Category Archives: Intercultural Competence

“Outrospection” and Empathetic Thinking

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Philosopher Roman Krznaric has coined the term “outrospection” to provide us with a new way to approach our relationships with others. Outrospection is a way to get to know oneself by developing relationships and empathetic thinking with others. Krznaric does not see empathy as a soft social concept used to connect with those who are dis-empowered, but rather as a discovery of oneself by “stepping outside ourselves and exploring the lives of other people and cultures”. In this way empathetic thinking is a pathway to expand your social influence, overcome stereotypes and barriers about those who are different and engage individuals in collective empathetic movements that can make change. Learn more about “outrospection” and empathetic thinking on Krznaric’s blog or by watching this RSA video in which his words are accompanied by drawings about this theory.

As you watch the video, you will hear about several ideas that are closely related to intercultural learning and the work that we do at AFS, such as overcoming stereotypes, affective and cognitive empathy, perspective-taking, worldview, beliefs, assumptions, attentive listening, two-way dialogues, etc.

“Highly empathetic people get beyond those labels by nurturing their curiosity about others. How can we might nurture our curiosity? How can we find inspiration?”

Concept of “Cultural Intelligence”

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Today we recommend an article on the concept of “Cultural Intelligence” by Clodagh O’ Reilly. The article is published on the site TrainingZone.co.uk, a portal with resources and articles for trainers and educators.

“Cultural Intelligence” is a concept that is directly related to cultural values and dimensions and to cultural adaptation. Generally, cultural intelligence consists of understanding the values, attitudes and behaviors of a culture group and a knowledge of how to appropriately apply this to achievement a specific goal (Earley & Ang, 2003). One’s own cultural intelligence is therefore developed not only by learning about other cultures, but also by interacting closely with people of cultures other than our own. By paying special attention to the motivations and emotional maturity of others during our own process of developing cultural intelligence, we can better foster this ability in others. According to O’Reilly, cultural intelligence also requires an intrinsic demonstration of respect for the other culture.

Cultural intelligence is relevant for individuals, but also for teams. Research shows that in multicultural teams and organizations, especially those with diversity in leadership, can offer more creative and innovative outcomes. However, diversity does not just happen by having diversity within a team. Unmoderated cultural diversity may increase team conflicts and miscommunication; therefore, cultural intelligence is necessary in teams in order to minimize the chances of experiencing conflict and increasing the successful communication that leads to innovation, Earley and Ang (2003) say.

To read more about cultural intelligence, check out Earley and Song’s book Cultural Intelligence: Individual Interactions Across Cultures or several books by David Livermore. Also, the Center for Leadership and Cultural Intelligence in Singapore and the Cultural Intelligence Center in the US are important points of reference in the study of this concept, not only with their research but also with professional and educational activities.

While defined differently by different groups of researchers and trainers, cultural intelligence is a concept that can expand the focus AFS places on increasing intercultural competence. As we learn more and incorporate frameworks and concepts into our work, we should keep an eye on research and practices in cultural intelligence that connect with our Intercultural Learning in focus (for instance: understanding values, attitudes and behaviors) and in our mission to promote heightened understanding between cultures.

New communication technologies – benefit or barrier to intercultural experiences?

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When I embarked on my AFS exchange experience in 2001, I didn’t have a cell-phone, my e-mail account was only 2 years old and neither Skype nor Facebook existed at that time. During my year long stay in Norway, I called my family back home once a month through a land line and kept the communications short to avoid unnecessarily high phone bills.

Nowadays, everything has changed and the above description of communication with my family might resemble a chapter from a history book for the generation that grew up during the recent boom of modern technology that allows us to communicate freely across the globe. The role of modern media and communication tools in the study abroad experience is a fascinating subject and it has been recently addressed in the article “How Facebook Can Ruin Study Abroad”.

Robert Huesca, professor of communication at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas USA, uses the comparison of his two long-term experiences abroad (in 1980 and 2012) to point out both the positives and negatives that new communication technologies bring to the study abroad experience.

Digital media and technology can be used for capturing stories of the people who live abroad and they provide space for sharing their experiences and learnings with family, friends and other audiences back home. They can also serve to build bridges between the sojourner and the local culture. The negative impact comes when the time spent connecting with “the familiar on-line” exceeds the time spent “living the real life” in the host country. Huesca also argues that excessive use of digital technology protects students from experiencing culture shock and the feelings of stress, loneliness and homesickness. Lack of these experiences can reduce the transformational impact of living abroad and ruin the opportunity for the personal development that motivates many of us to move to another country in the first place.

The above mentioned examples give just a little insight into how complex this issue is and how modern technology can play role both in inefficient and efficient coping strategies. This new reality is something we can’t really change or even just ignore. As the author of the article concludes, we can learn how to cope with the new situation and we should explore new approaches to the challenges that new technology represents. One of his concrete suggestions – adding technology management to curricula preparing students for their intercultural experience – is a very relevant and useful tip for all educational institutions and organizations providing study/live abroad experiences.

The Value of Intercultural Skills in the Workplace

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Intercultural Skills is becoming a buzzword in educational and work environments, but why do employers value such skills? And which specific skills are employers actually looking for? British Council, together with Ipsos and Booz Allen Hamilton (a market research and consulting company, respectively), recently conducted a study on the Value of Intercultural Skills in the Workplace which addressed these particular questions.

The study found that “employers are under strong pressure to find employees who are not only technically proficient, but also culturally astute and able to thrive in a global work environment.” 

The intercultural skills that where shown to be most important were:
  • The ability to understand different cultural contexts and viewpoints
  • Demonstrating respect for others
  • Knowledge of a foreign language
And these skills were so highly valued because employees with them:
  • Brought in new clients
  • Worked well within diverse teams
  • Supported a good brand and reputation for their organization
The study also suggested that policy makers and education providers could contribute to the development of these intercultural skills by prioritizing:
  • Teaching communication skills
  • Offering foreign language classes
  • Opportunities for students to gain international experience
These results from British Council’s study provide further justification for the importance of developing intercultural skills and sensitivity to differences – especially for the younger generations who have not yet entered the job market.
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AFS is proud to have a long history of providing opportunities for its audiences to develop intercultural skills – as an exchange student, host family, volunteer, or staff! Read about the AFS Educational Goals and the Intercultural Link Learning Program as examples of how AFS activity contributes to this global theme.
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Living in Interfaith

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From wikipedia.org

Today we wanted to share a blog entry by Rev. Eleanor Harrison Bregman from the Huffington Post in which she talks about living with cultural differences within the family, at home – and with something as important as religion. Although she is a Christian Protestant Minister, Bregman is raising her children in an interfaith relationship as Jewish children and they attend a Jewish school. In her entry, she describes how she tries to participate in her children’s prayers and practices, in order to be a part of this aspect of their culture.

Looking for opinion texts on interfaith relationships or bicultural/bireligious households, one can very soon find many different authors with different opinions. This is such a thought-provoking topic that it is important to learn what interfaith parenthood, interfaith relationships and living with two religions means for different people and in different geographic contexts. Here are some links to articles that encourage you to reflect on this topic:

Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section!

Intercultural Competence in European Youth Work

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If we search for the definition of Intercultural Competence, we find a whole variety of answers – the term is defined differently by experts on Intercultural Communication, consultants working with Global Teams or by Intercultural Education theorists. The definition also varies across countries and regions of the World. Given this reality, we might be asking: Is there a need to redefine what seems to be well defined already? Probably not if our societies were static organisms that are not impacted by migration, to name just one global trend observable in many parts of the World, including Europe.

Changes that have occurred in society in the last decades and, in particular, trends that will shape Europe in the next ten years were the driving forces of a long-term project started by SALTO Cultural Diversity. The goal of the project was to redefine and review the concept and practice of Intercultural Competence Development in youth work at European level, in order to be able to provide more adequate support to youth workers and youth leaders in the future.

The belief that the traditionally used tools and approaches based on the understanding of culture as a static concept are not always achieving the educational objectives of youth trainings led SALTO to develop a new definition of Intercultural Competence:

Intercultural Competence (ICC) developed and demonstrated within the framework of European youth work…are qualities needed for a young person to live in contemporary and pluralistic Europe. It enables her/him to take an active role in confronting social injustice and discrimination and promote and protect human rights. ICC requires an understanding of culture as a dynamic multifaceted process. In addition, it requires an increased sense of solidarity in which individual fear of the other and insecurity are dealt with through critical thinking, empathy and tolerance of ambiguity.

This working definition (as defined by the SALTO Intercultural Competence working group in 2009/2010) was at center of the Research, which aimed to investigate it’s validity as well as link it to current practice.

It is by no doubt valuable for organizations who work with ICC development, such as AFS Intercultural Programs, to be familiar with how other actors see and define it. It is remarkable that the above presented definition can be easily linked to AFS Educational Goals. It’s context (Non-formal Education and Youth work) makes the definition also extremely relevant for any other organization working with Youth.

To learn about the practical outcomes of the research as well as about the reference literature behind it, access the full Research Report in English.

Arts Education for Youth Empowerment

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Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) is an Arts Education organization based in New York and with projects in collaboration in India, South Africa and Ecuador, among others. ASTEP’s approach is to bring together the creativity of arts education with youth empowerment. ASTEP “connects performing and visual artists with underserved youth in the U.S. and around the world to awaken their imaginations, foster critical thinking, and help them break the cycle of poverty.”

ASTEP and SIETAR NY will be joining forces for an interactive presentation on the “role of the arts in overcoming cultural and societal barriers.” Through the integration of drama, music, dance and other creative activities, youth experience more self-confidence, self-control and self-identity. In ASTEP’s approach, arts can also be a means to work with groups and teach conflict resolution and collaboration in age-appropriate ways and within their own communities.

Non-formal education organizations like AFS encourage its volunteers, staff and others around the world to join forces with like-minded organizations like ASTEP who are local in the community and offer space for youth to develop interpersonal and intercultural awareness.

 

Youth Programs for ICL and IR

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This post is part of a series by guest writer Paul Edinger comparing the fields intercultural relations and international relations.

There are many educational programs for young people in the fields of intercultural learning and international relations. While their approaches may differ due to the unique subject matter of the two fields, these programs have an overall goal of increasing understanding and knowledge across societies.

One of the most well known youth driven international programs with a basis in international relations is Model United Nations. These programs allow young adults to represent a different member state of the United Nations in a setting that mimics the actual deliberations and functions of the real United Nations. Through these events, students can argue their own nation’s position or a completely different nation’s position. Together, the students debate international issues, draft resolutions and form diplomatic alliances.

While these programs take the form of fun, friendly competitions, they allow students to learn about the various cultural and political issues that are on the forefront of global affairs. They learn about why states have their particular positions on issues and use this knowledge to collaborate on common interests and bridge differences.

There are also many youth organizations that provide education about differences from an intercultural learning standpoint. For example Youth Peace Camp is one such organization that uses ICL to educate youth from conflict ridden regions. At the initiative of the Council of Europe in 2004, this organization has had a presence in areas of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. A more culture specific organization is the UK-German Youth Ambassadors Programme. This initiative engages youth interested in German and British culture to participate in seminars and other activities in order to advance the understanding of people from both countries.

In each organization, culture is studied on its own term on a very personal level. This is in contrast to an international relations (IR) centered youth program, such as the model UN, because IR focuses on formal policies among different governments. However, there are other youth centered international organizations that combine the government policy centered approach of IR and the culture learning strategies of ICL. YC Social Diplomacy is a non-profit that seeks to enhance the tolerance and understanding of young people of the Black Sea region through a combination of youth-driven government policy research and essay writing and cultural exchanges, seminars and other personal educational activities. This organization combines concepts of IR and ICL into one comprehensive program designed to advance awareness and understanding throughout the region.

AFS is a youth organization that is centered in the principles of ICL. Its programs offer culture learning in an educational context. While different, IR based programs and ICL based programs enrich each other. They offer different perspectives on many overlapping topics, all of which are firmly based on the principle that education is the key to understanding differences.

Paul Edinger is a contributing writer for the ICL Blog. He was an intern at AFS International in 2011 in the Development and Branding department, and continued in 2012 in the Intercultural Learning department. He holds a B.A. in International Studies.

Intercultural Leadership – 7 Links to Learn More!

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Leadership is a word that we hear a lot nowadays. The concept has been studied from multiple perspectives and one of them, intercultural leadership, is becoming increasingly relevant as organizations become more culturally diverse. Many theorists see leadership as a set of practices that anyone can perform in relationship with others, whatever our role may be: “[Leadership is] a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task” (Chemers, 1997, An Integrative Theory of Leadership).

For those of you interested in the topic of leadership and education, we have prepared a list of seven links with interesting research areas and examples of intercultural leadership in different cultural/regional contexts and roles:

  1. Educating global leaders: Exploring intercultural competence in leadership education: An introductory paper on the importance of intercultural competence in Leadership Education by Justin Irving, published in the Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies.
  2. Ten tips for the intercultural leader: Ten quick tips on intercultural leadership from a business perspective.
  3. Intercultural leadership: Lessons from leaders in Southeast Asia: Report on practices and testimonies of leaders in Southeast Asian organizations and contexts by Arnaud Despierre for Spencer Stuart Consulting. 
  4. A leader’s experiences of intercultural education in an elementary school: Changes and challenges: The experience of an Icelandic school principal introducing Intercultural Learning in an elementary school and the challenges faced.
  5. Intercultural competence for future leaders of educational technology and its evaluation: An editorial on the role of intercultural competence in Teacher Education and how it should be an integral part of education professions. 
  6. List of resources on Global Leadership from the Global Leadership Advancement Center in San José State University, California.
  7. Distance program at the International Institute for Global Leadership: self-directed and based on readings by level and written assignments.

International school partnerships do make a difference!

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Class exchanges, individual student mobility, international projects connecting schools across borders – these are all examples of activities that schools pursue in order to become more “global”, “international”, or in the European context more “European”. What is the educational impact of such activities? What do students learn during these projects and how does it affect their school and its environment?

A recent study conducted for the European Commission has shown that international school partnerships realized within the Comenius Programme have a significant impact on students and teachers, as well as on the schools as such.

Comenius, the younger brother of the well-known Erasmus program, is part of the EU’s Lifelong Learning Programme and it focuses on all levels of school education, from pre-school and primary to secondary schools. It supports bilateral or multilateral projects that bring teachers and students from different countries together. According to the study, participation in these international partnerships improves strongly key skills of students, cultural awareness and expression being the one that was reported to improve most significantly (see chart below).

Impact on students: improvement of key skills

 

The study also points out that the impact of Comenius school partnerships on participating students is strongest at secondary level and that student mobility, when it is made available, significantly increases project impact.

The results of this study confirm some of the major beliefs that are the backbone of the AFS educational approach: that schools, and secondary schools especially, are the places where intercultural dialogue can be fostered and that real personal encounters are key for development of intercultural competences. The AFS network is investing in building sustainable partnerships with schools more intensely than ever in order to be able to create more opportunities to connect students, teachers and school communities not only in Europe, but all over the world.

To learn more about the results of the study, access the executive summary (in English) or the full study report (in French).