Life and Institutions are some of the key factors of any culture. When it comes to successful communication with other cultures, Intercultural competence is crucial. The study of Life and Institutions should therefore by a mandatory part of teaching Czech as a foreign language. Based on extensive analysis, the thesis examines how Czech Life and Institutions are portrayed in select textbooks for foreigners reaching level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The outcome of the thesis is not only a detailed charting of Life and Institutions found in textbooks of Czech language for foreigners, but also a set of major findings based on the initially proposed questions. The analysis of textbooks is based on theoretical findings, which are introduced in the first part of the thesis and which form the necessary framework for the research part of the thesis. Key words Intercultural competence, Life and Institutions, Culture, Textbooks of Czech language for Foreigners, Threshold level - Czech as a foreign language

Vi har gjort en studie som handlar om den interkulturella kommunikationen mellan nyanlända och socialtjänsten. Sverige tar emot 5000 kvotflyktingar varje år och segregeringen har under lång tid ökat och klyftorna har blivit större. Det har dessutom pågått en desinformationskampanj på nätet där svensk socialtjänst anklagas för att de omhändertar muslimska barn. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka nyanländas kommunikation med socialtjänsten och innebörden av det interkulturella mötet. Vi vill med detta öka kunskapen för att främja det interkulturella mötet och integration. För att uppnå syftet genomfördes kvalitativa intervjuer där sju nyanlända fick möjlighet att dela med sig av sina erfarenheter av kommunikationen med socialtjänsten. Genom våra kvalitativa intervjuer har studiens frågeställningar besvarats. Dessa handlar om hur kommunikationen med socialtjänsten upplevs och vad kultur har för betydelse i mötet med socialtjänsten. Empirin har bearbetats genom tematisk analys och fem teman som analyserats utifrån tidigare forskning samt utifrån ett sociologiskt, psykologiskt och interkulturellt perspektiv. Resultatet visar att kultur enligt respondenterna inte har en stor betydelse i kommunikation med socialtjänsten. Många upplever att anpassningen till den svenska kulturen är svår och upplever inte någon förståelse från socialtjänsten kring detta. Samtliga respondenter har inga förväntningar på men önskar att socialtjänsten ska besitta en interkulturell kompetens. När vi analyserade resultatet kom vi fram till slutsatsen att den första tiden i Sverige styrs av att tillgodose grundläggande behov så som att komma i trygghet och att det kan vara en anledning till att kultur initialt inte har en sådan stor betydelse för nyanlända i kommunikationen med socialtjänsten. Vi kunde även se utifrån ett interkulturellt perspektiv att det finns brister i den interkulturella kommunikationen mellan nyanlända och socialtjänsten men att respondenterna la lite eller ingen vikt vid det. / We have done a study that deals with the intercultural communication between newcomers and social services. Sweden receives 5,000 quota refugees every year and segregation has for a long time increased, and the gaps have become larger. There has also been an online disinformation campaign where Swedish social services are accused of taking Muslim children into care. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate newcomers' communication with social services and the meaning of the intercultural encounter. With this, we want to increase knowledge to promote the intercultural meeting and integration. To achieve the purpose, qualitative interviews were conducted where seven new arrivals were given the opportunity to share their experiences of communication with social services. Through our qualitative interviews, the study's questions have been answered. These are about how communication with social services is perceived and what culture means in the meeting with social services. The empirical data has been processed through thematic analysis and five themes that have been analysed based on previous research and from a sociological, psychological, and intercultural perspective. The results show that, according to the respondents, culture does not have a great importance in communication with social services. Many feel that adaptation to Swedish culture is difficult and do not experience any understanding from social services about this. All respondents have no expectations but wish the social services to possess more intercultural competence. When we analysed the results, we came to the conclusion that the first time in Sweden is governed by meeting basic needs such as getting in safety and that this may be one reason why culture initially does not have such a significance for newcomers in communication with social services. We could also see from an intercultural perspective that there are shortcomings in the intercultural communication between newcomers and social services, but that the respondents paid little or no importance to it.

In today’s world, people from various cultures interact on a daily basis on a number of occasions. During these intercultural encounters, conflicts often arise. Intercessors are needed to help people navigate these types of disagreements. Mediators are considered some of these peacekeepers. This thesis engaged with mediators at a mediation center in the Midwestern United States in order to understand what strategies seemed most effective. I examined the research that scholars have conducted regarding building rapport through utilizing respect and face issues, as well as nonverbal behavior. In addition, I explored the connection between the understanding of these factors and intercultural competence and intercultural conflict competence. The purpose of this thesis was to see how these mediators understood and valued respect and face issues, including nonverbal behavior, when building rapport with parties in mediations. These mediators were engaged in two manners, via survey and interview questions. The intercultural competence of the mediators in these domains was also explored. The results of the research in this thesis showed how the mediators were skilled in some areas, such as in rapport building and respect issues. It further revealed that they were in need of some skills for their toolbox, such as training on face issues and nonverbal behavior, including silence, tone of voice, and eye contact. Detailed recommendations for the mediators are provided. Future research is encouraged: A group of mediators that have exhibited intercultural competence should be selected in order to test their intercultural conflict competence.

The 'flattening of the world', using Thomas Friedman's phraseology, is driving corporations to increasingly use collaborative engineering processes and global teams to operate on a global scale. Globalization of the traditional university engineering curriculum is necessary to help students prepare to work in a global environment. More scalable and economically sustainable program types are needed to enable the majority of students to obtain a globalized education. The purpose of this research was to determine how effectively a global team- and project-based computer aided engineering course provided learning opportunities that enabled students to develop elements of global competence in comparison to existing engineering study abroad programs. To accomplish this, research was necessary to identify, aggregate, and validate a comprehensive set of global competencies for engineering students. From a review of the literature and subsequent analysis, a set of twenty-three global competencies with an associated conceptual model was developed to group the competencies by contextual topics. Two surveys were then developed and distributed separately to academic and industry professionals, each of which groups largely confirmed that it was important for engineering students to develop these global competencies. Next, the traditional ME 471 class was restructured into a Global ME 471 course. A pilot program was conducted from which lessons learned were incorporated into the global course. Selected global competencies were included as new learning outcomes. Course learning materials, labs, and lectures were also updated to reflect the new course emphasis. A survey was developed to be sent to BYU engineering study abroad students and the Global ME 471 course during 2010. A statistical analysis of responses was used to identify significant differences between the response groups. In addition to the global competencies which were identified and validated, global collaborative project-based courses such as Global ME 471 were shown to be effective in enabling students to learn and develop selected global competencies. Study abroad programs and the Global ME 471 course were seen both to be complementary in their emphasis and supportive of global engineering. In addition, global collaborative project-based courses were shown to play an important part of a globalized engineering curriculum.

В эпоху глобальной трансформации и коммуникации на перекрестке нескольких культур межкультурная коммуникация является не только теоретическим понятием, которое необходимо изучать, но и практическим талантом, востребованным на рынке труда для специалистов в различных областях. Современное общество остро нуждается в эксперте, способном импровизировать и выдвигать новые идеи, а также в человеке, обладающем организационными навыками и знаниями в области межкультурной коммуникации. Поэтому вопрос подготовки специалистов такого уровня сейчас актуален как никогда. Важной задачей для работников в области межкультурной коммуникации является определение механизмов формирования межкультурной компетенции в рамках образовательной траектории, в частности решение вопроса формирования межкультурной компетенции для функционирования в условиях индивидуализации и особых образовательных потребностей. Поскольку каждый образовательный процесс происходит в определенной среде, среда социального субъекта в данном исследовании квалифицируется как образовательная среда, если брать ее в целом. Развитие учащихся с особыми образовательными потребностями в формировании компетентности в области межкультурной коммуникации должно стимулироваться грамотным структурированием образовательной среды. Понимание культурного многообразия мира на основе анализа конкретных ситуаций межкультурного пространства является необходимым условием процесса студентов с особыми образовательными потребностями для успешного формирования межкультурной коммуникации, помимо знания лексических и грамматических основ языка. Такую информацию можно получить через медиаресурсы, анализ которых позволяет интегрировать процесс формирования и обучения иностранному языку. Следовательно, актуальность темы исследования заключается в том, что процесс 3 формирования межкультурной коммуникация у студентов с повышенными образовательными потребностями в рамках языковых курсов дополнительного образования, при использовании медиаресурса УМК «Empower», как средства коммуникативно-информационной технологии, представляет большой теоретический и практический интерес. / In the era of global transformation and communications at the crossroads of several cultures, intercultural communication is not only a theoretical notion to be studied, but also a practical talent that is in demand on the job market for specialists in various fields. Today's modern society is in desperate need of an expert with the ability to improvise and come up with novel ideas, as well as someone with organizational skills and knowledge of cross-cultural communication. The issue of training experts at this level is therefore more important than ever. Due to factors like digitalization, globalization, the possibilities of cross cultural dialogue, etc., today's educational needs are different from those of past generations An important task for pedagogical workers in the field of intercultural communication is to identify mechanisms for forming intercultural competence within the educational trajectory, specifically addressing the issue of forming intercultural competence to function in circumstances of individualization and special educational needs. Since every educational process takes place in a specific setting, this study's social subject's environment qualifies as an educational environment when taken as a whole. The development of students with special educational needs in the building of competence in intercultural communication should be stimulated by the competent structuring of the educational environment. Understanding the cultural diversity of the world based on the analysis of situations of intercultural space is a necessary condition for the educational process of students with special educational needs to successfully form intercultural communication, in addition to knowledge of the lexical and grammatical fundamentals of the language. Such information can be obtained through media resources, whose analysis enables the integration of the process of formation and the teaching of a foreign language. Consequently, the relevance of the topic of research lies in the fact that the process of forming 5 intercultural communication among students with high educational needs within the framework of language courses of additional education, using the media resource of the "Empower" textbook, as a means of communication and information technology, is of great theoretical and practical interest.

Abstract Title: History teaching and intercultural competence This study takes as its starting point the relationship between the multicultural and globalised society and history as a school subject, and explores it theoretically as well as empirically.  Intercultural historical competence, which is the main theoretical and analytical concept of the study, is developed from theories of narrative competence and theories of intercultural competence, and is positioned in the intersection between the two. Narrative competence describes historical consciousness as being characterised by three distinct sub-competencies, the competence of experience, the competence of interpretation and the competence of orientation. Historical learning is seen as the qualification of these competencies to be able to tell meaningful stories about our lives.  The empirical case study explores how intercultural historical competence as a learning objective is interpreted and enacted in one history classroom. The enacted object of learning is regarded as a co-construction between the teacher, the pupils and historical narratives. This study explores how experiences and interpretations of the past are made and used in the work in the classroom. The question of what constitutes each narrative sub-competence is addressed and discussed in three empirical chapters respectively. The source material mainly consists of observations from a sequel of 25 history lessons in an upper secondary school The empirical results show how different dimensions of each sub-competence contribute to what is possible to learn in relation to intercultural historical competence. One important dimension of the competence of experience is the employment of strategies of pluralism, deconstruction and counter-narratives to open up closed narratives. The competence of interpretation is strengthened by the use of second-order concepts as tools to qualify historical thinking. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how it is possible to practise the competence of orientation by giving pupils the opportunity to use historical narratives and historical tools to make sense of the present and to think about the future. One additional conclusion is that the planning process, when the learning objective is interpreted and framed into lessons and exercises, is decisive for what is possible for pupils to learn. Finally, it is stated that history as a school subject has the capacity to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes that are relevant in a multicultural and globalised society. Key words: history teaching, historical learning, history education, intercultural competence, intercultural education, historical consciousness, upper secondary school, class room study, object of learning, learning objective, historical narrative.

En el marco del programa Erasmus Mundus de Aprendizaje y Enseñanza de Español en contextos multilingües e internacionales (MULTIELE), profesores en formación de diferentes orígenes participan en estadías académicas en varias universidades localizadas en diferentes países y realizan prácticas en un contexto externo. La presente investigación busca analizar cuáles son las creencias de siete de estos profesores en formación con respecto a la competencia intercultural, en qué medida se ven influidas por sus experiencias vivenciales y sus aprendizaje durante el programa de máster. A través del análisis cualitativo de siete entrevistas semi-estructuradas, los resultados muestran una falta de definición del concepto de competencia intercultural y su trabajo en el aula, una estrecha vinculación entre las experiencias vivenciales y la concepción de la competencia intercultural y la necesidad de un mayor desarrollo teórico en el área durante el máster. La discusión y las conclusiones ofrecen sugerencias basadas en estas observaciones y sugieren futuras líneas de investigación. / Within the Erasmus Mundus program for Teaching and Learning Spanish in Multilingual and International Contexts (MULTIELE), pre-service teachers from different backgrounds participate in academic stays in several universities located in different countries and complete their internships in an external context. This research paper seeks to analyze the beliefs of seven pre-service teachers regarding intercultural competence, taking into account their life experiences and the master’s program. Through the qualitative study of seven semi-structured interviews, results show a lack of definition in the concept of intercultural competence and its teaching, a tight link between life experiences and the conception of this competence and a need for theoretical training during the master’s program regarding this topic. The discussion and conclusions offer some proposals based on these observations and suggest further research lines. / Dans le cadre du programme Erasmus Mundus pour l'enseignement et l'apprentissage de l'espagnol en contextes multilingues et des internationaux (MULTIELE), des futurs enseignants de différents horizons participent à des séjours universitaires dans plusieurs universités situées dans différents pays et complètent leurs stages dans un contexte externe. Ce travail vise à analyser les croyances de sept futurs enseignants par rapport à la compétence interculturelle, en tenant compte de leurs expériences de vie et au long du programme de maîtrise. Grâce à l'étude qualitative de sept entretiens semi-structurés, les résultats montrent un manque de définition de la notion de compétence interculturelle et de son enseignement, un lien étroit entre les expériences de vie et la conception de cette compétence et la nécessité d'une formation théorique pendant le programme de maîtrise en ce qui concerne ce sujet. La discussion et les conclusions offrent des propositions fondées sur ces observations et suggèrent de nouvelles lignes de recherche.

<p>In today’s world, exposure to other cultures has become a symbol of increasing globalization processes. Many people leave their home area to embark on a voyage of discovery and learning that affects their original cultural identity.</p><p>This study explores the life experience of independent transcultural sojourners, i.e. people who freely decide to relocate to different cultural contexts after their formative years. The inquiry covers three major themes of their intercultural experience: Multicultural identity, processes of intercultural adaptation, and change and transformation ensuing from multiple intercultural relocations. The aim of this study is to show the effects of multiple intercultural experiences on the identity of transcultural sojourners, and how they dealt with relevant emerging processes of intercultural adaptation.</p><p>Following a format suggested by Seidman (1996), five respondents were asked to recount and reflect on their transcultural experience in three separate, asynchronous interviews that covered three dimensions of their intercultural experience: past, present, and reflections. The ensuing text comprised about 16,000 words and was analyzed using both a narrative and a thematic approach using a mixed typology of categories and sub-themes made up of indigenous typology stemming from relevant scholarly literature and researcher-constructed typology suggested by the researcher and the respondents.</p><p>The analysis indicates that personal factors like mindfulness, motivation, resourcefulness, and intercultural awareness strongly influence processes of Intercultural communication competence and Multicultural identity development. Contextual factors are also relevant, as they include issues of avowed and ascribed identity. The analysis also shows no specific, generalizable link between the presence of intercultural stimuli in the original cultural milieus and the decision to relocate across cultural boundaries. Furthermore, it points to a strong relation between Piagetian constructivist learning theories and the development of ICC competence. The study also indicates that independent transcultural sojourners are in a position to negotiate the level of their integration and marginality, which in turn affects the spectrum of their Intercultural communication competence.</p><p>Finally, this study indicates the limited applicability of traditional functionalist approaches to understanding and conceptualizing processes of intercultural adaptation and multicultural identity building. It also suggests the need for a shift towards a dialogical perspective informed by systems-thinking and Chaos theory.</p> / The author would like to acknowledge the inspiration and passion for intercultural issues provided over the years by the Intercultural Insights on-line community.Seattle, summer 2010.

In today’s world, exposure to other cultures has become a symbol of increasing globalization processes. Many people leave their home area to embark on a voyage of discovery and learning that affects their original cultural identity. This study explores the life experience of independent transcultural sojourners, i.e. people who freely decide to relocate to different cultural contexts after their formative years. The inquiry covers three major themes of their intercultural experience: Multicultural identity, processes of intercultural adaptation, and change and transformation ensuing from multiple intercultural relocations. The aim of this study is to show the effects of multiple intercultural experiences on the identity of transcultural sojourners, and how they dealt with relevant emerging processes of intercultural adaptation. Following a format suggested by Seidman (1996), five respondents were asked to recount and reflect on their transcultural experience in three separate, asynchronous interviews that covered three dimensions of their intercultural experience: past, present, and reflections. The ensuing text comprised about 16,000 words and was analyzed using both a narrative and a thematic approach using a mixed typology of categories and sub-themes made up of indigenous typology stemming from relevant scholarly literature and researcher-constructed typology suggested by the researcher and the respondents. The analysis indicates that personal factors like mindfulness, motivation, resourcefulness, and intercultural awareness strongly influence processes of Intercultural communication competence and Multicultural identity development. Contextual factors are also relevant, as they include issues of avowed and ascribed identity. The analysis also shows no specific, generalizable link between the presence of intercultural stimuli in the original cultural milieus and the decision to relocate across cultural boundaries. Furthermore, it points to a strong relation between Piagetian constructivist learning theories and the development of ICC competence. The study also indicates that independent transcultural sojourners are in a position to negotiate the level of their integration and marginality, which in turn affects the spectrum of their Intercultural communication competence. Finally, this study indicates the limited applicability of traditional functionalist approaches to understanding and conceptualizing processes of intercultural adaptation and multicultural identity building. It also suggests the need for a shift towards a dialogical perspective informed by systems-thinking and Chaos theory. / The author would like to acknowledge the inspiration and passion for intercultural issues provided over the years by the Intercultural Insights on-line community.Seattle, summer 2010.

Das Working Paper Nr. 3 ist Ergebnis einer Recherche nach interkulturellen Bildungs-, Studien- und Dienstleistungsangeboten, welche von der Technischen Universität Dresden, Fakultät für Erziehungswissenschaften, Institut für Berufspädagogik, Professur für Didaktik des beruflichen Lernens (Prof. Dr. paed. habil. Hanno Hortsch, Dipl.-Berufspäd. Marcel Köhler, Lars Leidl M.A., M.Sc.) im Auftrag der Staatlichen Studienakademie Breitenbrunn durchgeführt wurde. Das Working Paper ist Bestandteil des Projektes „Zusatzqualifikation zur Förderung der interkulturellen Kompetenz von Studierenden der Berufsakademie Sachsen“, welches aus Mitteln des Europäischen Sozialfonds (ESF) und des Freistaates Sachsen gefördert wird.