Please start by watching this quick TED talk video (skip the ad at the end):<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supporting the development of intercultural competence is an important aspect of COIL collaborations. \u00a0For many students, a COIL enhanced course is the first opportunity they have to engage with peers from another country. \u00a0It is likely that students have engaged with people from other cultural backgrounds in their home communities, but most students have not been asked to reflect on cultural differences at home, so COIL is frequently the first intentional intercultural communication activity they will undertake. \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our understanding of culture depends on many factors, including our own worldview, academic background, and experiences. For an overview of different perspectives and how this may affect your approach to facilitating intercultural competency development, see <a href=\"https:\/\/pjp-eu.coe.int\/documents\/42128013\/47262514\/Ch2.pdf\/0b364432-7efb-6a45-a4bc-50de19787213\">\u201cCulture, Identity and Social Realities\u201d<\/a>, page 15-18, in the Training Toolkit 4: Intercultural Competence, developed by The Council for Europe and the European Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Milton Bennett has proposed a model of intercultural sensitivity that is \u201cone-way, permanent, and applicable to anything that is considered cultural difference\u201d, including diversity in one\u2019s own culture. \u00a0According to this model, one starts at a place of <em>ethnocentrism<\/em>, where the person\u2019s cultural reality is the way the world works, and is the framework they use to understand the world. Through gaining intercultural competence, one can move to a place of <em>ethnorelativism<\/em>, where the person can switch between different frameworks for understanding a situation, embracing the idea that ways of behaving, understanding and seeing the world is relative to cultural context.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this model, each category represents a way of experiencing other cultures. The underlying assumption is that as understanding of culture and the way it impacts people\u2019s beliefs and actions becomes more nuanced, intercultural competence increases. \u00a0In this way, understanding where students are on the continuum allows educators to design experiences that will increase intercultural skills and understanding, moving students along to the next stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Denial <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this stage, one\u2019s own culture is the only one known or considered. \u00a0There is generally little curiosity for other worldviews.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Defense<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is characterized by \u201cus and them\u201d viewpoints. \u00a0\u201cUs\u201d, or my culture, is the best way to do things. There are other ways, but these are not understood or are considered inferior.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Minimization<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This stage recognizes that there are similarities of culture, but tends to gloss over or disregard differences, and does not seek to understand the cultural basis of behavior. \u00a0Sometimes a different culture may be seen as \u201cthe perfect culture\u201d based on appreciated characteristics such as food or attitudes toward a particular aspect of society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The above three stages are considered <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ethnocentric. \u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The following stages are considered <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ethnorrelative:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Acceptance<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The person\u2019s culture is accepted as one of many possible ways of understanding the world. \u00a0No value is attached, that is, one can see positive and negative aspects of different cultures without thinking one is inherently superior.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Adaptation<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this stage, a person can shift their frame of reference to another culture and understand behaviors, attitudes and assumptions from another culture\u2019s perspective. They can alter their behavior and communication, consciously or unconsciously, to be more effective in a different cultural context.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Integration<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People in this stage can see themselves belonging to multiple cultures, and have more than one worldview and sense of self based on different cultural frameworks. This is most common among people who have had significant living experience in more than one culture, such as long term expatriates, children of immigrants and members of subcultures. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-508\" src=\"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/DMIS-300x111.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"596\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/DMIS-300x111.jpg 300w, https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/DMIS.jpg 715w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 596px) 100vw, 596px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intercultural Competence Please start by watching this quick TED talk video (skip the ad at the end): Supporting the development of intercultural competence is an important aspect of COIL collaborations. \u00a0For many students, a COIL enhanced course is the first opportunity they have to engage with peers from another country. \u00a0It is likely that students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8129,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-116","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511,"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/116\/revisions\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.suny.edu\/introtocoil\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}