New course offer starting in March: Developing Intercultural Competences

Teaching a group of students with a diverse cultural and/or educational background and wanting to create an inclusive curriculum, or having meetings or doing research together with a colleague from another part of the world, all refer to intercultural situations. In order to feel (more) comfortable and to deal successfully with diversity in your educational practice, intercultural competences are indispensable.

For whom?
Dutch and international teachers who (are going to) teach in an international or (culturally) diverse classroom and want to know more about the implications of teaching/supervising a diverse student population and want to develop a more inclusive pedagogy.  This training can also provide useful reflections for your UTQ (BKO) portfolio and for working together/doing research with colleagues with a different cultural background.

Content
The focus of this training will be on your own personal development in intercultural competences but always from the point of view of your own educational practice. We will do this by exploring and reflecting on your own norms and values, your own position and behaviour by using case studies from your own educational practice. These activities set the stage for the development of new approaches that could also support students’ intercultural sensitivity.

Objectives
After completing the training, you will be able to:

• recognise cultural differences in verbal and non-verbal communication and skillfully negotiate a shared understanding in your teaching.
• analyse your own cultural background(s) and biases and develop new perspectives on this.
• interpret ‘rich points’ (intercultural case studies) in your teaching to reflect on these intercultural encounters and on differences in the participants’ perspectives.
• handle the complexity of elements important to students with another cultural and/or educational background.
• postpone judgment in interaction in an intercultural teaching context.
• encourage your students to examine their own ‘rich points’ and to develop new perspectives in contact with (other) international students.

Dates and registration

Dates & location
A new group will start in March 2021 and there are still places left (deadline registration: 9 March 2021).

Training (09.15 – 12.45 h):
Session 1 –  Tuesday 29 March
Session 2 –  Tuesday 20 April
Session 3 – Tuesday 18 May
Session 4 – Tuesday 15 June
Location: For now we will assume the training will be online via MS Teams
Language: English/Dutch (depending on registrations)

Karen Schoutsen