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.

 

Intercultural Management Institute | IMI Annual Conference: March 14-15, Washington DC

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The Intercultural Management Institute (IMI) at American University in Washington, DC is celebrating its 14th Annual Conference on Intercultural Relations: A Forum for Business, Education and Training Professionals on 14-15 March, 2013. This is a space for professionals to share and learn about successes and best practices in intercultural and international relations to promote better cultural understanding in diverse areas.

One keynote speaker will be Bryan A. Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and professor at New York University School of Law. You can see Bryan A. Stevenson in this Ted talk on the topic of social justice.

Another keynote speaker will be Dr. Janet Bennett, Executive Director of the Intercultural Communication Institute, sponsor of the of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, and director of the Master of Arts Degree in Intercultural Relations sponsored by ICI and the University of the Pacific. Dr. Bennett’s work in the intercultural field is well-known around AFS. She is one of several key theorists in the materials and programs prepared and delivered by the AFS Education & Intercultural Learning Team.

Click here for a list of the concurrent conference sessions. Registration is still open, if interested in attending click here.

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.

Education & Intercultural Learning Communications Fellowship – Apply Now!

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AFS Intercultural Programs (www.afs.org) seeks an individual with excellent public relations and marketing communications skills – strategic, creative and production – and a strong interest in working across cultures for a fellowship within our Education and Intercultural Learning (ICL) Department.

AFS ICL Library

Tasks related to this fellowship include:

  • Supporting the Education team’s communications and media strategy: internal stakeholder communications as well as working on an external media plan that includes social/digital media (www.afs.org/blog/icl, our digital library, Facebook), conferences, etc.
  • Managing the AFS Intercultural Link News Magazine: coordinating article submissions with authors from around the world, writing (as appropriate), editing and proof reading articles, contributing to design and layout, finalizing production and distributing to our global readership.
  • Plus additional responsibilities related to education and intercultural learning in AFS as a part of a team comprised of fun and passionate people who work to help people improve interactions across cultures.

Skills: For this fellowship, candidates should:

  • Have strong communications skills from strategy development to content creation (especially writing) to production (digital and otherwise);
  • Have excellent planning and organizational skills with high attention to detail;
  • Be highly creative, solutions-oriented, and pro-active;
  • Have basic or better design sensibilities & layout skills;
  • Be technology-savvy and able to work in various online and digital environments;
  • Be interested in intercultural communications, global skills development and/or international relations and education;
  • Be able to work both independently and as a part of a collaborative team;
  • Have excellent spoken *and* written English skills (fluency two or more languages preferred);
  • Familiarity with AFS or intercultural exchange programs a plus, but not required.

The fellowship is full-time for a commitment of 9 to 12 months. It is based at AFS Intercultural Programs’ offices in NYC, covers some expenses and provides a stipend.

Intercultural Link Newsletter Magazine

If you meet these requirements and are interested in applying for the fellowship, please e-mail AFS International at icl@afs.org. Provide a brief description of yourself, examples of how you meet the listed requirements for this fellowship, your motivations for applying for this fellowship, and what you could bring to this fellowship. In addition, please attach a current resume and two writing samples in the form of a newsletter article and/or blog entry.

We regret we cannot reply to all inquiries.

AFS is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.

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).

Humans of…

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The Internet can be a window into familiar spaces as you had never seen them.

In 2010, photographer Brandon Stanton had a simple idea that would become a big project: he would create a photographic census of New York City. Everyday, he took and posted pictures of New Yorkers on the street. “Humans of New York” soon became a larger project than anticipated; more than 500,000 people currently follow HONY on Facebook and on its website and witness, through Stanton’s eyes, the cultural diversity of New York and the stories of regular New Yorkers of all ages, occupations, backgrounds and life styles.

What if you do not live in New York? Inspired by HONY, many photographers took the initiative of portraying their cities or countries in ways that would transform the ideas and preconceptions that we may have about those places. In Pakistan, Khaula Jamil has made “Humans of Karachi” one of the most followed sites, with over 13,000 followers! Through daily postings by Jamil and weekly submissions from regular people who happen to capture a fun shot in Karachi and have an interesting story to go with it, “Humans of Karachi” shows us one of the most vibrant and culturally diverse cities of Asia.

Other “Humans of…” to follow? Take a look at the photographs of “Humans of Rotterdam” in the Netherlands, “Humanos de La Paz” in Bolivia, “Humans of Lebanon” or “Humans of India“!

The diverse “Humans of…” sites not only serve to capture the cultural diversity of these places. With little snippets, they tell us about the people who live in cities that we may know or that we may have never visited: insights into the lives of people against whom we might otherwise hold stereotypes. These photography projects tell us more about the human side of people, something that we might otherwise not have the chance to see.

New feature on the ICL blog – ICL Conferences overview

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We are happy to announce the most recent addition to our blog – next to the ICL related books, movies and online resources; you can find a brand new ICL Conferences section. In this section, we will be sharing an overview of conferences and larger educational events that are related to Intercultural Learning or other relevant areas.

 

Anna Collier (AFS International) presenting a poster on the AFS Intercultural Link Learning Program at the NAFSA (Association of International Educators) Annual Conference in Houston, Texas USA in June 2012.

We hope you will find this new section of our blog helpful for your work and that you will benefit from attending events where you can meet like-minded professionals, make new contacts and learn about the topics interesting to you. As an inspiration, we are sharing with you what conferences we are planning to attend.

All the listed events are organized or co-organized by international platforms, think-tanks, universities and international organizations, including AFS. Is your event missing? Let us know! We are updating this list weekly, so in case you have a suggestion for an interesting conference that we should add, please leave your idea in a comment. We will be happy to add it to our list.

Aspects of “Everyday Life” from an Outside Perspective

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“After 20 years of opining on weighty bilateral issues like NATO expansion and ballistic missile defense, the political analyst Nikolai V. Zlobin recently found himself trying to explain, for an uncomprehending Russian readership, the American phenomenon of the teenage baby sitter.”

In early December, Ellen Barry from the New York Times featured Nikolai Zlobin‘s new book “America — What a Life!” as an interesting read on Culture-Specific Insights and the perception of U.S. culture from another cultural value lens; in this case, the Russian lens.

But this book is not about the past or present political differences about these two countries. While Zoblin has been a political analyst for years, in this book he does not dive into the traditional narratives of political or diplomatic opposition between the United States and Russia. Rather, he looks at the most quotidian aspects of the U.S. American middle class and tries to explain them, with humor, to a Russian audience unfamiliar with such everyday-life matters. As the quote above reflects, one of the topics that the book tackles is “the U.S. American phenomenon of the teenage babysitter”, exploring the tendency of U.S. American parents to look for a youth (non-relative) to be a babysitter when they go out, while Russian parents would call the grandparents to take care of the children. While the tip of the iceberg may seem a bit boring, Zlobin takes this as an opportunity to reflect on the underlying, less-visible values of family and “grandparenthood” in both cultural contexts.

Another interesting read on this topic mentioned by Barry in her article on Zlobin is Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip, a diary of two Russians traveling in the United States and the positive impressions that they had.

Beyond these two books, there are many others that talk about foreign perceptions of a place or country, such as The Great Little Book of Fun Things You Probably Don’t Know About Ireland, a book about Ireland seen from the outside, particularly from an Irish-American perspective, or Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, the memories of an Iranian girl growing up in the United States.

Can you tell us about similar insightful books that portray a culture from the outside in this manner? Share in this blog entry!