Intercultural competence is of crucial importance in our interconnected world and it is defined in a number of ways but, usually, it is the ability to communicate and behave appropriately with those who are culturally different—and to co-create shared spaces, teams, and organizations that are inclusive, effective, innovative, and satisfying.
Cultural competency is vitally important to effectiveness in a variety of areas including healthcare, education, public services, law enforcement, libraries, customer service, and other business functions. Actually, being sensitive to cultural influences on others may even improve your relationships at home and in the community.
Institutions worldwide are attempting to clearly articulate the ideas and ideals of cultural competency, in statements such as the UNESCO “Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity". In the globalization era the increasing diversity of cultures, which is fluid, dynamic and transformative, implies specific competences and capacities for individuals and societies to learn, re learn, and unlearn.
Hence the growing awareness among policy-makers and civil society that intercultural competences may constitute a very relevant resource to help individuals negotiate cultural boundaries throughout their personal encounters and experiences.
Schools are a central place to develop such skills and abilities. Nevertheless, given their relevance for social and political life, the scope of intercultural competences is much wider than formal education. Intercultural competences aim at making people free from confinement or ghettoization, by enabling them to interact with cultural ‘others’ with a view to bridging differences and setting the foundations of peaceful coexistence.
Cultural diversity and intercultural contact have become facts of modern life: cultural diversity serves as a valuable resource to engage in lasting intercultural dialogues. Cultures are driving forces for sustainable development and harmonious coexistence through mutual understanding as well as accommodation of differences.
Intercultural competences are closely integrated with learning to know, do, and be. - Learning to know about cultural others.
- Learning to do serves as the acquisition of knowledge from interactions with cultural others. - Learning to be relies upon having a place in the global world.
According to the conceptual vocabulary (a set of terms useful in incorporating a plurality of backgrounds, perceptions, and intentions), intercultural competences are the skills required to draw upon both knowledge and attitudes when interacting with others from different cultures. They refer to:
- Knowledge of culture
- Skills of interpreting
- Skills of interaction
- Attitudes of openness
- Critical cultural awareness.
At the heart of the multiple intercultural competences, then, lies intercultural communicative competence. Social actors need to be able to produce meaningful speech and behaviours and to do so in ways that will be understood as relevant in context by other participants in an interaction. Intercultural competences, including the knowledge, skills and attitudes, as well as the central concept (cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and human rights), are an essential response to the existence of cultural diversity (linked closely to the existence of culture generally but also to the increasing diversity of cultures).
Despite the fact that much of what becomes intercultural competences can be acquired through personal experience, many programs have been designed to provide formal teaching or training, and they often help substantially. Ultimately, the goal must be to teach concrete skills for successful interaction with members of different cultures.
As described in UNESCO’s Guidelines on Intercultural Education (2006), A certain number of recurrent principles can be identified that may guide international action in the field of intercultural education:
1. It respects the cultural identity of the learner through the provision of culturally appropriate and responsive quality education for all.
2. It provides every learner with the cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to achieve active and full participation in society.
3. It provides all learners with cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills that enable them to contribute to respect, understanding and solidarity among individuals, ethnic, social, cultural and religious groups and nations.
Current teacher education must be expanded to prepare the students for life as active, responsible citizens in democratic societies as well as citizens of the world, thus, taking advantage of diversity and turning it into an invaluable asset for a better future.
Given the availability of ICT, new media, and social networking, some supportive activities can occur online, especially those connecting teachers and classrooms into wider global communities, to learn, UN-learn and relearn.
Explicit teaching about intercultural competences will reach only some individuals and groups. Spreading ideas related to intercultural plurality, diversity and human rights will require using a wide
range of media: the new social media (jointly known as Web 2.0), such as web-based forums, or wikis, provide a wide variety of open spaces, both online and face-to-face, in which to hold intercultural dialogues among innumerable groups.
- Sense of common community.
- Family learning contexts (adults’ learning).
- The current importance of media professionals on intercultural dialogue, media information and literacy.
- The safeguard of biodiversity and the promotion of sustainable development. - Global consciousness (to think about the larger world called “global village”). - A digital library of major scientific and cultural landmarks (global vision of history). - Innovative and diversified audio-visual materials (local needs, contents, public-private partnerships).
- ITC-driven impact on cultural diversity (multilingual access).
- Media and information literacy for all age groups.
The values, beliefs, and attitudes, as well as the knowledge and skills that jointly comprise intercultural competences are put to work in this stage of the process. By means of cultural organizations, intercultural hubs within particular communities can be created. The world may be shrinking and the possibilities of dialogue expanding; our ultimate goal nevertheless remains to achieve unity beyond diversity as a tapestry of peace where common threads of intellectual and moral solidarity bind us together.
Clara Peruzzi, laureata cum laude in Lingue e letterature straniere presso l’Università degli Studi di Bari, Dirigente Scolastico presso il Secondo Circolo Didattico San Giovanni Bosco di Terlizzi (BA) e ex-docente di lingua inglese di scuola superiore a tempo indeterminato da ventisei anni, con esperienza quadriennale di lavoro presso le Nazioni Unite a Vienna (IEAE), nonché traduttrice in lingua inglese, francese e tedesca presso il Tribunale di Trani, è docente formatrice delle insegnanti di scuola primaria di lingua inglese specializzata in didattica della lingua, formatrice per corsi per adulti e ragazzi con certificazioni CAMBRIDGE di vario livello e referente esami TRINITY. Negli anni ha curato vari volumi collettivi e ha pubblicato “The First English Book for Teachers and Headmasters 100%”, “The English Book for nursery and primary school teachers”, “L’inglese per i docent di scuola primaria e dell’infanzia” e il videocorso “Let’s start learning English together- from 0 to B1”.