The relationship between attitudes towards refugee children, intercultural attitudes and world music preferences – implications for music education

Abstract

This paper has explored the influence of students’ age/year of study on their attitudes towards refugee children, on their intercultural attitudes and on their world music preferences. It has also examined the relationship between attitudes towards refugee children, intercultural attitudes and world music preferences. As part of the research, a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Attitude Questionnaire towards Refugee Children (AQReC), the Munroe Multicultural Attitude Scale Questionnaire (MASQUE) and sound questionnaire were administered to 259 students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split. The results do not confirm the influence of age/year of study on students’ attitudes towards refugee children and on their intercultural attitudes. The influence of age/year of study on the world music preferences has been confirmed, where students of higher years of study had showed greater preferences for such music. And, finally, the results confirm that students who have more positive attitudes towards refugee children also have more positive intercultural attitudes and greater world music preferences. The author emphasizes the importance of intercultural music education for the formation of students’ intercultural attitudes and their attitudes towards refugee children.