engleski

Intercultural competence and the role of teachers

Globalization plays today an important role in the development of technology, economy, culture, and public life of each society. We live in the “global village” in which relations among people are becoming increasingly complex. The possibility of worldwide contacts and exchanges between companies, organizations, universities and individuals makes the development of intercultural competence (ICC) a necessity. An initial focus on intercultural competence emerged between the 1950s and early 1970s, in the context of the experiences of Westerners working abroad. In the late 1970s and 1980s the interest was expanded to the study abroad, international business, cross-cultural training, expatriates living overseas, and immigrant acculturation (Sinicrope, Norris, Watanabe, 2007). Today, intercultural competence embraces a wide spectrum of theoretical and empirical research in the fields of international schools and universities, short study abroad programmes and permanent residency in foreign culture. In its broadest sense, intercultural competence means “a complex of abilities needed to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself” (Fantini, 2006). Notwithstanding, as it is used and developed by scientists and professionals belonging to various sectors (academic and educational fields, international business and management, health care and social work, military, etc.), there is no agreement on the meaning of intercultural competence, its components and its models of development. There are several reasons for that. One is the complexity of ICC and the fact that it needs interdisciplinary theory and research ; the other is the specificity of cultural, historic, political, economic and social contexts in which the term has emerged ; and still the other is the translation of the term in other languages. Furthermore, ICC in itself is a combination of two complex terms: “culture” and “competence”. Other often disputed issue refers to questions like: is ICC universal or culture specific (“bi-cultural competence” vs. “intrecultural competence”), what is the purpose and the goal of ICC ; is ICC developed as an outcome of visiting a foreign country or of specific education ; is ICC the only competence which guarantees the successful interaction in foreign cultures. Accordingly, this paper aims at analysing the concept and components of ICC as defined by a selected number of authors. Furthermore, having in mind that teachers have important role in developing ICC (Paige, 2004) and thus need to develop multicultural perspective on teaching and learning in various cultural environments (Nieto, 2000), the paper analyses the place of ICC in the Common European Principles for Teacher Competences and Qualifications. This will lead to discussion on whether Croatian teachers are prepared and competent for teaching in classrooms with pupils of different cultural background. The analysis of the curricula of the teacher training institutions indicates that teachers are still insufficiently prepared to teach intercultural education at the compulsory school level. The courses on interculturalism are taught at some Croatian universities in graduate and postgraduate studies but they are primarily offered to future school pedagogues. The discussion will be extended to include the results of research on Croatian teachers’ knowledge and attitudes towards interculturalism and their own role in the world of cultural differences.

Intercultural competence; teacher education; intercultural education

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