In the summer of 2020, I participated in a Train the Trainer program titled Facilitating Intercultural Learning. This course was designed and led by Dr. Tara Harvey of True North Intercultural, LLC. This 12-week course consisted of weekly meetings with our fellow cohort members across the nation and the world. Before beginning our debriefs, each member completed the Intercultural Development Inventory®- a tool used to help one identify where one is on the intercultural development continuum
. After completing the intercultural development inventory, a personalized report was created for the individual. These individual plans helped each member of this program identify where they are on the continuum and supplied guided steps towards progressing along the continuum. This tool helped provide a common language with which all members of the cohort could dialogue during our weekly debriefs.
During our weekly debriefs, we discussed the material presented the week prior, asked our questions, and had deeper conversations on how the material made us feel and what questions or revelations we had about ourselves after engaging.
In this newsletter, I will share my reflections and lessons that I learned for my future work involved in intercultural learning.
The Takeaways
Prior to beginning the course, I had my assumptions on my level of intercultural awareness.
Subconsciously, I believed that since I work with international students and strive to be open to new learning experiences, I must be great at intercultural awareness. It did not take long for me to learn otherwise.
This course challenged my preconceived notions of intercultural awareness and inclusion, and not in the way I expected. Instead of challenging me on my awareness of other cultures, the course challenged me to address my relationship with my own culture- to examine the many aspects that comprise my identity and how this influences how I represent “U.S. culture” to the students I serve. I signed up expecting to learn the tips and tricks of connecting with students and was instead introduced to a self-awareness journey that had me addressing the conflicts and clashes within my understanding of the cultures I represented.
Diving into this journey from the internal perspective first allowed me to wrestle with culture, its complexity, and how I can grow and improve my relationship with it to be a better educator and promotor of global engagement. Recognizing and being open in my honesty that there is still much for me to do has enabled me to slow down and reflect on how my perceptions and experiences influence how I interact with others.
There is much to be said about the power of stepping outside of your zone of understanding, allowing yourself to admit confusion, and creating space to grow from it. These aspects- these elements of vulnerability- coupled with the desire to improve with intent is something that I found vital to practice.
Main takeaways
- External focus without internal work will not achieve the long-term goals of intercultural awareness.
- Guided and intentional facilitation takes practice but is necessary for deeper learning from intercultural experiences.
- We ask students to challenge themselves to enhance their intercultural experiences. We must be willing and intentional in doing the same.
- Create space to express concerns and engage in discomfort as part of the learning process is vital for both students and instructors.
- Empathy and consistency go a long way in encouraging continuous engagement and growth.
- Intercultural learning is a life-long process and is not linear. Backtracking is normal as long as you still put in effort to improve.
Implementation in the Global Leaders and Mentors Program (GLaM)
The
GLaM program was created in 2018 to facilitate peer-to-peer connections between new international students and current Missouri State students- both international and domestic. The program has gone through numerous iterations working to achieve this goal. Its current iteration builds upon the foundation of my learnings from the Facilitating Intercultural Learning Program.
During the summer, GLaM members participate in a week-long training that originally focused on Missouri State culture and communication tools. This portion of the program focuses on the details we need our students to know when welcoming new students to campus. However, we know that we want our students in this program to have the opportunity to look deeper into themselves. Understand a bit more about their cultural groups and levels of intersectionality.
Before participating in the program,
we knew that creating global citizens is not simply about having the desire to learn about other cultures and providing one-off opportunities for connection. Naturally, students who apply to this program have that desire, but that is just the smallest piece of the iceberg
. To truly open the doors to that development of intercultural awareness, it is important to help facilitate that introspection of oneself. To provide space to examine more deeply their experiences and respond with awareness when faced with the unfamiliar.
Moving forward, we are looking at giving these students opportunities to explore the different cultural groups that make them who they are, that have helped formulate their values and beliefs, and help define how they interact with and perceive the world. Additionally, we are exploring how to help them understand how others perceive and move in the world in a way that honors both the similarities and differences while promoting equal value on both sides through that guided facilitation. I believe this is one of the methods we should embrace to achieve our Globalization mission as a University.
It is not just a benefit for domestic or international students, but one in which both can explore how they navigate new environments and learn how to do so in a way that honors themselves and their multiple cultural groups while also embracing and understanding how others are moving in this world.
Therefore,
when I think about being more globally responsible in education in the programs I lead, I think about how valuable it is to have had my perceptions questioned. To have had to engage in being vulnerable and the influence it can have to model that for others and create the space for them to feel and do the same. It is a lifelong process, and it is uncomfortable at times, but that is part of the work.
Creating that space as an instructor to acknowledge the difficulty but model the effort for students is one of the best ways in which you can help create globally responsive work and students.
Reference
Intercultural Development Inventory®: https://idiinventory.com/
True North Intercultural: https://www.truenorthintercultural.com/
GLaM Program: https://international.missouristate.edu/GLAM.htm
