abstract: With the fast pace of globalization and the rise of encounters in digital spaces, CALL scholars have become increasingly interested in how digital tools mediate intercultural encounters. However, despite their evident success in connecting students from around the world, current online intercultural exchanges continue to present problems such a promotion of positive experiences over deep intercultural learning and lack of real-life value (O’ Dowd, 2018). In addition, digitally-mediated intercultural learning research is based on the same theoretical approaches to learning that guide CALL research (Firth & Wagner, 1997; Lafford, 2017). Although such frameworks are successful in allowing researchers to conceive of digital tools as mediators for human interaction, they have yet to embrace the potential of digital artifacts themselves as intercultural interlocutors. Aiming to address this gap in the research, this investigation used Atkinson’s (2010, 2014) sociocognitive approach to language learning to understand the role that digital tools have in intercultural learning. Also integrating Dervin’s (2011) liquid approach to interculturality—which focuses on understanding intercultural learning as a co-constructed process—the research questions that guided this investigation asked: (a) does film annotation mediate intercultural learning? and, (b) in what ways does film annotation mediate intercultural learning? In answering these questions, the study looked at the intercultural learning process of five advanced learners of Spanish, as they interacted with annotated film clips, and engaged in peer discussion around the themes of colonialism and coloniality presented in the film clips. Data were collected through pre and post-tests, video recordings of peer discussions, and screen recordings of participants’ interaction with the annotated film clips. Findings showed that film annotation allowed participants to notice, retrieve and take notes on important cultural information, which they later incorporated in discussion with peers. Based on this evidence, and aligned with the aforementioned theoretical frameworks, this investigation poses that intercultural learning is a fluid, iterative process. The study also suggests that digital artifacts—as well as human interlocutors—play an important role in enabling learning processes, therefore, the role of such artifacts should be studied more in depth. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2019

The purpose of this degree project was to investigate teachers’ conscious and unconscious interpretations of interculturality. We interviewed five teachers from different schools in order to analyse how intercultural their teaching of culture in EFL is. We investigated how their schools encourage cultural diversity, whether intercultural aspects are incorporated in their EFL-teaching and how they interpret the term interculturality. The Swedish national curriculum (Skolverket 2011a), Byram’s (1997) five savoirs and Sercu’s (2006) IC-teacher profile provided us with the theoretical background for the analysis. Our findings suggest that there are teachers who do not incorporate intercultural aspects into their EFL-teaching, as well as teachers who include some aspects. Among our five teachers there is an uncertainty concerning interculturality and how it should be a part of their teaching. Our conclusion is that since it is no longer optional in Swedish schools to incorporate interculturality into EFL-teaching, it is necessary to raise an awareness of the term among principals, teachers and teacher students.

No / Universities’ internationalisation rhetoric suggests that students studying on internationally diverse campuses will automatically engage positively with one another and develop intercultural competence. This study examined the extent to which a cohort of first year UK and non-UK students studying on an internationally diverse campus developed intercultural competence. The Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) and a locally designed survey were used to assess students’ intercultural competence and to explore their intercultural experiences over seven months. Students began almost exclusively in lower (ethnocentric) stages of intercultural development and most showed little progress despite reporting relatively high levels of intercultural contact, friends from other cultures and positive experiences. Findings suggest that even positive intercultural experiences do not necessarily lead to the development of intercultural competence and that university policy and practice may need to be enhanced if producing graduates with higher levels of intercultural competence is to become a realised outcome of internationalisation. / This work was supported in part by funding from the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network (now defunct)

Invandringen i Sverige är stor och medför kompetens som organisationer borde ta tillvara på. För att kunna ta tillvara på kompetensen som kommer med de nyanlända krävs en effektiv och lyckad integration. Syftet med undersökningen är att öka förståelsen för hur social integration går till samt vilka faktorer som påverkar den. Det finns tidigare forskning angående ämnet integration, där studiernas fokus främst ligger på individnivå. Studien är nödvändig för att öka förståelsen av integration på organisationsnivå. Studien är unik då den fokuserar på en integration mellan individer från olika kulturgemenskaper i Sverige. Forskningsansatsen är induktiv med deduktiva tendenser, med en kvalitativ flerfallstudie där undersökningen genomförts inom två organisationer där multikulturell integration pågår. Integrationen har undersökts genom 11 intervjuer, där empirsikt material har samlats in. Analysen av det empiriska materialet har gjorts med hjälp av utvalda teorier som har lett fram till följande slutsatser. En integration är en process i två steg. Det första steget innebär praktiska problem både när det kommer till organisation- och samhällsnivå. Det andra steget är något mer komplext då det innefattar personliga känslor angående delaktighet och samhörighet. Det är individens känsla som mäter hur nära klimax integrationen är vilket medför att graden av integration är svår att mäta. Då graden är svår att mäta medför det svårigheter att veta om full integration går att uppnå. Det finns många faktorer som påverkar integrationsprocessen bland annat: kommunikation, ömsesidighet, nationell eller internationell kultur i organisationen och ledaren. Ledaren i en organisation har ansvar att hjälpa den nyanlända. Vid kunskap om hur integrationsprocessen går till har ledare större möjlighet att agera rätt för effektiv och lyckad integration. En lyckad integration är viktig för multikulturella organisationer för att nyttja kompetens, verka ändamålsenligt och tillfredsställa den växande mångkulturella marknaden. / Immigration in Sweden is ongoing, therefore the relevance of this study is illustrated by Sweden’s modern political environment. Efficient, effective integration of immigrants involves applying an immigrant’s useful skills for the benefit of organizations and the community. The purpose of our study is to increase the understanding of how effective social integration works and also identifying important factors that influence the process. The study is unique in its focus on the social integration of Sweden’s growing immigrant population at the organizational level. The research approach is inductive with deductive tendencies. The integration process is a qualitative multiple case study that has been analyzed through 11 interviews within two organizations. Empirical data gathered in these interviews added to preexisting theories have led us to the following conclusions. Integration is a two-step process. The first involves practical problems both within the community and within the organization. The second step is more complex and includes individual feelings about the degree of participation and belonging. In the second step it’s difficult to measure the degree of integrational level . The complexity of the measurement makes it hard to know if full integration is possible to achieve. Some of the factors that affect integration process are: communication, reciprocity, national or international culture of the organization and the leader. A leader of an organization has a responsibility to help immigrants. With the knowledge about how the integration process works leaders have a bigger opportunity to act in a way that helps the process to become successful. Successful integration is essential for multi-cultural organizations to utilize the skills available to operate efficiently and satisfy the needs of a multicultural labor market.

Over the course of the last few decades the debate over culture and its relationship to language has remained heated and one can argue, unresolved. It has been underscored that it is not necessarily the question of culture teaching per-se but rather the methods and content of such teaching that remain controversial. Today's world demands that learners are not simply linguistically but also interculturally competent. It has been argued that high levels of intercultural awareness can be achieved with the help of experiential lessons taught in a formal setting that focus on the exploration of self as a cultural being.In this study, three groups of the intermediate learners of German and Russian were invited to participate in a number of cultural lessons based on either culture box highlights or experiential activities. The pre-posttests measured changes in learners' cognitive, behavioral and affective measures of intercultural competence. Results revealed that experiential activities tend to better facilitate the development of learners' intercultural skills and attitudes. Students written responses to critical incidents were analyzed with the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett, 1993) to assess changes in learners' perspectives and intercultural disposition over the course of the semester. Additionally, learners' experiences with foreign and local cultures were quantified and correlated with cognitive, behavioral and affective measures of intercultural competence. Results showed that not all measures of intercultural competence may be broadened by the individuals' firsthand experiences with other cultures. The relevance of one's previous experiences with `sub-cultures' (states, cities, towns, and communities), i.e. his `mobility' must also be acknowledged.

<p>Agriculturalists, educators, students, and professionals alike, function in a global industry. In order to work effectively and efficiently to meet industry goals and address challenges, possession of a specific skillset is necessary. This skillset includes the skill of intercultural competence. The objective of Chapter 2 was to assess students’ intercultural competence development following participation in an embedded study abroad program. This program included students studying food security and environmental challenges who were also engaged in intercultural learning activities before, during, and after a 9-day trip through Vietnam. Results showed an average increase in students’ Developmental Orientation (DO) on the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC) of 13.68 points through their participation in the course (p < .05). This positive growth indicates that on average, student participants increased their intercultural competence throughout the semester program. </p> <p> Chapter 3 describes results of a study conducted using the same group of participants of the embedded study abroad program to Vietnam. The objective of this study was to assess the beliefs, events, and values of student participants at the beginning of the semester and following completion of the semester course using the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI). Additionally, it was an objective to explore any changes that occurred throughout the duration of the 16-week course. Results from this study revealed little progression on scales related to course outcomes, unintended meaningful changes in scales unrelated to course outcomes, and variations between subgroups (gender and ethnic). These data suggest that the curriculum as delivered requires revision in order to support individual student needs and further development of formative assessment emphasizing emotional and attitudinal dimensions, in addition to discipline content, of student experiences during a study abroad program. </p> <p> Chapter 4 describes the intercultural competence development of the Cooperative Extension Educators who served as mentors to the undergraduate participants in the embedded study abroad program to Vietnam discussed in Chapters 2 and 3. Results from this study indicated that there was an overall decrease in Extension Educators’ DO of 8.0 points. Though this decrease was evident, only 2 of the 5 Educators decreased meaningfully on the IDC according to IDI instrumentation. Further analysis of quantitative and qualitative data revealed professional development benefits, such as developing new perspectives and connecting with undergraduate students, of the student-mentor relationship for the Educators. </p> <p> Chapter 5 describes results from a study conducted in a combined learning community/short-term study abroad program restricted to incoming and current first-year students studying food production in Italy. The objective was to assess student intercultural competence development pre- and post-participation in the program that had incorporated intercultural learning activities both during and throughout the course following the study abroad. Results revealed that 42% of students advanced on the IDC and 26% progressed into a new stage on the IDC. Overall group growth was not statistically significant at a gain of 4.1 points on the IDC. This indicates that participating in the program did not significantly increase students’ intercultural competence. </p> <p> Data in this thesis support that intercultural competence has the potential to be developed in short-term study abroad programs with the implementation of intercultural intervention. However, literature indicates that destination, duration, stage of development, and incoming participant worldviews influence outcomes in the development of intercultural competence. Emphasis on participant stage development on the IDC and preparedness for meeting course learning outcomes should be taken into consideration by study abroad leaders when constructing program design. </p>

Thesis advisor: Philip G. Altbach / Despite the long-held assumption that intercultural sensitivity is the foremost qualification of foreign student advisors and the central role that intercultural sensitivity plays in foreign student advising, the intercultural sensitivity of foreign student advisors has never been empirically studied. This exploratory, quantitative study investigates the level of intercultural sensitivity of a group of foreign student advisors in the United States. A sample of 300 U.S.-based foreign student advisors completed both an online survey and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) (Hammer, Bennett, & Wiseman, 2003) a valid and reliable standardized assessment of intercultural sensitivity that measures an individual's orientation towards cultural differences in terms of Milton Bennett's (Bennett, 1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. Multiple linear regression was employed to analyze the relationships between scores on the IDI and twenty-three independent variables generated by the online survey instrument. Findings from the developmental scores on the Intercultural Development Inventory suggest that three-quarters of the sample experience cultural difference from an ethnocentric position described by the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. The results of regression analysis identified five factors that are associated with intercultural sensitivity, including political orientation, length of time spent as a foreign student advisor, academic study in the field of intercultural relations, level of education and support for gay marriage. Notable factors that were not associated with intercultural sensitivity include ethnicity, gender, religion, religiosity, and variously described intercultural experiences. Other key findings include that the profession overwhelmingly comprises European American women, indicating increasingly feminized profession, and that women are under-represented among the senior leadership of the field and are paid significantly less than men. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / Thesis advisor: Philip Altbach / The attainment of attitudes, knowledge, and skills that develop students' intercultural competence so that they may navigate the globally interconnected environment of the 21st century is touted as an important learning objective for higher education (Deardorff & Jones, 2012). Colleges and universities strive to enhance this learning objective by offering a variety of international opportunities; prominent among these is a period of study abroad. However, past research indicates the results of intercultural development through study abroad are mixed. How can education abroad contribute to students' intercultural development? This study focuses on a cohort of students who traverse through three countries (China, Russia, India) in the course of one semester as they live and learn together, alongside faculty and staff from their home institution. To better understand the features of study abroad programs that contribute to students' intercultural development, this study examined the real and perceived development of a group of students (N=21) engaged in a multi-destination study abroad program utilizing a mixed-methods approach. The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) scores of the 21 participants increased by an average of 24.45 points (25%), an increase that exceeded the IDI gains in previous studies. Programmatic conditions that cultivated students' intercultural competence included facilitated contact with natives, academic structure, student self-initiated exploration, and multi-destination. Social and residential features of the program had the least impact on participants' intercultural development. The analysis of the participant narratives is indicative of a web of interconnected features that provided the scaffolding for students to develop empathy, recognize their own biases, challenge stereotypes and ethnocentric beliefs, and ultimately gain knowledge and skills that enabled them to communicate and behave appropriately and effectively in intercultural situations. The results of this study imply that a web of intentionally designed features (e.g., multi-destination, faculty engagement, consistent reflection opportunities, facilitated contact with natives, and IDI guided coaching and mentoring) provide a solid scaffolding that accelerates students' intercultural development. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

A presente tese de doutorado insere-se na formação de professores para o ensino do português do Brasil para estrangeiros em contexto de imersão, uma preocupação cada vez mais séria e atual no contexto das universidades brasileiras. Beneficiados por alguns programas governamentais, tais como o Programa de Estudantes-Convênio de Graduação (PEC-G) e o Programa de Estudantes-Convênio de Pós-Graduação (PEC- PG), entre outros, inúmeros estudantes estrangeiros chegam ao país, em sua grande maioria, sem o conhecimento prévio do português do Brasil. Além disso, o Certificado de Proficiência em Língua Portuguesa para Estrangeiros (CELPE-BRAS) passou a ser exigido pelas universidades brasileiras aos estrangeiros que desejam ingressar em cursos de graduação e em programas de pós-graduação. A partir dessa constatação, esta pesquisa propõe o desenvolvimento da Competência Intercultural (CI) durante a formação inicial de professores. Segundo Byram (1997), devemos preparar os futuros professores para adquirir uma série de conhecimentos, habilidades e atitudes, elementos constituintes da CI, a fim de que eles aprendam a agir e reagir em um contexto intercultural. O ensino e aprendizagem de PLE baseados nessa proposta estimulam o diálogo intercultural, permitem que o contato entre as diferentes culturas resulte em uma abertura de espírito, em uma maior compreensão das representações sociais e dos estereótipos culturais, das crenças e comportamentos em diferentes contextos culturais. A possibilidade de se envolver na cultura do outro, ter empatia por ela e assumir outras perspectivas pode ajudar o futuro professor a expandir sua visão de mundo. A partir da experiência da diversidade e da alteridade, ele reflete sobre sua própria cultura e sobre os valores dela recebidos e, passa a incluir construções relevantes de outras visões de mundo culturais. A principal contribuição desta tese reside na apresentação de uma metodologia que contempla o desenvolvimento da CI para formar não apenas professores de PLE, mas cidadãos mais conscientes de seu papel no mundo plural de hoje. / This doctoral thesis is related to teacher training for teaching Brazilian Portuguese to foreigners in a context of immersion, which is a growing preoccupation in Brazilian Universities. Innumerable foreigners students, benefit from governmental programs such as Programa de Estudantes-Convênio de Graduação (PEC-G) and Programa de Estudantes-Convênio de Pós-Graduação (PEC-PG) among others, the majority of whom arrive in the country without any previous knowledge of Brazilian Portuguese. Furthermore, the Certificate of Proficiency in the Portuguese Language for Foreigners (CELPE-BRAS) has become a requirement by Brazilian Universities, for foreign students who wish to undertake undergraduate and graduate programs. Based on this finding, this research proposes the development of the Intercultural Competence over the initial teacher training. According to Byram (1997), we must prepare future teachers to acquire a variety of knowledge, skills and attitudes, constituent elements of the Intercultural Competence, in order to enable them to act and react in an intercultural context. The teaching and learning of Portuguese as a foreign language based on this proposal, stimulates intercultural dialogue, allows for the contact between different cultures to result in broadmindedness and a greater understanding of social representations and cultural stereotypes /beliefs and behaviors in different cultural contexts. The possibility of getting involved in another culture, with emphasis on other perspectives, can help future teachers to expand their worldview. From the experience of diversity and otherness, the teacher can reflect on his own culture and the values therein, and that includes building on other cultural worldviews. The main contribution of this thesis is the presentation of a methodology that includes the development of the Intercultural Competence in order to form not only teachers of Portuguese as a foreign language, but citizens more aware of their role in today\'s pluralistic world.

The United Kingdom (UK) is becoming increasingly diverse (Office for National Statistics, 2013). Educational psychologists in the UK will need to feel competent in providing services to an increasingly multicultural population. This research study used a mixed method, two-phase, sequential, explanatory study design to explore the self-perceived intercultural competence of UK educational psychologists and trainee educational psychologists (EP/Ts). The study also explored EP/Ts experiences of working with culturally diverse populations. The first phase of this research study used an online adapted version of the MCCTS-R (Holcomb-McCoy & Myers, 1999; Munoz, 2009), and the second phase built upon the first phase with follow-up semi-structured interviews, analysed using Braun & Clarke's (2006) thematic analysis. The results of this research study present a breadth and depth of information. EP/Ts generally perceived themselves to be competent to work cross-culturally with particular areas of competence including knowledge of assessment bias, poverty effects, and positive attitudes towards diverse cultures. EP/Ts also reported areas of lower competence including theories of racial/ethnic identity development, limited experiences of community work and limited knowledge of community resources. However, EP/Ts perceptions about development needs depended upon their awareness. The process of participating in the study raised awareness of gaps in knowledge and limitations in practice. The study concludes with a discussion of implications for the practice of EP/Ts.