The mediating role of multicultural education attitude in the relationship between academics' intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between academics' intercultural awareness and their intercultural communicative competence, and to determine the mediating role of their attitudes toward multicultural education within this relationship. The research population consists of all academics working in the faculties, schools, and vocational schools affiliated with three public universities during the 2024–2025 academic year. The sample of the study consists of 550 academics. The sample was selected using the simple random sampling method. Data were collected through the Intercultural Awareness Scale, the Intercultural Communicative Competence Scale, and the Multicultural Education Attitude Scale. The collected data were analysed with SPSS 27 software and the mediation analysis was analysed with SPSS Macro PROCESS v4.2. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and comparisons between variables were conducted using Independent Samples t-Test and One-Way ANOVA. The data of the study were analysed by descriptive analysis (arithmetic mean, standard deviation, percentage etc.), parametric difference analyses (ANOVA, Independent Samples t-Test) and model 4 of Hayes' mediation model techniques. The findings indicate that there are moderate and positive relationships between intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence. Moreover, attitudes toward multicultural education were found to partially mediate the relationship between intercultural awareness and intercultural communicative competence. The results of the study show that in efforts to improve the intercultural abilities of academics, components such as intercultural awareness, intercultural communicative competence and multicultural educational attitudes should be addressed in a holistic manner.