AFS has many diverse audiences that support the development of intercultural competence in our program participants: natural and host families, volunteers, staff, and teachers, among others. But what about facilitating intercultural competence in these audiences? This not only benefits our families, volunteers, and staff, etc. – it also helps these people be more effective and appropriate in their support of AFS program participants. In specific regard to teachers, it provides them with tools and perspectives that will allow them to increase intercultural understanding among all of their students!
Dr. Darla Deardorff, an expert in Intercultural Competence development, has recently written an article for the Institute of International Education’s quarterly newsletter discussing the benefits of intercultural competence for university faculty. Although she only mentions faculty, our AFS audiences have many of the same roles: directly facilitate intercultural competence in our participants, create learning opportunities for participants, work with people from around the world, and provide feedback on people’s intercultural adaptation.
In her article, Darla offers some powerful questions to stimulate reflection and action among facilitators of intercultural competence in others. The questions are related to: Attitudes, Knowledge, Skills, Internal Outcomes, and External Outcomes. For example, the questions encourage you to reflect on: “How might I describe some of my students’ worldviews? How might these differ from how I see the world?” and “Do I engage in active observation in my classroom, paying attention to subtle differences between my students, and in my interactions with them?”
See Darla’s article for more details: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/IIEB0112/index.php#/40
Darla is a friend of AFS and has been involved in several of our Intercultural Learning initiatives, including the Intercultural Link Learning Program. If you are an active AFS volunteer or staff, visit our ICL Experts Say page of the AFS website for more information on Darla.