Intercultural competence in a changing world
Alison Kirkness
Centre for Educational & Professional Development
Auckland University of Technology
What is it about?
Intercultural competence is acknowledged as a key to peace and progress on a global scale. For an individual, intercultural competence can be defined as the knowledge, attitudes and skills used to interact effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds (AUT ALIC Policy). Many New Zealand professional bodies today are requiring intercultural competence from their members. Such bodies may be ahead of universities in their acknowledgement that in future all students will need advanced intercultural skills for employment in their field so that they can act professionally and ethically as culturally aware individuals.
Why is it important?
If universities are to take a leading role as " ideal social forums for promoting cultural understanding É and developing intercultural skills" (Volet & Ang, 1998, p.6) then they need to ensure that they promote intercultural competencies, not just in isolated courses but university wide. In New Zealand, International Education has signalled a need for a coherent strategy for developing intercultural competence and aligning it with internationalisation frameworks. Australian and British universities have developed frameworks for teaching and assessing intercultural competence. A UNESCO World Report (2009) recently advised that in promoting intercultural competencies we need to look at Òthose embedded in the everyday practices of communities.Ó The presentation aims to raise questions about the New Zealand context and how a coherent framework for promoting intercultural competence could be developed.
How the session will be run
1. After discussing intercultural competence as a concept for both individuals and institutions, I will explore its current status in some employment and education sectors in New Zealand.
2. I will introduce a taxonomy for developing intercultural competence (Ridings, Simpson & Leask et al., 2008), and invite participants to use it to identify one example of good practice and the knowledge, values/ attitudes and skills it promotes. Examples will be encouraged from individual courses and the wider university.
3. Discussion will focus on how these examples fit with a strategy for internationalisation and what mechanisms are needed to contribute to a coherent framework for promoting intercultural competence.
References
International Education Agenda: A Strategy for 2007-2012. Retrieved 14 August, 2009 from
Ridings, S., Simpson, L., Leask, B., Freeman, M., Ramburuth, P., Treleaven, L., Sykes, C., & Fletcher, M. (2008, December). Developing Intercultural Competence: ALTC project update. HERDSA News, 30, 3, 17-19.
UNESCO World Report (2009). Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue. Retrieved October 21 from portal.unesco.org/culture/.../ev.php-URL_ID=39896&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html -
Volet , S., & Ang, G. (1998). Culturally mixed groups on international campuses: an opportunity for intercultural learning. Higher Education Research & Development, 17 (1), 5-22.