Intercultural Competence in Teaching

Liping Sun and Polina Grigoreva study in Master’s Degree Programme of Learning, Education and Technology and Erkkie Haipinge studies in the Master’s Degree programme of Education and Globalisation.

The writers of this article study in the University of Oulu, in International Master’s Degree Programmes in the Faculty of Education. Liping Sun and Polina Grigoreva study in Master’s Degree Programme of Learning, Education and Technology and Erkkie Haipinge studies in the Master’s Degree programme of Education and Globalisation.

The Intercultural Competence in Teaching (ICIT) was a project implemented as part of the Course Educational Projects, which is a part of Minor Subject studies in Educational Technology arranged by Learning and Educational Technology Research Unit (LET).

Intercultural competence, the ability to positively meet cultural diversity, has become an important professional development area for university teachers in the context of increased cultural diversity of students. The project involved the design and implementation of an intercultural competence course whose learning outcomes were help participants to identify and define multicultural challenges that they face in their daily teaching, develop strategies to support students from different cultural backgrounds, and to develop culturally considerate pedagogical processes.

The course was implemented through a blended approach of three face-to-face meetings that were augmented with independent and collaborative learning activities facilitated online, using the Kyvyt learning management system and a wiki. The course adopted a constructivist instructional approach while adopting Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and Self-regulated learning  (SRL) theories to design the learning activities.

As one of the major outcomes, a professional network was created among teacher participants. It was used to engage course participants in learning activities and stimulating communication. Another outcome was the development of intercultural competence increased awareness of multicultural issues through knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviours.

The course inspired the participants to develop methods and strategies that they may use in classrooms, resulting in the collaborative creation of two learning products in the form of concept trees. These trees reflect the concept of interculturally-oriented pedagogical philosophy and a pedagogical tool kit.

Conclusion

Both the participants and facilitators of the course learned a lot from the process. For participants, the course increased their awareness of intercultural challenges and inspired them to take new aspects of intercultural teaching into account, while the involvement of foreign students offered first-hand experience of international students’ needs. The course facilitators learned about designing professional development courses and how to work collaboratively on an educational project.

Liping Sun, Polina Grigoreva and Erkkie Haipinge