Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
10-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Dr. Hoiwah Fong
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Dr. Berlin Fang
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Dr. Teresa Starrett
Abstract
Cultural humility is recognized as a framework for fostering respectful relationships in culturally diverse workplaces. However, limited research has examined cultural humility within international education in regard to workplace dynamics and power imbalances that may exist between foreign and local hire educators. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine differences in perceived cultural humility levels between foreign and local hire employees in PreK-12th grade private international schools in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The study also examined whether years of international educational experience and the number of international educational assignments influenced perceived cultural humility levels. Data were collected through an anonymous electronic survey using the Cultural Humility Scale (CHS). Participants were asked to evaluate their perceptions of cultural humility among their colleagues from the opposite employment contract type. The final sample consisted of 102 employees from private international schools in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. An independent t-test was conducted to examine differences in perceived cultural humility between foreign-hired and local-hired employees. Two-way analysis of variance were conducted to examine the relationships between contract type and years of international experience and between contract type and number of international assignments. The findings revealed a statistically significant difference in perceived cultural humility between foreign-hired and local-hired employees. Foreign-hired employees reported higher perceived cultural humility scores for their local-hired peers than local hired employees reported of their foreign-hired peers. However, years of international educational experience and number of international educational assignments did not independently demonstrate a statistical significance difference on perceived cultural humility. In addition, there were no statistically significant interaction effects between contract type and years of international experience or between contract type and number of international assignments. The findings suggested that perceived cultural humility differences were associated with contract types rather than international experiences or mobility. The results indicated that exposure to culturally diverse environments alone may not foster cultural humility. International school leaders may benefit in developing culturally humble practices through ongoing self-reflection, professional learning, collaboration, and efforts to recognize and address organizational power imbalances in their workplace. This study contributed to the limited body of research on cultural humility in Prek-12th private international education and provided implications for leadership practices, workplace equity, and professional development within diverse school communities.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Ortiz, Natalie A., "Cultural Humility in the Workplace: A Causal-Comparative Study of Foreign and Local Hire Employees in International Education" (2026). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1058.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/1058
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