Developing Intercultural Competence Amongst Female International/Domestic Students

• In Event: Interactive Roundtable Discussion Session

Short Description

This roundtable discussion will share the experiences of international and domestic undergraduate students engaging in service learning at a large research university as it relates to leadership development and the establishment of connections between local and global problems. It will highlight the cultivation of intercultural competence in a co-curricular setting amongst these linguistically and culturally diverse populations. Through the lens of intercultural competence, participants will be asked for further discussion on additional methods and strategies of intercultural inclusion and leadership development.

Detailed Abstract

With the last decade, a significant emphasis among institutions of higher education has been devoted to articulating intercultural competency as a necessary skill among graduates to successfully address our globalized world (Deardorff, 2004). Developing intercultural competence among undergraduate students is one of the cornerstones of providing a transformative leadership experience in the world of higher education at a Land-grant institution, where local problems may have global solutions and where gender may influence your development of leadership. The standardized definition of intercultural competence within the realm of higher education has been subject to some disagreement and controversy among scholars (Salisbury, 2011). Bowden and Marton (1998) described intercultural competence as a construct that integrates how one see his/her role in a given situation, his/her capacity to take on that role, and the integration of previous knowledge/experience and current performance, given the context to accomplish a give task or goal. One’s demonstration of intercultural competence is also shaped by several factors, including relationships, goals, and context (Stoof, Marten, van Marrienboer, & Bastiaens, 2002), and can be categorized into five groups: motivation, knowledge, skills, context, and outcomes (Spitzberg & Changnon, 2009). Ultimately, in the context of higher education, the researchers agreed that intercultural competence specifically relates to the “successful engagement or collaboration toward a single or shared set of goals between individuals or groups who do not share the same cultural origins or backgrounds” (Salisbury, 2011, p. 26). Such successful engagement or collaboration can be cultivated from the earmarks of well-designed, solution-based projects that blend together the voices of women with different lived experiences.

In this roundtable discussion, we will share how we brought together a diverse cohort of international and domestic undergraduate students by threading curricular and co-curricular service learning programming with the intent to develop leadership through intercultural competence. Specifically, a small cohort of domestic students from a transformational global citizenship program were joined with a group of advanced-level Intensive English Program students (n=21). The international students represented eight different countries and nine languages.

Educational workshops before and after the completion of the service learning project provided students with the background knowledge appropriate to the project. Their lived experiences were thus combined with their academic knowledge to consider the global problems addressed in the project. The two cohorts were run through a series of exercises with faculty to develop their intercultural competence and foster their leadership and interpersonal relationships to solve problems as they relate to the environment and social justice. They were intentionally paired or grouped among differing cultures to stimulate engagement of differing ideas within a safe space and place. These activities culminated in a service learning project that addressed global conservation efforts by planting non-invasive native plant species alongside a local conservation nonprofit organization.

Following the project, during a debrief discussion and service learning reflection workshop, students exhibited signs of increased intercultural competence, but also hallmarks of leadership, including self-actualization about the linguistic and cultural diversity of each other and further a call to action to find solutions to the global issue of conservation. These calls to action included the intent to obtain an academic focus in politics, the environment, and other related fields. They also highlighted and made connections between the need to stand up and take accountability for their actions outside of academic pursuits as they related to personal investment in the solutions proposed. That is, many wrote about their experiences in the project as they relate to empathy within their own sociocultural and personal contexts. Being that students were both linguistically and culturally diverse, the same space and place of the project empowered them to be ambassadors of their own countries and cultures within the context of the project. Through meaningful conversation and activities, not without conflict, perspectives shifted as intercultural communication skills increased. As students were able to develop relationships, they shared their values and lived experiences with one another. This type of deep, intercultural relationship building encompasses the strategic thinking and personal relationships necessary for leaders to solve complex global problems. These relationships that go beyond the boundaries of countries, languages, etc., among the cohorts are evidenced by qualitative results obtained by written reflections (artifact analysis) and focus groups (constant comparative analysis) among female and male students in the cohorts. It is with purposeful leadership that we can solve complex global problems; such opportunities for development can start in institutions of higher education. Utilizing intercultural competence to solve global problems and develop leadership by including of both domestic and international undergraduate students through a service learning outlet is a model that may be expanded to many other contexts and audiences.

Recognizing this opportunity to expand the scope of such models, roundtable facilitators will encourage participants to elaborate on other methods of inclusion and leadership development through service learning:

1. What successful strategies have been used within institutions of higher education to foster intercultural relationships between international and domestic students?

2. How have you seen gender play a role in the student lived experience of service learning?

3. What additional models of service learning have you seen that provide innovative solutions to address global problems?

Presenters

• Caitlin Bletscher

• Kate Hellmann, Washington State University