 18, 20), engagement (statements 1, 11, 13, 21, 22, 23, 24) and attention (statements 14, 17, 19). In the exploratory factor analysis performed in this study, factors that differ significantly from the original were obtained; therefore, the overall score of the scale was used in further processing. The psychometric characteristics of the scale are shown in Table 2. The third part is The Musical Preferences Questionnaire. The task of the participants was to listen to a piece of music and assess on a 1–5-point Likert-type scale (1 = I don’t like it at all; 5 = I really like it) how much they liked a certain music fragment, and to indicate whether they were familiar with the composition or not. S. Dobrota, M. Krnić & M. Brajčić: The Relationship Between Intercultural Sensitivity, World Music Preferences and Preferences for Visual Artwork from Other Cultures 171 Table 2: Psychometric characteristics of the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale No. Item 1. I enjoy interacting with people from different cultures. 2. I think people from other cultures are narrow-minded. 3. I am pretty sure of myself in interacting with people from different cultures. 4. I find it very hard to talk in front of people from different cultures. 5. I always know what to say when interacting with people from different cultures. 6. I can be as sociable as I want to be when interacting with people from different cultures. 7. I don’t like to be with people from different cultures. 8. I respect the values of people from different cultures. 9. I get upset easily when interacting with people from different cultures. 10. I feel confident when interacting with people from different cultures. 11. I tend to wait before forming an impression of culturally distinct counterparts. 12. I often get discouraged when I am with people from different cultures. 13. I am open-minded to people from different cultures. 14. I am very observant when interacting with people from different cultures. 15. I often feel useless when interacting with people from different cultures. 16. I respect the ways people from different cultures behave. 17. I try to obtain as much information as I can when interacting with people from different cultures. 18. I would not accept the opinions of people from different cultures. 19. I am sensitive to my culturally distinct counterpart’s unclear meanings during our interaction. 20. I think my culture is better than other cultures. 21. I often give positive responses to my culturally different counterpart during our interaction. 22. I avoid those situations where I will have to deal with culturally distinct persons. 23. I often show my culturally distinct counterpart my understanding through verbal or nonverbal cues. 24. I have a feeling of enjoyment toward differences between my culturally distinct counterpart and me. Cronbach α 0.83 M (sd) 97.93 (8.69 range 65-116 Mean inter-item correlation 0.18 A compact disc was made containing ten fragments of world music, lasting for about one minute each. The CD was made exclusively for the purposes of this study, and the criteria for selecting the music fragments were the defined research problems. The psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire are shown in Table 3. 172 REVIJA ZA ELEMENTARNO IZOBRAŽEVANJE JOURNAL OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Table 3: The psychometric characteristics of The Musical Preferences Questionnaire No. Music sample 1. Cesária Evora: Angola 2. Samite (Uganda): Ekibobo 3. Guajira guantanamera (Cuba) 4. Hijos del Viento (Music of the Andes) 5. Kalyi Jag: La Romnjasa 6. Les Frères Guissé (Senegal) 7. Julian Avalos (Peru): Mujer Mágica 8. Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca (Cong.): Biloló 9. Goran Bregović: Time of the Gypsies (Ederlezi) 10. Carlos Puebla (Cuba): Y en Eso Llegó Fidel Cronbach α 0.79 M (sd) 39.17 (5.57) range 21-50 Mean inter-item correlation 0.29 Table 4 shows the average degree of musical preferences. Participants rated Guajira guantanamera (Cuba) the highest and Samite (Uganda): Ekibobo the lowest. Table 4: Average degree of preference for music samples Music samples M min max SD Cesária Evora: Angola 4.18 1.00 5.00 0.80 Summit (Uganda): Ekibobo 3.08 1.00 5.00 1.05 Guajira guantanamera (Cuba) 4.35 2.00 5.00 0.73 Hijos del Viento (Music of the Andes) 4.07 1.00 5.00 0.98 Kalyi Jag: La Romnjasa 4.27 1.00 5.00 0.88 Les Frères Guissé (Senegal) 3.13 1.00 5.00 1.00 Julian Avalos (Peru): Mujer Mágica 4.15 1.00 5.00 0.86 Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca (Cong): Biloló 3.93 1.00 5.00 0.96 Goran Bregovic: Time of the Gypsies (Ederlezi) 3.76 1.00 5.00 1.26 Carlos Puebla (Cuba): Y en Eso Llegó Fidel 4.25 2.00 5.00 0.83 The fourth part is The Visual Art Preferences Questionnaire. The task of the participants was to observe artworks and assess on a 1–5-point Likert-type scale (1 = I don’t like it at all; 5 = I really like it) how much they liked a certain artwork, and to indicate whether they were familiar with the artwork or not. The research used a PowerPoint presentation with ten visual artworks from various cultures. The presentation was created exclusively for the purposes of this study, and the criteria for the selection of artwork were the research problems. The psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire are shown in Table 5. S. Dobrota, M. Krnić & M. Brajčić: The Relationship Between Intercultural Sensitivity, World Music Preferences and Preferences for Visual Artwork from Other Cultures 173 Table 5: Psychometric characteristics of The Visual Art Preferences Questionnaire No. Visual artwork 1. Liu Bang: A portrait painting of Emperor Gao of Han (China) 2. Kitagawa Utamaro, Comb, multicolor woodblock print (Japan) 3. Frida Kahlo: Self-Portrait with Monkey, (Mexico) 4. Irma Stern: Portrait of a West African girl (South Africa) 5. Twins Seven Seven: The Blessed Family (Nigeria) 6. Zaya: Meditation Road (Mongolia) 7. Reza Abbasi: Youth reading (Iran) 8. Sun Mu: Run (North Korea) 9. Vicente Manansala: Madonna of the Slums (Philippines) 10. Barrington Watson: Conversation (Jamaica) Cronbach α 0.82 M (sd) 36.02 (6.32) range 17-50 Mean inter-item correlation 0.32 Table 6 shows the average degree of preference for visual artworks. Participants rated the painting Barrington Watson, Conversation (Jamaica) with the highest marks, and Liu Bang, A portrait painting of Emperor Gao of Han (China) with the lowest. Table 6: Average degree of preference for visual artworks Visual artwork M min max SD Liu Bang: A portrait painting of Emperor Gao of Han (China) 3.00 1.00 5.00 1.04 Kitagawa Utamaro, Comb, multicolor woodblock print (Japan) 3.13 1.00 5.00 1.04 Frida Kahlo: Self-Portrait with Monkey (Mexico) 3.76 1.00 5.00 1.18 Irma Stern: Portrait of a West African girl (South Africa) 3.54 1.00 5.00 1.07 Twins Seven Seven: The Blessed Family (Nigeria) 3.38 1.00 5.00 1.08 Zaya: Meditation Road (Mongolia) 3.91 1.00 5.00 0.99 Reza Abbasi: Youth reading (Iran) 3.29 1.00 5.00 0.96 Sun Mu: Run (North Korea) 3.48 1.00 5.00 1.21 Vicente Manansala: Madonna of the Slums (Philippines) 4.16 1.00 5.00 0.91 Barrington Watson: Conversation (Jamaica) 4.37 2.00 5.00 0.76 The participants were given an explanation of the purpose behind the study, were guaranteed anonymity and asked to answer questions honestly. After completing the first and second parts of the questionnaire, the participants were instructed to assess how much they liked the music and visual art samples, without being told which music and visual art samples were included. 174 REVIJA ZA ELEMENTARNO IZOBRAŽEVANJE JOURNAL OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Results and discussion H1: Students who have graduated from grammar schools have a higher level of intercultural sensitivity and greater appreciation of world music and artworks from different cultures than students from vocational schools. To examine the impact of the type of secondary education on the level of intercultural sensitivity of students and their appreciation of world music and artwork from other cultures, three Mann-Whitney U-tests were calculated (Table 7). The results indicate the absence of differences in the level of intercultural sensitivity and preferences for world music with respect to the type of secondary education. However, there are differences in the level of preference for visual artwork from other cultures connected to the type of high school, with participants who have finished vocational school showing greater appreciation of such artwork. Therefore, the hypothesis was rejected. The fact that vocational school students show greater appreciation of visual artworks from different cultures than grammar school students do can be explained by the assumption that some participants from vocational schools attended the school of fine arts, which influenced the formation of their preferences. Table 7: Differences in intercultural sensitivity, world music preference and preference for visual artwork from other cultures by type of secondary school education High school C U z p IS WMP PADC IS WMP PADC IS WMP PADC IS WMP PADC vocational school 4.07 3.99 3.67 9605.50 9752.50 8485.50 0.81 0.60 2.40 0.42 0.55 0.02 grammar school 4.08 3.99 3.60 *WMP=world music preference; PADC=preference for artwork from other cultures H2: Students in upper study levels show a higher level of intercultural sensitivity than do students at lower levels of study. To examine the influence of age / year of study on the level of intercultural sensitivity among students, the Mann-Whitney U-test was calculated (Table 8). The results show that there is no difference between students in upper study levels and those at lower study levels in terms of their intercultural sensitivity. This made us reject the hypothesis. S. Dobrota, M. Krnić & M. Brajčić: The Relationship Between Intercultural Sensitivity, World Music Preferences and Preferences for Visual Artwork from Other Cultures 175 These results are not in accordance with the results of Petrović and Zlatković (2009), who explored the level of intercultural sensitivity among students in different years of the Faculty of Teacher Education in Serbia and concluded that senior students show a higher level of intercultural sensitivity than younger students. Table 8: Differences in intercultural sensitivity by age / year of study Year of study C U z p 1 st , 2 nd, and 3 rd year of study 4.08 9911.50 1.03 0.30 4 th and 5 th year of study 4.08 H3: Students in upper study levels show greater preferences for world music and visual artworks from other cultures than do students at lower levels of study. To examine the influence of age / year of study on world music preference and preference for visual artwork from other cultures, two Mann-Whitney U-tests were calculated (Table 8). The results show that students at the higher study level show greater preference for world music and visual artwork from other cultures than do students from lower study levels. This confirmed the hypothesis. These results can be explained by the influence of different forms of education on the formation of musical and artistic preferences among students, but also by their maturation. Many studies highlight the significant role of education in the formation of musical and artistic preferences (Howard, 2018; Kardum, Kuščević, and Brajčić, 2020; Kim and Yoon, 2016). Table 9: Differences in world music preferences and preferences for visual artwork from other cultures with regard to age / year of study Year of study C U z p WMP* PADC* WMP PADC WMP PADC WMP PADC 1 st , 2 nd, and 3 rd year of study 3.79 3.48 7470.50 8616.00 4.42 2.83 0.00 0.00 4 th and 5 th year of study 4.19 3.75 *WMP=world music preferences; PADC=preferences for visual artwork from other cultures 176 REVIJA ZA ELEMENTARNO IZOBRAŽEVANJE JOURNAL OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION H4: Students who show a higher level of intercultural sensitivity have greater preferences for world music and visual artwork from other cultures. To examine the relationship between the level of intercultural sensitivity, preferences for world music and visual artwork from other cultures, correlations between these variables were calculated (Table 10). The results confirm that participants who have a higher level of intercultural sensitivity also show greater appreciation of world music and of visual artwork from other cultures. Furthermore, participants showing greater world music appreciation also show greater preference for visual artwork from other cultures. This confirms the above hypothesis. Many studies confirm the connection between intercultural attitudes and world music preferences (Choi, 2010; Dobrota, 2016; Fung, 1994). The fact that participants who show greater appreciation for world music also show greater appreciation for visual artwork from other cultures can potentially be explained by their personality traits. The results of a number of studies (Chamorro-Premuzic, Burke, and Swami, 2010; Cleridou and Furnham, 2014) confirm that among personality traits from the five-factor model, openness to experience is one of the most significant predictors of artistic preferences in general. Table 10: The relationship between intercultural sensitivity, world music preferences and preferences for visual artwork from other cultures Variables M SD Intercultural sensitivity World music preferences Preferences for visual artwork from other cultures Intercultural sensitivity 4.08 0.36 1.00 0.20* 0.28* World music preferences 3.92 0.56 0.20* 1.00 0.63* Preferences for visual artwork from other cultures 3.60 0.63 0.28* 0.63* 1.00 H5: Students show greater preferences for world music and visual artwork from cultures with which they are familiar, compared to those with which they are unfamiliar. To determine if previous knowledge of music and artwork exerts an impact on the musical and artistic preferences of students, we calculated the correlation between familiarity and music preferences (Table 11), as well as familiarity and visual art preferences (Table 12). The existence of such correlations was observed for eight music samples and eight visual artworks, thus confirming the latter hypothesis. S. Dobrota, M. Krnić & M. Brajčić: The Relationship Between Intercultural Sensitivity, World Music Preferences and Preferences for Visual Artwork from Other Cultures 177 The connection between familiarity with the music samples and visual artworks and their preferences is indicated by several studies (Park, Shimojo, and Shimojo, 2010; Song, Kwak, and Kim, 2018). Repeated listening to a composition or observing an artwork leads to a fuller perception and experience, which increases the appreciation of those works. Table 11: Correlation between familiarity and world music preferences Music samples Unfamiliar (f) Familiar (f) Correlation between preferences and familiarity Cesária Evora: Angola 235 57 0.14* Summit (Uganda): Ekibobo 281 11 0.05 Guajira guantanamera (Cuba) 55 237 0.29* Hijos del Viento (Music of the Andes) 232 60 0.23* Kalyi Jag: La Romnjasa 220 72 0.09 Les Frères Guissé (Senegal) 267 25 0.15* Julian Avalos (Peru): Mujer Mágica 184 108 0.24* Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca (Cong): Biloló 172 120 0.30* Goran Bregović: Time of the Gypsies (Ederlezi) 55 237 0.56* Carlos Puebla (Cuba): Y en Eso Llegó Fidel 168 124 0.31* Table 12. Correlation between familiarity and preferences for visual artwork from other cultures Artworks Unfamiliar (f) Familiar (f) Correlation between preference and familiarity Liu Bang: A portrait painting of Emperor Gao of Han (China) 195 97 0.26* Kitagawa Utamaro, Comb, multicolour woodblock print (Japan) 225 67 0.33* Frida Kahlo: Self-Portrait with Monkey (Mexico) 110 182 0.48* Irma Stern: Portrait of a West African girl (South Africa) 276 16 0.13* Twins Seven Seven: The Blessed Family (Nigeria) 269 23 0.12* Zaya: Meditation Road (Mongolia) 283 9 0.12* Reza Abbasi: Youth reading (Iran) 264 28 0.20* Sun Mu: Run (North Korea) 261 31 0.05 Vicente Manansala: Madonna of the Slums (Philippines) 269 23 0.06 Barrington Watson: Conversation (Jamaica) 260 32 0.13* 178 REVIJA ZA ELEMENTARNO IZOBRAŽEVANJE JOURNAL OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION Conclusion The results of this study have confirmed the influence of age and year of study on preferences for world music and visual artwork from other cultures and have also confirmed the connection between intercultural sensitivity, on the one hand, and the appreciation of world music and visual artwork from other cultures, on the other. Such results have significant implications in terms of music pedagogy and art pedagogy. Schmidt and Abramo (2020, p. 25) point out that “recent changes in politics and governance in the USA and parts of Europe have shifted towards populist sentiments and have given rise to racist and xenophobic actions by certain parts of these populations”. In such a society, developing students’ intercultural competence and sensitivity is not just a possibility or a recommendation, but a conditio sine qua non of contemporary education. Furthermore, Westerlund, Karlsen and Partti (2020, pg. 2) point out that in today’s society, including the education system, there is an increasing need to “resist polarization and create arenas for everyone to learn to live with difference” (Westerlund, Karlsen, and Partti, 2020, p. 3). Consequently, a purposeful and quality intercultural education requires “a complete reconceptualization of the practices of schools and universities and their obligation to participate in global discourses and discussions” (Westerlund, Karlsen and Partti, 2020, p. 3). Through art education, as an integral part of regular primary school and other forms and levels of education, music and fine arts offer a suitable medium for developing intercultural sensitivity as an important dimension of intercultural competence. If we connect the results of this research with educational practice, we can conclude that the development of intercultural sensitivity, as a prerequisite for intercultural competence and sensitivity among pupils and students, is both a necessity and an obligation of modern education, while the study and understanding of music and fine arts, as essential components of any culture, present indispensable means towards an effective and well-conceived intercultural education. 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Snježana Dobrota, PhD Full professor, University of Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Poljička cesta 35, 21000 Split, Croatia, e-mail: dobrota@ffst.hr Redna profesorica, Univerza v Splitu, Filozofska fakulteta, Poljička cesta 35, 21000 Split, Hrvaška, e- pošta: dobrota@ffst.hr Marijo Krnić, PhD Lecturer, University of Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Poljička cesta 35, 21000 Split, Croatia, e-mail: mkrnic@ffst.hr Predavatelj, Univerza v Splitu, Filozofska fakulteta, Poljička cesta 35, 21000 Split, Hrvaška, e-pošta: mkrnic@ffst.hr Marija Brajčić, PhD Assocciate professor, University of Split, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Poljička cesta 35, 21000 Split, Croatia, e-mail: mbrajcic@ffst.hr Izredna profesorica, Univerza v Splitu, Filozofska fakulteta, Poljička cesta 35, 21000 Split, Hrvaška, e- pošta: mbrajcic@ffst.hr