3.1. Intercultural Engagement. Readings

What are the benefits of intercultural engagement in education?

In 2006, UNESCO published “Guidelines on Intercultural Education”. These guidelines should be seen as a valuable practical resource for lecturers and learners, curriculum developers, policy makers and community members alike, and all those who wish to promote Intercultural Education in interests of peace and understanding. The publication is essentially based on three principles:

Principle I: Intercultural Education respects the cultural identity of the learner through the provision of culturally appropriate and responsive quality education for all.

Principle II: Intercultural Education provides every learner with the cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to achieve active and full participation in society.

Principle III: Intercultural Education provides all learners with cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills that enable them to contribute to respect, understanding and solidarity among individuals, ethnic, social, cultural and religious groups and nations.

In higher education, research has shown that intercultural encounters do not automatically increase intercultural competence. Cultural diversity among students does not necessarily lead to intercultural contact and intercultural learning experiences of students. Lecturers are entrusted with fostering students to reflect about individual and collective social experiences with people from other cultures. In other words, lecturers today need to be able to introduce the principles of intercultural pedagogy into the teaching and learning process, which in turn means that they have developed intercultural and global competence themselves.

Furthermore, higher education institutions are becoming increasingly aware that all students, not just those who are studying in their own country in a multicultural environment, but those who will participate in mobility programs or who are studying abroad, should be expected to acquire intercultural competence. Developing possibilities for intercultural learning that are beneficial to all students should be the first item to be thought about. This is important because all graduates will need to be prepared to function in a worldwide society as professionals and global citizens, whether they choose to pursue work domestically or overseas. The main idea is to globalize the conventional curriculum and learning goals. The internationalization of the curriculum provides a framework to help all students - both those who are mobile and those who are not - transform their exposure to an international education into intercultural competence.

Indeed, researchers confirm that stereotypes and prejudice may get reinforced if the experience of critical incidents in intercultural contexts are not effectively evaluated, on cognitive, affective and behavioural levels. This reflection may lead to intercultural competence, “a long-term change of a person’s knowledge, attitudes, and skills to enable positive and effective interaction with members of other cultures” (Otten, 2003, p.15).

Intercultural training seeks to expand people’s knowledge about their own and other cultures, influence their attitudes concerning foreign cultures, and develop their skills to interact effectively with people of other cultural backgrounds, as well as strategies that support the development of a critical mindset for assigning meaning to these experiences.